Hemingway'sStyle

Stoic. Grave. Eloquent. Economical. And finally Very American. These are just a few of the words used by many to describe the awesome power behind Ernest Hemingway’s writing style (these specifically come from Bloom 9). But what is it about his writing that intrigues us? What keeps us returning to these seemingly cut and dry words in Hemingway’s books? Is it the way he can make the ordinary things in life extraordinary? Or just his way of writing simply? Ernest Hemingway once said that, "My aim is to put down on paper what I see and what I feel in the best and simplest way." This philosophy is clearly where his prose style of writing stemmed from. Dictionary.com defines prose as “ the ordinary form of spoken or written language, without metrical structure, as distinguished from poetry or verse.” This definition sheds some light onto why we as humans enjoy this language. It is ordinary but this makes it more realistic and accessible. When we talk to each other, very seldom do we use intricate language or large words. In fact Hemingway himself commented on this, saying “Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words? He thinks I don’t know the ten-dollar words. I know them all right. But there are older and simpler and better words, and those are the ones I use.” Hemingway knew just how the human mind worked and how we perceive various styles. This knowledge of styles came from Hemingway’s vast amount of influence on his writing. He said that, “Mark Twain, Flaubert, Stendhal, Bach, Turgeniev, Tolstoi, Dostoevsky, Chekhov, Andrew Marvel, John Donne, Maupassant, the good Kipling, Thoreau, Captain Marryat, Shakespeare, Mozart, Quevedo, Dante, Virgil, Tintoretto, Hieronymus Bosch, Breughel, Patinier, Goya, Giotto, Cezanne, Van Gogh, Gauguin, San Juan de la Cruz, Góngora” all assisted him in forming his writing style (George Plimpton). This large sphere of influence allowed Hemingway to pick and choose what he wanted in his style and make it as affective as possible. Turning now to two of Hemingway’s works, //The Old Man and the Sea// and //To Have and Have Not//, this prose style can be seen in action. From his novel //To Have and Have Not// comes, “But I got him forward onto his knees and had both thumbs well in behind his talk-box, and I bent the whole thing back until she cracked. Don’t think you can’t hear it crack, either” (53-54). The prose style goes the extra mile to make this quote powerful. The simple statement of killing a man sends a shiver down the readers’ spine, but also creates the realization that for the character (Harry) that this is just a normal day for him. In this case the prose is used to invoke deep emotions inside of people. Another method of using prose comes from Hemingway’s //The Old man and the Sea.// It says, “He was an old man who fished alone in a skiff in the Gulf Stream and he had gone eighty-four days now without taking a fish” (9). These are the very first words in this novel, and in this scenario the prose is used to throw the basis of the story out in front of the reader and ironically reel them in like a fish by not revealing much detail quickly. This creates a desire for information in the reader which will cause them to be more intrigued by his work. Hemingway’s fascination for the simple can truly be appreciated as a fine art form. Not only does he create interesting reads, but within each one he uses the same style to serve all sorts of purposes such as leading on the readers or stirring deep emotions inside of them. He has tapped into the very essence of human nature and pulled out exactly what is the perfect balance of simplicity and meaning. Hemingway’s mastery of prose leaves no one doubting why he is one of the great American authors.

-Mitch Mest

Works Cited Bloom, Harold. //Ernest Hemingway//. Broomall, PA: Chelsea House, 2000. Print. George Plimpton Interview with Ernest Hemingway. American Decades. Ed. McConnell, Tandy. Online ed. Detroit: Gale, 2003. Hemingway, Ernest. //The Old Man and the Sea//. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print. Hemingway, Ernest. //To Have and Have Not.// New York: Scribner, 1937. Print.