The Seasons Symbol Analysis

A Moveable Feast begins with a description of bad weather, and the book is filled with references to the seasons. Hemingway is particularly sensitive to seasonal change, and he frequently describes the way in which the natural atmosphere reflects—or dictates—his mood. Hemingway conveys this most emphatically in the chapter entitled “A False Spring,” in which he describes the way that the winter cold in Paris can give way to warm, bright weather, only for wintery conditions to resurface before the real spring eventually comes. Hemingway’s descriptions of the weather and seasons draw attention to the visceral experience of everyday life, a defining concern of A Moveable Feast and, more generally, of the broader genre of modernist literature in which Hemingway was writing.

The seasons also have specific symbolic significance within the book. The harsh and dark period of winter arguably corresponds to the First World War. This means that the era Hemingway is describing—Paris in the 1920s—is akin to a warm, sunny spring. Of course, this spring did turn out to be “false,” as the 1920s were quickly followed by the Great Depression and the Second World War. Hemingway’s emphasis on the seasons also highlights the passing of time, another central concern of the book. While Hemingway wrote much of the original material at the time in which the book is set, he revised and assembled it much later in life. His narrative perspective thus takes into account the cyclical progression of time, including the hopeful periods of youthful innocence (represented by the spring) and the dark, cruel eras of hopelessness and suffering (winter). Hemingway illustrates the way in which these seasons of life—like the four seasons of the year—inevitably end, even if in the midst of them it can seem like they will last forever.