Ernest Hemingway's Influence On American Literature

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Ernest Hemingway was one of the best known writers of the 20th century. His short stories were very interesting to read because they are narratives of real life problems of ordinary relatable people, they are set in unusual exotic places, and Hemingway would use intriguing dialog. Hemingway’s story stories had multiple meanings and one persons’ interpretation is neither right nor wrong. Hemingway had a way of writing that would draw the reader in and making them think, he wants the reader to use their own imagination, and see the characters and relate them to the readers’ situation. Hemingway had a fascinating life therefore his writing reflected his life. Hemingway loved to surround himself with famous writers, and he loved the attention from …show more content…

The New World Encyclopedia summaries Hemingway influence on American literature as far-reaching and long lasting. “Hemingway affected writers within his modernist literary circle.” Writers influenced by Hemingway’s style include Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, Douglas Coupland and many Generation X writers, as well as Jack Kerouac and J.D. Salinger. “Echoes of his style can still be heard in the telegraphic prose of many contemporary novelist and screenwriters, as well as in the modern figure the disillusioned anti-hero” (Ernest …show more content…

In Each story at least one of the characters has given up on life and is just going through the motions of daily life. In A Clean, Well-Lighted Place Hemingway wanted to show a contrast between hope and despair. The young waiter is looking forward to the future and is very confident about himself, he says “I have confidence. I am all confidence” (290) but the older men are not in a rush because they think life does not offer them anything anymore. Hemingway wrote this line “it was all a nothing and a man was a nothing too” (291) to show the reader the level of disappointment of the old waiter. Hemingway portrays loneliness in the short story In Another Country. He uses the situations of the characters the Narrator and the Major to emphasis their loneliness. The Narrator feels isolated because he is the only American being treated at the hospital, he doesn’t feel close to the other soldiers, “I was a friend, but I was never really one of them…” (208). The Major lost his wife so to him he was lost everything and he is just going through the motions of everyday

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