This poem was a complete line from Ernest's The Great Flowing Feast: no man is an island on one's own Everyone was a part of the continent. In this poem by Ernest Hemmingway, this line expressed the connection and mutual dependence between human beings. No one could exist in isolation. Everyone was like a part of the continent, interacting and influencing the surrounding world. This sense of mutual dependence also reflected Ernest's thinking about the place of human beings in the world. He believed that human beings lived in a common world rather than a lonely existence.