Ernest Hemingway is one of the most significant American authors of the 20th century. In 1954 Hemingway received the Nobel Prize for Literature for his mastery of the art of storytelling and also for the impact he has had on contemporary style. His involvement in the First World War as an ambulance driver greatly influenced his way of thinking. Severely wounded, he returned to the United States and his involvement in the war led him to write many novels about his betrayals. Until his death by suicide in 1961, Hemingway composed a plethora of works centered on one major theme. In his popular 1926 novel, The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway illustrates how war plays a huge role in the real world and character's identity. Although the novel features a fresh literary style, pleasant dialogue, and well-constructed meaning, "nothing leads anywhere in the book, and that is perhaps the real point" (Young). The characters Hemingway creates rarely mention war; however, it influences everything they do and say. Jake Barnes, the novel's protagonist, suffers from an emasculating war wound that results in "his frustrated love for an Englishwoman whom time and misfortune have led to alcoholism, promiscuity, and self-destructive irresponsibility" (Sanderson) . Participation in the war is seen as a major conflict as Jake's impotence makes it impossible for him to have a relationship with Brett Ashley. Together with them, Jake's friends also lost their identities during the war; in fact, they are always agitated, itinerant and looking for a constant change of scenery. Although they prefer to live in America rather than Europe, they have broken away from their home country and made themselves expatriate... middle of paper... a person's life. At some points in the novel, he suggests that murder can be invigorating, which makes the righteousness of war in For Whom the Bell Tolls less clear. Hemingway's involvement in the war provided many of his works with a central, or at least supporting, theme. In The Sun Also Rises, A Farewell to Arms, and For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway used war as a major theme such as the effects of World War I, the gruesome reality of war, and the loss of innocence during war, respectively. . He dedicated his life to writing authentically about every part of his work, including and especially the topic of war and its effects during his time period. Although his literary works are not primary sources of the war experiences of the first half of the 20th century, they provide as accurately as possible the truth about those wars.