Genius, a “man’s man”, one who had exceptional talent painting word pictures, who learned life by living it. Then, tragically, the government followed, snooped, and spied on him, and he knew it. Somehow the government gained the cooperation of his wife. Perhaps she was innocent and was brainwashed by the government. They were after him because of his relationship with Castro. They labeled him a potential traitor. The government and the Mrs. got Ernest to one of their killer doctors who diagnosed him “paranoid”, and put him through numerous electroshock treatments which fried his frontal loads, an electronic lobotomy, but he was smart enough to see they had destroyed his mind, ended his creativity.
This, for Ernest, was the end of life, so he took his favorite shotgun, opened the front door, and standing on the threshold, he ended his earthly life. Even his choice of how to end his life was wonderfully symbolic.
No one in medical authority told him, “ If you think ‘they’ are after you, and they really are, you are not paranoid.
As far as I am concerned, this was just one more federal government assignation. They are well practiced in the art of murder.