Hemingway's Hunger

In A Moveable Feast Hemingway says:

"Hunger was a good discipline. I learned to understand Cezanne much better and to see truly how he made landscapes when I was hungry."

This is an interesting quote because I think that Hemingway was hungry in more ways than one. When he went to Paris, his artistic hunger flared. So did his physical hunger. In fact, a lot of artists were surviving on minimal amounts of money. In Down and Out in Paris and London, George Orwell says that "poverty is what I am writing about, and I had my first contact with poverty in this slum. The slum, with its dirt and its queer lives, was first an object-lesson in poverty, and then the background of my own experiences. It is for that reason that I try to give some idea of what life was like there." For these artists, poverty and hunger provide experience. Hemingway gains a new insight. He can see more clearly. Yes, he is hungry- but hunger is a discipline. Eating very little caused him to have an insatiable desire that had to be maintained and tolerated. It was the most simple and minimal form of surving. That did not mean, however, that Hemingway did not flourish. Cezanne's paintings are a combination of simple brushstrokes that come together to create a spectacular whole. By holding back and using what was essential to creating his painting, Cezanne made something unique. Hemingway understood this when he was hungry because he was also experiencing something extraordinary with the most minimal elements when he learned to control and tolerate his desire.

Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. New York: Scribner, 1964.
Orwell, George. Down and Out in Paris and London. London: Penguin Books, 1933.