51 pages • 1 hour read
Ernest HemingwayA Moveable Feast
Nonfiction | Autobiography / Memoir | Adult | Published in 1964A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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Cafés
Cafés serve as transitional locations for Hemingway, as they are places of refuge where he can write freely and socialize with others. Hemingway begins the novel with a comparison between two cafés, The Café des Amateurs and the Place St-Michel, situating cafés as a reoccurring symbol throughout A Moveable Feast. The Café des Amateurs is “ a sad, evilly run café where the drunkards of the quarter crowded together and I kept away from it because of the smell of dirty bodies and the sour smell of drunkenness” (4). Hemingway’s initial depiction of a café is one that doubles as the cesspool of the rue Mouffetard. He juxtaposes The Café des Amateurs with the Place St-Michel writing, “[Place St-Michel] was a pleasant café, warm and clean and friendly, and I hung up my old waterproof on the coat rack to dry and put my worn weathered felt hat on the rack above the bench and ordered a café au lait” (5). The distinction between these cafés represents two very different lifestyles, one of irresponsibility and one of commitment. Due to the inclement weather, Hemingway is forced to take shelter, choosing the Place St.-Michel. This initial decision represents Hemingway’s ultimate choice to become a mature novelist and to begin his coming-of-age journey. At the Place St-Michel, Hemingway writes effortlessly, struggling to keep up with the pace of the story. He writes, “Then I went back to writing and I entered far into the story and was lost in it. I was writing it now and it was not writing itself and I did not look up nor know anything about the time nor think where I was nor order any more rum St. James” (5). Hemingway’s choice of the Place St-Michel yields a positive outcome and comes to symbolize his choice and his commitment to being a serious writer.
The Closerie des Lilas is a prominent café which Hemingway routinely visits. He integrates himself into the social life instantiated by the café, befriending two of the waiters. As such, The Closerie des Lilas becomes its own community. Hemingway exploits its particular qualities and attributes in his writing; “It was warm inside in the winter, and in the spring and fall it was very fine outside with the tables under the shade of the trees on the side where the statue of Marshal Ney was, and the square, regular tables under the big awnings along the boulevard” (35). The Closerie des Lilas is a place where Hemingway can write without being disturbed. He continues, “These people made it a comfortable café since they were all interested in each other and in their drinks or coffees, or infusions, and in the papers and periodicals which were fastened to rods, and no one was an exhibition” (36). Hemingway dislikes people who go to cafés just to be noticed and prefers company that is genuinely engaged with others. Yet, change proves inevitable, and The Closerie des Lilas falls under new management. The change of management at his favorite writing café come to mark the changes in Paris and the changes in Hemingway that propel him into the final chapters of A Moveable Feast and the completion of The Sun Also Rises. His initial decision to eat at the Place St-Michel marks the beginning of his journey in Paris; the change in management at The Closerie des Lilas brings Hemingway’s time as a short-story writer to an end and marks the beginning of his career as a novelist.
Hunger
Hunger is referenced two major times in the novel, each representing a different kind of lack or deficit. The first mention of hunger occurs in the chapter titled “A False Spring” when Hemingway and Hadley mistake the good weather for the first day of spring and engage in a day with no limits. They spend a day at the horseraces and find that the more they indulge the more empty and hungry they feel. Even after their second dinner, this hunger follows them throughout the rest of their evening. Hunger is mentioned again in the chapter “Hunger Was Good Discipline” which begins with Hemingway walking through the streets of Paris hungry, the Parisian bakeries challenging his sense of discipline. Hemingway outlines a path to the Luxembourg Museum that avoids all bakeries in attempt to tame his hunger and heighten his other senses: “I learned to understand Cezanne much better and to see truly how he made landscapes when I was hungry. I used to wonder if he were hungry too when he painted; but I thought possibly it was only that he had forgotten to eat. […] Later I thought Cezanne was probably hungry in a different way” (31). To purposefully deprive oneself of food allows for one to think more clearly and to cleanse the senses; Hemingway describes a new world that opens once one learns discipline, a world where “your hunger was contained but all of your perceptions were heightened again. The photographs looked different and you saw books that you had never seen before” (31). Here, the lack is not caused by decadence and a failure to observe limits but from that very observation itself. Yet, Hemingway is abruptly shocked out of his fasting while speaking with Sylvia. He complains about money and his work not selling, to which she reminds him that he must not forget to take care of himself. Hemingway thinks, “I should have bought a large piece of bread and eaten it instead of skipping a meal. I could taste the brown lovely crust. But it is dry in your mouth without something to drink. You God-damned complainer. You dirty phony saint and martyr” (33). As Hemingway eats at Lipps, a local café, he begins to ponder the power of omission and how elements that are not explicitly stated ultimately enhance the story for the reader, once again highlighting the positive attributes of “lack.” Hemingway portrays a sense of hunger that goes well beyond the physical sense; hunger comes to represent a state of creative yearning and a commentary on extremes as Hemingway continues throughout the chapters to wrestle with the pull between his vices, his ambitions, and a restless sense of lack.
Seasons
A Moveable Feast begins in winter, when Paris is dreary and cold. The rains of winter prompt Hemingway to leave Paris until it “had accommodated itself to winter” (7). Once returned, he writes, “Now you were accustomed to see the bare trees against the sky […] The trees were sculpture without their leaves when you were reconciled to them […] All the distances were short now since we had been in the mountains” (7). It is only once Hemingway has left Paris and then returned that he becomes acquainted with the change in seasons. It is also in Hemingway’s return to Paris that the title, A Moveable Feast, gains clarity; Paris is the moveable feast, a word for holidays that are observed on different calendar days each year. Hemingway routinely travels in and out of Paris, reflecting that “there is never any ending to Paris” (99); it is malleable to the individual, and one may observe or visit it at any time without losing any value or meaning. Paris itself is a sacred holiday. Hemingway continues, “We always returned to it no matter who we were or how it was changed or with what difficulties, or ease, it could be reached. Paris was always worth it and you received return for whatever you brought to it” (99). The expression of the seasons in Paris mirror Hemingway’s ongoing departures and returns from the city. He visits Paris throughout his writing career, yet this initial time spent as a young author would always shape his initial experience in Paris. Once he completes his first novel, that season of his life is over and is unable to experience Paris in the same way.
Hemingway describes a strong desire for spring throughout the memoir, alluding to his own underlying desire to mature and become a novelist. He comments, “You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintry light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen” (21). Spring appears to symbolize the overcoming of winter and the limitlessness of life. Hemingway initially misdirects the freedom that comes with spring, becoming addicted to horse racing. Issues of hunger come to the forefront, and Hemingway realizes that a life without restrictions is also a life void of meaning. The majority of the novel takes place in spring and eventually concludes with relaying the multiple winters experienced in Schruns. During one winter, Hemingway writes the first draft of The Sun Also Rises. He concludes A Moveable Feast by recalling stories of the winter season, thus constructing a circular narrative that reinforces the coming of age theme.
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