hemingway as a novelist

51HEMINGWAY AS A NOVELIST

Ernest Hemingway is one of those authors whose life and works are interdependent. His style of writing was

greatly influenced by his personal experiences. Therefore a

study of Hemingway's style would be incomplete without an

understanding of his life, which has a lasting effect on his

works.

Hemingway has been a multi-dimensional personality

all through his life ; an ambulance driver in the first world war, a deep sea fisherman, a boxer of a relatively good

stature, an excellent hunter, a Nobel Prize winner for

literature, a popularly known 'Papa5 and a successful jour­

nalist and besides all these multifarious activities, he was

a great literary legend.

Hemingway, the son of Dr. Clarence Hall and Grace

Hall Hemingway, was born in Oak Park Illinois, a suburb of Chicago in 1899. Young Hemingway was very much influenced by

his father who embodied a conflict between the independent

masculine world of the outdoors of hunting, fishing and physical endurance as contrasted with the over domesticated town life. Inspite of his mothS'rs^endeavours to give him

genteel education like music, Hemingway was much fascinatedby the instruments like fishing rods and guns.

52

But his literary qualities were developed in his

school in Oak Park, where he worked as the editor of his

school paper and thus demonstrated his ability of writing

well for the first time in his life. After graduation from

high school in 1917, he worked briefly as a reporter for the

"Kansas City Star'11. He enjoyed a rather sensational career as

a journalist by the age of twenty five, as he covered the

Greek-Turkish war and interviewed the world famous figures

such as Lloyd George, Clemenceau, and Mussolini. He worked as

reporter for the "Toronto Star" and "Star Weekly" and inter­

viewed literary people like Sherwood Anderson, Gertrude Stein

and Ezra Pound. Encounters with these great writers encour­

aged him to concentrate on writing.

Hemingway's literary career began with his stories^

appeared in avant-garde and popular magazines. He published

Three Stories and Ten Poems in 1923 and a series of 32 frag­

ments In Our Time in 1924 and The Torrents of Spring in 1926.

Hemingway *s literary reputation rested on his works between

1924 and 1933. His first major work The Son Also Rises (1926)

postulated him as a spokesman of war generation. A Farewell

to Arms (1929) was the second major work gf Hemingway which

was an immediate financial and critical success. His next

works Death in the Afternoon appeared in 1932 and Winter Take

Nothing in 1933. Meanwhile he travelled extensively in

53

Africa and wrote The. Green Hills of Africa in 1935. Then he

wrote three related stories (two of which had been published

se^er^ately) under the title Jo Have and Have Not. His another

work in 1940, For Whom The Bell Tolls aroused a storm of

controversy in political spheres. It was equally criticized

by left-wing , right wing and liberal critics. His next major

work Across the Rj_ygr and into the Trees (1950) was hailed as

a milestone in his career, which was again based on the

political theme of “war against fascism.* It is due to this

novel that Hemingway had to meet with much critical disap­

proval. Almost all the critics called it a novel below the

expectations of a novelist who wrote The Sun Also Rises and A

.F^.r.ewel.1. to. Arms. Hemingway took this review to his heart and

in two years retrieved his position as a great writer by his

masterpiece The Old Han and The Sea (1952.) .'^fhe Old. Han and

Sea has been described as *a poem in prose*. The source of

this small novel of 127 pages seems to be a two hundred word

article entitled On the Blue Water about fishing in the Gulf

Stream in * Esquire* on April 1936.)

The Old Han and Sea was hailed all over the world

as '■‘a mini-epic perfect in design and execution*. Hemingway,

thus regained his lost position by winning the Nobel Prize

for The Old Han and the Sea. On Oct 28, 1954, the Swedish

Academy announced the Nobel Prize for literature and cited

54that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for 'powerful style

forming mastery of the art of modern narration as most re-Qcently evinced in The Old Man and the Sea . Besides large

critical approval over Hemingway's artistic excellence, there

aroused much controversy over the Nobel Prize. The hostile

critics claimed that Hemingway's writings didnot fulfil the

basic conditions of Alfred Nobel's will. The will enjoined

that the award has produced the most outstanding work of anxideal tendency. It was pointed out that idealism was not the

most prominent characterstic of Hemingway, who was preoccu­

pied with themes of violence, brutality, cynicism sex and

death. Critics like Maxwell Greismar objected that Hemingway

received Nobel Prize for the wrong book and for the wrongperiod of his worl^Oespite this dissenting criticism, The Old.

Man and thp Sea won an impressive list of awards including

the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in May 4, 1953. It also re­

ceived 'the Award for Merit Medal' for the Novel given by the

American Academy of Arts and Letters and also “ the Order of

Carlos Manuel de Lespedos’

Hemingway narrowly escaped death in an airplane

clash in the same year he received the Nobel Prize. He then

suffered a long period of illness but met his death by a

'self-inflicted' gunshot wound in 1961, at Ketchum, Idaho.

55n

It is said that every writer is the product of the

age in which he lives. Hemingway is no exception to it. He is regarded as one of the special products of the age of freedom

in America. Due to the emphasis on realism in the Nineteenth

Century American Fiction, there was a need of revitalization in literature. It was Hemingway who revived the dying art of

novel and gave it a new life. Despite leading a busy life of shooting, big game hunting, fishing, fighting, travelling

etc., Hemingway had a remarkable literary output. He wrote of

what he experienced and that too as honestly, clearly and

directly as he could. Regarding the themes of his novels, it

is found that his range of subject matter is not wide and

therefore he returns again and again to the same kind of

material.

His themes are related to the central experiences

of war, violence and death. As a representative of war gener­

ation, Hemingway seems to be interested in violence and

painful behind not

only physical scars, but also the psychological ones. In

almost all of his novels, the hero or the protagonist faces a

close touch of death or actually dies. Naturally “dignity in confronting death' is one of the leading themes in his nov­els. He also emphasizes the “view of Nihilism' that American

56

adolescents face. This nihilistic view instills a feeling of

futility and makes man feel impossible to lead a decent self-respecting, dignified and satisfying life. Hemingway's

faith in the valuable qualities of courage, forbearance,

tolerance, and simple affection has found its reflection in

the themes of his novels. The search for peace in society andomorever an inner spiritual peace is one of the recurrent A

themes in Hemingway's novels.

The idea of 'Separate Peace' arises out of the

awareness of the absence of peace in the post-war situation. But it undoubtedly symbolizes man's alienation from society,

growing loneliness and his innate need for peace. It is

obvious that Hemingway's themes reflect growing awareness of

the common man's problems in America. But again he seems to

have realised that solution to human

problems. Therefore some of his novels hold a theme that

reveals Hemingway's incapacity to deal with complex social

and political problems and ultimately he reverts back to man's isolation, endurance, courage and a life by senses.

Dignity is also one of the important themes of Hemingway. His

characters refuse to yield to the powerful forces of nature but retain their dignity. For example in Thg, Old Man and The

Sea. Hemingway portrays the character of Santiago as a sin­cere old man struggling alone with the marlin and the sharks.

He is left alone but refuses to yield to the powerful natural

57

forces with all his dignity. Hemingway seems to be aware of

the importance of solidarity and inter-dependence. The rela­

tionship between individualism and inter-dependence has beenB>

one of the important concern^of Hemingway.

Ill

Hemingway has created some of the most memorable

characters of his time. By portraying characters like Santia­

go, Hemingway has been successful in presenting his charac­

ters both as an individual and as a representative of a whole

generation at the same time. Even his minor characters have

left a deep impact upon the readers due to their individuali­

ty. They also exemplify Hemingway’s code to some extent. His

technique of characterisation is different from others as he

doesn’t directly make any authorial comments on the charac­

ters^ so as to throw light on their nature and personality.

It is often left to the readers to form their own impression

about each character.

Some of his characters possess symbolic signifi­

cance. They symbolize religious as well as some social moral

tendencies. Not only the positive aspects of human nature

like fortitude, patience, tolerance, strength but also some

negative characterstics like disillusionment and pained

sensibility are symbolized through his characters.

58

His characters become more lively because of his

art of conversation. Dialogue plays a very important role in

throwing light on his characters. The only drawback that.

Hemingway>s art of character portrayal suffers is the absense

of concrete realisation of the characters. Sometimes the

physical features of some of his characters are abruptly

described, therefore the readers cannot have a clear mental

image of the characters.

Hemingway is wellknown for his portrayal of a

character of protagonist who was then popularly known as

'Hemingway hero or Code hero'. This ’Code hero' represents

all the moral qualities cherished by Hemingway such as cour­age, dignity, sense of honour, integrity, dedication to

vocation, endurance etc. In the post world war world, where

values were getting eroded day by day, the new generation

tried to base their values ( in arts, politics and literature

etc.) only on truth. The youth of new generation expected the world to endure the harsh reality of life by inculcating

pride, courage and silence. Hemingway was widely called as a representative of the lost generation (i.e. post-war genera-

tion). The, tried to impose a ’Code' of action not only in

work but in talk and in play. Such a Hemingway code was a

major element in all his books. This code expects that while

59facing futility one would try to create his own reality by

imposing form upon chaos. There would be a code for men and

women in the way they hunt, drink wine, make love or suffer

pain. And thus by acting well an individual can overcome

futility itself. Hemingway's some novels depicted a kind of a

’Hemingway hero’, which later on developed into the ’Code

hero’.

IV

Hemingway’s novels are appreciated by tbe critics

as the well made ones. He is remarkable not only for an

excellent plot but also for its austerity and integrity. The

plot of his novel is always so very integrated that it is

difficult to isolate any single event or incident from the

whole. But the first thing that strikes in all his works is

the extreme simplicity of his plots. His plots usually re­

volve around one or two major characters, their struggle,

their achievements, their frustrations, etc. Some critics

found Hemingway’s plots cyclic. Because they almost invar­

iably end there, where they begin with. But in£adt the proc­

ess of growth gives a deeper insight to the characters into

himself. There are also limited number of events that occur ?

in the novels of Hemingway. There is no suspense nor any

breathless anxiety in any of his plots. But it is due to its ?

skillful interweaving of the incidents in the plot that the

critics find him a superb craftsman.

60

Hemingway's narrative structure is simple but at

the same time it is never common place or tedious. It has a

distinct rhythm of its own. All the events occur in slow

motion so that the reader can follow each stage of the narra­

tive in detail. Ha tries to give all the facts in his narra­

tive with great exactitude. He wants to make his readers feel

the emotion directly not as if they were being told about an

event but as if they were taking part in it. Because of his

detached and carefully accurate use of language, critics

compare it with camera and call his works 3 cinematic

prose'. In his cinematic prose, he would manipulate language

itself as a kind of camera to record precise observation of

physical surfaces. This proved more effective in his short

narratives. He prefers the third person or omniscient author

technique of narration as this helps the author to present

his own vision of reality. He usually presents the reality

through a sequence of different expressions that are com­

pletely free from value judgement. He gives very little

authorial comment on any of the events described by the

narrator. All these qualities of Hemingway's narrative make

The Old Man and the Sea a fine example of narrative prose.

A piece is cited from The Old Man and the Sea to

exemplify Hemingway's narrative art :

The Old man dropped the line and put his foot on

it and lifted the harpoon as high as he could and

drove it down with all his strength, and more strength he had just summoned, into the fish's

side just behind the great chest fin that rose

high in the air to the altitude of the man's chest. (P.80)4

This piece from the text shows Hemingway's effectiveness in

communicating the action directly and also holding the atten­

tion of the reader through different images. His style seems

to be a concrete one as it shuns off all that is abstract.

Thus the object of his narrative is always to give the reader

an accurate and realistic description of any object or action

that takes place.

VI

Naturalism, as a literary genre, presents a pic­

ture of life more real than the one found in realistic writ­ing. Hemingway's novels have an evidence of naturalism every­

where. It is seen in his character portrayal and nature description. He, as a naturalist, firmly believes that man is

no more than the highest order of animals and that he is simply at the mercy of natural forces which make^ him a pawn in the hands of these forces, e.g. in The Old Man and the

62Sea, the character of Santiago is portrayed in this manner.

Santiago^ despite being^brave, experienced old fisherman^, is

defeated by the Sharks. The natural forces attack him and he

fails in defending himself. This reduces him merely to the

pawn in the hands of the most powerful natural forces.

Hemingway expects his heroes to be strong and<ibrave men of action, no matter to which class they belong

t<D, Even his minor characters are uncorrupted, earthy people.

For example, in The Old Han and the Sea, the character of

Manolin, though a simple, down to earth one, plays a very

soothing role in Santiago’s life. But as found in a natural­

istic novel, many a tim^s)it ends in tragedy and so is the

end of The Old Han and the Sea.Despite Santiago’s consistent

efforts to get the fish home, he meets a failure and the

story ends in his tragedy.

Hemingway not only portrays the characters in

their most natural forms but also the nature in its joyous

but mystic form. He thus presents a real picture of life in

his novels. Once he said in his interview published in Time,

Dec 13. 1954. ,1ml6

'I tried to make a real old man, a real boy, a

real sea, and a real fish and real sharks. But if

I made them good and true enough they would mean

many things. 5 , lm5

63After considering all these aspects, it would not

be wrong to place Hemingway in the tradition of literary

naturalism and realism.

VII

Hemingway constantly uses symbols in his writings.

The subjective conditions of his characters is expressed by

invariably following the symbolist technique. He uses ’Mou^_

tains’ as a symbol of ’peace, security and health’, and

’Plains’ as a symbol of ’fatigue, war and death', and ’snow’

as a symbol of ’death'. This clearly makes his style look

more as a combination of association and connotation than

merely as a denotation. In The Old Man and the Sea, the sea

stands for life. It also symbolizes vastness, as it is full

of many unexplored things in it. After the publication of Tb©

Old Man and the Sea, critics saw the novel as a personal

parable in which Santiago represents Hemingway himself. The

marlin stands for the novel and the sharks symbolize the

critics who attacked the novel and tried to tear the literary

reputation of Hemingway.

VIII

Hemingway’s craft and style were clearly influ­

enced by different cultural, literary and familial forces in

his life. Initially it was the influence of his family (i.e.

his mother and father) that has left a deep mark on his

64writings. The roboust personality of his father is clearly

seen in the portrayal of Hemingway heroesy who love hunting,

shooting and fishing and all other outdoor life.As he grew up, he developed a great fascination

for war and adventure and always waited for some chance of

adventure that would combine glory with danger. It inculcated

in him a strong dislike for passivity. He tasted bitter glory

of war as he was blown up unfortunately by a strayshell and

wounded seriously when engaged in a rather ludicrous activity

of handing out chocolates to Italian soldiers. This experi­

ence left its scars forever on Hemingway's spirit. He was so

deeply attached to the war spirit and its consequences that

Gertrude Stein remarked calling him “the spokesman of lost generation.' The phrase j/^ost generation' is originally usedv^

to define the disillusioned young people who had seen an

entire world of ethical, moral and political values shattered

in the chaotic butchery of the world war. However, it is a

misleading label for the young writers and critics after the World War. Infact, young writers like Hemingway developed a

fresh sense of truth through his writings.

His greater zest for life, a greater urge for

action and travelling made him travel extensively, hunting in Africa and the Far East, fishing in numerous oceans andseas. All this made a lasting impact on Hemingway's writings.

65

His literary style was also evolved out of painting and

music. He learned something from the painting of Cezanne that

made his writing simple and true.

Hemingway also had an impact of his journalistic

career on his style. He began his literary career with his

journastic writing. Journalism contributed in two significant

ways to the evolution of his style. It taught Hemingway to

present the thing "the way it was" and to focus all his

attention on the fact to be observed. His seven months expe­

rience in the ’Kansas City Star’ formed his vigourously

masculine and objective style . It taught him the technique

of disciplined prose and objectivity. The famous ’Star’ style

sheet influenced him in using vigorous English devoid of lengthy sentences and cumbersome diction. It inculcated in

him a habit to write in a simple lean style with sparing use

of adjectives and adverbs and completely objective but power­

ful expression. C. G. willington (Assistant Editor of the ’Star’) trained Hemingway to write graphic prose.

Many literary influences directly or indirectly shaped Hemingway’s style. Ring Lardner, a popular writer of

the time when Hemingway was in school, was also imitated by Hemingway in his earlier attempts. Later on Hemingway himself acknowledged the direct influence of Mark Twains The Adven-

66tures of Huckleburrv Finn (1884) on his writings. Hemingway

learnt the art of terse prose and lively dialogue. He also

mentioned the debt of Stephen Crane which made him acquire the intensity, terseness, natural tone, unartificial dia­logue. Inspite of the American literary influence, Hemingway

also came in contact with Gertrude Stein, Ezra Pound, 0. H.

Lawrence, James Joyce and even T.S. Eliot. Ezra Pound was the

first to recognize Hemingway's budding talent. He learnt from

Ezra Pound the essential difference between reporting and

literature. Pound encouraged Hemingway by correcting his

early writings.

Gertrude Stein introduced Hemingway to the art of

writing with precision and elimination of superfluous adjec­

tives. All the important literary figures helped him to free

his style from outworn cliches, decorative metaphors and to

develop the style of using the simplest possible words.

Joseph Conrad also made a remarkable impact on Hemingway's

style.

When Hemingway visited Paris, he came in touch

with a celebrated writer like Scott Fitzgerald, and then he had some direct references to these celebraties. He learnt

his craft from Russian Writers like Tolstoy, Chekor, Dostoev­sky and European Prose masters like Maupassant, Flaubert,

Alexander Dumas, Balzac, Baudelaire etc. Thus it becomes

67

evident that Hemingway's style is mixed with varied

types of influences. Therefore Gertrude Stein aptly describes

Hemingway as 'a man of museums'. Even though he was influ­

enced by many great literary writers, he forged his own

style. His style is uniquely his own and very few writers

after him have succeeded in imitating such a simplicity and

precise terseness in prose.

IX

Hemingway was universally acclaimed by the contem­

porary writers and critics for the unique style he innovated.no

His style bore imprints of several influences to which he was

exposed from his highschool days at Oak Park. In his forma­

tive years, he imitated many writers and what he learnt from

others was soon assimilated into a pattern of his own. Phil­

lip Young says, 'He is not a reproduction and if he has the

look of a genuine original, who has fashioned what is unques­

tionably the most famous and influential prose style of our

time, it is because many ingredients have been thoroughly

assimilated and revitalized by the force of all integrated

and talented personalities.

He evolved his style by long years of apprentice­

ship which served as an original model to the jfatte)- writers.

He borrowed from his famous predecessors and transformed

68whatever he borrowed into something new. His new style influ­

enced many writers like Norman Mailer, Joseph Heller, Saul

Bellow, etc.

Infact, according to some critics Hemingway com­

mands more repect as a stylist. His prose is easily recog­

nised as it is characterised chiefly by colloquial language

simplicity of diction and sentence structure and precision.

He showed strict aversion for verbiage and embellishment. His

words are normally short, simple and common ones. He shunned

gaudy, inane and abstract phraseology. He always felt that

phrase-mongering was the occupation of the politician or

professional patriot and it was not the instrument of the

writer. Therefore he insisted on not using words that obscure

the reality of experience. He used concrete words that repre-

sent concrete action and avoided abstraction of any sort.

Gertrude Stein and Ezra Pound advised Hemingway to

prune his phrases of chiches, unnecessary adjectives and

adverbs. Therefore he developed his style by making limited

use of adjectives and adverbs and avoiding cliches. He, thus,

used adjectives and other embellishments sparingly and only

when absolutely necessary e.g. He describes plainly the

action of the fish which woke Santiago by pulling the line

through his hand. To quote from the OMATS.

69’He woke with the jerk of his right fist coming up

against his face and the line burning out through

his right hand.... (pp-69, 76).7

Here the jerk that wakes up Santiago must be Violent but

Hemingway avoids using the word ’Violent' here.

Hemingway was later compared with Swift who made a

sparse use of adjectives and slashed off all^merely decora­

tive. Therefore in Hemingway’s writings greatest burden is

carried forward by concrete nouns and the simplest verbs such

as drop, put, think etc. He harnessed all nouns to their

utmost capacity because they are the most appropriate medium

for representing concrete objects and abstract ideas.

Thus, he stripped off all stylistic adornments,

smart phraseology and big empty words and made use of small

but full words. In fact, he used a very limited vocabulary.

Because his range of vocabulary is limited. For example, for

him the words 'good' and 'nice* stand for all the pleasant

emcotions. He always preferred to use the words 'big' or

'very big' rather than 'huge' 'enormous* 'gigantic' etc. He

doesn’t have a range of vocabulary like Faulkner and thus

disappointed Faulkner who noted that Hemingway didnot use

words that would send the reader to the dictionary. While

reacting to this Hemingway pitied Faulkner and said "Poor

70Faulkner! Does he really think big emotions come from big

words. He thinks I don’t know the ten dollar words. I know

them alright. But there are older and simpler and better

words and those are the ones I use". It shows that Heming­

way had a clear distrust for the “ten dollar words’ or ’high

falutin words’ that he referred here. He strongly believed

that the dramatic situations, the scenes of emotional and

physical violence could best be described in short, terse and

colloquial language. His prose style is known for its sim­

plicity and shortness of sentences. It becomes more simple

because of the use of translated phrases or sentences from

foreign languages to English,

He normally uses flat, clipped and clear sen­

tences, He- prefers simple declarative sentences as clauses

.joined together with conductions. It was Gertrude Stein who

taught him the art of using conjunctions repeatedly to pro­

duce a particular effectiveness. Use of conjunctions like

’and’, ’but’ thrice or more than that in a single sentence

adds to the simplicity of his style. His each sentence con­

sists of only a few words and even these are simplest. He

does use complex and compound sentences also but these are

structured additively that is, one clause follows another in

a simple sequence. He avoided sentences with embedded

clauses. He maintained purity of his sentences by avoiding

71digressions and structural complications.

XI

Hemingway’s most significant contribution to style

is his effective use of dialogue in his novels. He wrote

simple, laconic, terse and clipped dialogue. He even slashed

off all redundancies, circumlocutions, cliches etc. P. G.

Rama Rao says,

’The principal of economy and understatement and

the use of colloquial speech rhythms control

Hemingway’s dialogue. The old habit of underlining

the intent or emotion or intonation of the speaker

began to be discarded by Mark Twain and Henry

James. Hemingway carries this process to the

logical conclusion making the dialogue completely

dramatic with no commentory from the author exceptQwhere it is absolutely needed.

Hemingway’s writings show his knack for dramatizing his

dialogue. As he was insistent on simplicity, he even avoided

using emotionally heightened language, Despite simplicity,

his dialogues were closely adhered to the accents and manner­

isms of human speech. Instead he reproduces speech that

identifies the speaker and brings the character to life.

72

Hemingway is acclaimed as a creater of fresh and

sparse style for his age. He developed and perfected a new

prose style, a style based on short unadorned statements

which adequately expressed the disillusioned and cynical mood

of the war ridden society. Phillip Young says about Heming­

way's style,

’it was mainly forged and evolved during the same

period, when Hemingway was making an effort to

reorganise his personality after his disillusion­

ment in the first World War>.i^

Critics found Hemingway’s style largely impressed by the

World War situation. J.8. Priestley praised Hemingway's

style by saying that,

’The style of Hemingway for which he deserves the

highest praise not only made him as a man from the

results of some trauma some open war wound in his

inner life’.

Even after a critical disagreement on the point of

impact of war on Hemingway’s style, there was a unanimous

agreement on some other aspects of his style. Tpe critics

clearly seem to agree on the fact that Hemingway’s was en­

tirely an original, new and unique style and he, like many

73other modern novelists, fashioned his style by reacting

against the notion of literary style.

He never wrapped his meaning in mystery as was the

case with others. His chief aim was to tell his story as

simply and cleanly as possible. This led him not to add to the language but to cut out or avoid all redundant literary

words and get back to simple but distinct style, Edward Wagenknecht says, "His writings is characteristically simple

to the point of brutality, concrete, emphatic as the rain of

bullets, largely monosyllabic and innocent of subordina­tion" .i2

As learnt in Journalism, Hemingway was particular

in making precise and economical use of words. Therefore he

insisted on using not more but fewer words whose meaning

would be clear and unmistakable. According to him, the real

style was the plainest. He valued purity and honesty more

than ornamentation in getting the right vision on the paper.

He, as a writer, never communicated his emotions directly to the readers. He was of the view that a writer

cannot transfer his emotion or idea from his own mind direct­

ly to his readers. It needs some kind of mediation of a set of objects, a situation or some events. Though he preferredsome kind of mediation, he always avoided irrelevant and

74unnecessary feelings and tried to present the right feelings

and the right emotions. His method was to describe emotions 7—----------- - (

as it was felt by him or his characters.

Even while expressing the emotion of the charac­

ters in the most realistic manner Hemingway assumes that what

is visible on the surface is only about one eighth of the

totality of the experience that is being represented. This he

calls his Iceberg Theory in which he states that, 'Good

prose is like an iceberg with only a small part showing on 1the surface.9

He was keen about the fact that the author must

know what he is writing about. He should delete everything

that can be deleted in order to make his writings less chaot­

ic. His technique of deleting or leaving half said and more

unsaid came to be known as the ’irony of the unsaid' e.g. In

some of his short stories, he makes use of understatement and

avoids using certain words. For example in his story of Hills

Like White Elephant the problem in the story is that of

abortion but nowhere in the story the word ’abortion* is

spoken. He was thus the master of the ’idiom of understate­

ment. 9 He was of the view that a particular method of de­

scribing an experience is that nothing should be said explic­

itly about it. He expects the readers to grasp the situation

on their own. Thus by emphasizing the technique of under-

75statement Hemingway is found keeping with his own "Theory of

Iceberg".

Another interesting facet of Hemingway’s uniquestyle is his ’idea of fifth dimension prose." The idea came

to Hemingway as he wanted to write a new prose more precise

than the conventional prose. Infact this idea of fifth di~15menssional prose was originally used by P.D. Oupensky.

Malcolm Cowley dismissed this idea of fifth dimension as a

mystical or meaningless figure of speech. Whereas Hemingway

says that, "It is much more difficult than poetry. It is a

prose that has never been written. But it can be written16without tricks and without cheating.

The phrase "a fourth and fifth dimension* is

rather too vague. According to some critics, "the fourth

dimension* perhaps has something to do with the concept of

time and with fictional technique of describing it. They

think that "the fourth dimension* may be related to an

"aesthetic factor’ while ’the fifth dimension’ may be "an

ethical factor’. Though it is called as a mystical and mean­

ingless figure of speech as F.I. Carpenter says, *It became a reality in Hemingway’s best fiction especially in The Old Man

and the Sea *. It is true when we find Hemingway’s narrative very simple, laconic and as said by Hemingway himself it iswithout tricks and without cheating.

76

Much has been written about Hemingway and his

style. Despite creating a unique style with all these fea­tures many critics attached his style by calling it remarka­

bly unintelletual. In his fiction, Hemingway diapproved the

importance of mind and chiefly highlighted the physical

activities like hunting, fishing, eating, drinking all these

things show his escape from thought or mind.

Phillip Young supports this criticism and says,

"It is a remarkably unintellectual style. Events are de­

scribed strictly in the sequence in which they occured, no

mind reorders or analyses them and perceptions come to the

reader unmixed with comment from the author. The impression,

therefore is of intense objectivity the writer providesIQnothing but stimuli...

It shows that Hemingway's habit of going away fromemotions and mind made many critics react in a rather

negative way. Critics like Leon Edel objected the very ideathat Hemingway has created a style by saying that, *1 wouldargue that Hemingway has not created a style. He has rather

created the artful illusion of a style for he is a clever

artist and there is a great deal of cleverness in all that he

has done. He has conjured up an effect of style by a process

of evasion, very much as he sets up an aura of emotion by1 <2making directly away from emotion.

77

©However^ Phillip Young challenged Leon Edel by

saying that ’For me Hemingway is next to Thoreau, the great"

est prose stylist in our literature. That is at the most. At

the very least, he is the writer of some of the cleanest,

freshest, subtlest, most brilliant and most moving prose of 20our times.

After a brief account of Hemingway as a novelist

and his prose style in general/ in the next chapter his style

in The Old Man and the Sea in particular is analysed thor- oughly.

78

REFERENCES :

1. Dr. Mundra ; Ernest Hemingway : The Impact of War on

his life and Works (Bareilly : Prakash Book Depot, 1988).

P. 84.

2. Ibid, P 180

3. Ibid, P. 180

4. Ernest Hemingway : The Old Han and the Sea (New Delhi :

INDUS, An Inprint of Harper Collins Publishers India Pvt,

Ltd, 1991). P. 80.

5. Dr. Mundra : Ernest Himingway : The impact of War on

his life and Works (Bareilly : Prakash Book Depot, 1988),

PP. 84,85

6. Philip Young : Ernest Hemingway ( London : G. Bell and

Sons Ltd. 1952). P. 144.

7. Ernest Hemingway : The Old Man and The Sea (New Delhi:

INDUS An Inprint of Harper Collin Publication India Pvt.

Ltd., 1991) PP. 69, 70.

8- A.F. Hotchner : Papa Hemingway A Personal Memoir (New

York : A Banton Book, A National Co., 1970) P. 75.

79

9. P.G. Rama Rao : Ernest Hemingway : A study in. Narrative

Technique. (New Oelhi : S. Chand & Co. Ltd., 1980), P. 101.

10. Dr. Mundra : Ernest Hemingway : The Impact of War on

his Life and Works (Bareilly:Prakash Book Depot,1988). P.159.

11. Ibid, P. 159

12. Edward Wagenknecht : Cavalcade of the American Novel,

(Delhi ; Oxford and IBH publishing Co., 1969). P. 372.

13. Dr. Mundra : Ernest Hemingway : The Impact of War on

his Life and Works. (Bareilly : Prakash Book Depot, 1988),

P.168.

14. Ibid, P. 168

15. Ibid, P. 174

16. Ibid, P. 174

17. Ibid, P. 174.

18. Ibid, P. 178.

19. Edel Leon : The Art of Evasion printed in Robert. P.Weeks (ed. ) Hemingway : A Collection of Critical Essays

(Englewood Cliffs, N.J. Prentice- Hall, Inc, 1962) . P.169-70.

20. Phillip Young : A Defense printed in Robert P. Weeks(ed.) Heminiqwa:v : A Collection of Critical Essavs (EnglewoodCliffs, J.N. Prentice - Hall, Inc, 1962). P.173.