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To Have and Have Not

by Ernest Hemingway

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Student Question

Defend the statement that in To Have and Have Not, the intellectual middle-class elite fail to fulfill "The Dream" in the "Hemingway World".

Quick answer:

The “haves” are not the examples of “The Dream” that they think they are. They are failures in the eyes of Hemingway, who offers them as a contrast to Harry Morgan and his family, who are living “the dream” (of love and prosperity and honesty) just fine.

Expert Answers

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Dream and reality are two different things, and Ernest Hemingway makes that clear through his characters, especially the elite, or the “haves,” in To Have and Have Not. Let’s see how this plays out.

Harry Morgan is definitely not one of the “haves,” but he has to deal with them all the time. He must because he has to feed his family. These “haves,” the rich people who seem to be living “The Dream” (of prosperity and a good life) to the fullest are actually highly immoral people. They are examples of “The Dream” gone corrupt, the desire for more and more material goods and more and more power at the expense of everything that is decent. These rich people are true failures, more than the poor Harry Morgan ever will be.

Yet Harry Morgan must earn money, so he agrees to smuggle, take the rich “sportsmen” on fishing trips, transport undocumented immigrants, and even help gangsters escape, all for the “haves.” In the meantime, he is cheated and abused by those for whom he works, and he is often the one who ends up getting caught, turned in by the “haves” who have no appreciation for the fact that Harry Morgan must earn a living somehow.

Hemingway also offers episodes that focus on Richard Gordon and his wife. These people belong to the “haves,” and they are as corrupt as can be: unfaithful, dishonest, and obsessed with power and control. The other “haves” are similar, like Johnson (who leaves without paying Morgan) and Simmons (a corrupt lawyer). These people think they are living the good life, but their lives are not at all good. They think they are enjoying “The Dream,” but really, they are living a nightmare.

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