“Hemingway Style”

By: ShaDe’ Phoenix

Focus

#15 How does Hemingway utilize vocabulary and syntax to achieve the “Hemingway Style”?

What does the “Hemingway Style” consist of?

Presentation of images/scenes Focus point Hero/Protagonist Written style Vocabulary Visual techniques Punctuation Syntax Depiction of Women

How does Hemingway portray each style in his novel?

Of course through his words, but let’s go in depth.

Imagery and Scenes Hemingway presented scenes and images without

explaining their reason, he also believed that imagery should be rich (extremely detailed). Ex: “Ahead was a mounted policemen in khaki directing traffic. He raised his baton. The car slowed suddenly pressing Brett against me.” (Hemingway 251)

While Hemingway never explained the significance of the police officer, his clothing and actions are explained in detail forcing the reader to question his role. His baton bringing traffic to a halt presses Jake and Brett together leaving the reader to wonder what will happen next between them.

Focus Point The Sun Also Rises begins without a focus point. The beginning

seems random, starting off with an explanation about a character (Robert Cohn)“Robert Cohn was a middleweight boxing champion of Princeton.” (Hemingway 11)

Initially, this makes the reader think that the novel will be focused on Robert Cohn when, in actuality, the introduction only serves to shed light on Robert as a developing character not the plot as a whole.

The word was in the quote above also makes the reader question what happened to Robert resulting in the quote being past tense.

Hemingway plays with words and their tenses throughout the novel.

Hero/ Protagonist

Prior to his novel, The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway had no experience in creating a hero in his stories, this is probably the reason there was no clear hero in the novel. It can even be argued that, in this novel, there was no hero. However, others may argue that Jake is the hero or possibly the evil sidekick to Brett. “…Please stay by me and see me through this.” “Sure.” (Hemingway 188)

Written Style Modernist-which would explain the type of woman Brett was Sentimentalism- meaning your actions were governed by feelings rather than reason

Which is why Jake stuck by Brett, he loved her. However, Hemingway avoids direct descriptions of emotions possibly because he does not understand how to convey emotions (just like his character; Brett).

Roman a clef- the novel was written in a journalist style with a story with in another story. Jake kept account of the actions as they occurred.

1. Iceberg theory- describing one thing while another thing occursEx: “I’m mad about the Romero boy.”While it may seem that Brett falls in and out of love (to the literal reader) when time is taken to actually understand what is going on, the reader can conclude that she is simply incapable of love because of her past.

Prose-Hemingway uses simple sentences and few adjectives to construct vivid dialogue and exact description. He wanted the reader to visualize his settings without wondering what his descriptions meant

Gaps- intentionally left by Hemingway to allow the reader to fill them with there own ideas creating a 3 dimensional prose (between them, the characters, and Hemingway)

Vocabulary

Hemingway believed that each word he chose had to be carefully chosen in order to sound authentic.

He also believed that his words should be simple and vigorous in order to come off as “personal” to the reader.

Visual Techniques

Hemingway utilizes imagery to target the readers emotions.

He used colors as symbols

Ex: “…ahead the road stretched out white across the plain going towards Pamplona.” (Hemingway 99)

White symbolizes purity. As Jake and Bill approach Pamplona they see a white road representing the fact that they were approaching pure land (not devastated) by the war.

Syntax The syntax present in the novel (lacking linking/transition conjunctions)

creates static sentences (a sentence that lacks motion). Hemingway created short declarative sentences which developed as

the plot developedEx: “We went out to walk around under the arcade to the Café Iruna for coffee. Cohn said he was going over and get a shave.” (Hemingway 101)

Hemingway separates the two sentences not really showing when or why the events occurred.

They could have been combined to read “We went out to walk around under the arcade to the Café Iruna for coffee since Cohn said he was going over and get a shave.”The new sentence explains why they went for a walk and that they walked as Cohn got a haircut showing how one word makes a huge difference in meaning.

Depiction of Women Hemingway depicts women (in his novels) as he sees his

mother.He viewed his mother as the soul reason for his father’s suicide, believing that she was a manipulator.

With that in mind, his female characters can either be viewed as object of love or anti-love.In Brett’s case, she was both. Men viewed her as the object of their love but she did not love them in return.

Hemingway depicted Brett as an abusive lover because of how he viewed his motherEx: “I can’t help it. I’ve never been able to help anything.” (Hemingway 187)

How does it all connect?

“Hemingway’s style” while it may come off as complex is really a play on literary devices. He created his own style by altering the style of others. Those styles include imagery, sentence structure, and carefully chosen words.

Sources

http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/the-sun-also-rises/critical-essays/hemingway-style.html

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Writing-Style-of-Hemingway&id=70613

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prose http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sun_Also_Rises http://grammar.yourdictionary.com/parts-of-speech/

conjunctions/list-of-subordinating-conjunctions.html