Comparing A Farewell To Arms And Hills Like White Elephants

Two authors, through several timeless pieces of work have shown that using proper rhetorical strategies and advanced styles of writing contributes to the popularity and success of these stories. Both Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner use several types of rhetorical strategies to enhance their writing and write stories that have more depth to them. After analyzing the writing styles of Hemingway in A Farewell to Arms and Hills Like White Elephants and Faulkner’s writing style in Barn Burning and A Rose for Emily, it is evident that few similarities exist between the two authors. Though the authors share some similar techniques that lead to their world renowned published pieces, each author displays a common style of writing in each of their publications. The four pieces that were analyzed show that both

Hemingway believed that if he laid a basic foundation for his story, the audience should be trusted to discover the true meaning behind his writing. Hemingway explained this theory by stating,

If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water(Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory).

Due to this theory, Hemingway tends to use short simplistic sentences in his writing while also evoking thought and feelings from the reader. An example of this is in the dialogue that occurs between Henry and his love interest Catherine Barkley in A Farewell to Arms. Though their conversations were always short and to the point, a thoughtful message could always be deducted from a few short sentences. In one instance Catherine stated very causally, “No I’m not. But life isn’t hard to manage when you’ve got nothing to lose(Hemingway