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Character conflicts and motives in Hemingway's "Hills Like White Elephants
Point of view in Hemingway's Hills Like White elephants
Point of view in Hemingway's Hills Like White elephants
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Although Ernest Hemingway and Raymond carver lives were very different they share one thing which was there style of writing. Both wrote in a minimalist fashion and are still today considered the masters of minimalism. In the short stories of Hemingway Hills like White Elephants and Carvers short story What We Talk about When We Talk about Love, both use minimalist techniques such as open endings, symbolism, omission, and characteristics of main characters.
When a person reads a book or a short story there is an ending in which the main character and the reader normally find on answer for what is happening. But In Carvers and Hemingway’s short stories they both use open endings. For example in Hills like White Elephants some would argue that Jig the woman in the story is going to get the abortion; while some believe that she is going to leave the man and try and take care of the baby by herself. Another example of this is shown in What We talk about when We Talk about Love in the end there really is not an answer for what is love. Hemingway and carver use open ending in a way as to get the reader to discuss the ideas of the stories.
Carver and Hemmingway both used symbolism to convey deeper meaning in their stories. In Hemingway’s Hills like White Elephants he does not give you the name of the man he just calls him the American showing the difference both American and European views which can be shown when Jig and the man talk about the abortion. She tries to tell him that if she has the abortion there will be nothing left in their relationship and he believes that the abortion will allow for them to have everything. Doing this talk she walks into the light were as he calls her back to the shade and moral darkness. Carver also ...
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...nd try new drinks and in What we Talk about when we Talk about Love when Terri try to tell Mel he was talking drunk he told her to shut up. Hemmingway and Carver in their stories show the difficulty of sustaining relationships, problem with communication, and how alcohol affects communication in their main characters.
In conclusion many people may not be able to see how Raymond Carver and Ernest Hemmingway can be similar as their stories are very different and one only wrote short stories. But even Carver states “I suppose the influence on my fiction would be the early stories by Hemingway” and both authors were master of minimalism. In closing Hemingway Hills like White Elephants and Carvers short story What we Talk about when we Talk about Love, both use minimalist techniques such as open endings, symbolism, omission, and characteristics of main characters.
Raymond Carver's short story “What We Talk About When We Talk About Love” leaves the reader feeling as if they have sat down at the table with a bottle of Gin and experienced first hand the effects of alcoholism and depression. In the original version of this story the “Beginners” Carver carefully crafts the many sides of an alcoholic personality developing strong knowable characters. The fundamental personalities are left fairly intact from the original version. It should be noted that the feelings that the reader are left with are due at least partially to the severe editing of the “Beginners” done by his editor and friend Gordon Lish. With this collaboration Carvers personal struggles still shine through but his intent of hope and recover from alcoholism were left mostly on the chopping block. Through many interviews and articles Raymond Carver make clear his personal struggles with alcoholism and how it has had an effect on his writing. INTERVIEWER: Where do your stories come from, then? I'm especially asking about the stories that have something to do with drinking. Carver: “At the very least it's referential. Stories long or short don't just come out of thin air.” (The Paris Review) The inner dialog and downward spiral of an alcoholic is experienced through the interaction between these personalities while discussing the topic of love. JA: I noticed recently you're using cliches in your characterizations, and I wonder if you're just observing, or recording the way a mind works. RC: It's there for a purpose; it's working for me, I think, not against me. Or at least I hope and assume this is the case!
Meter, M. An Analysis of the Writing Style of Ernest Hemingway. Texas: Texas College of Arts and Industries, 2003.
Earnest Hemingway is known for leaving things out in his writing. He believed that if you knew something well enough, you could leave it out and still get your point across. In the short story "The End of something", he leaves a few things out. Some things he doesn't say at all and others the reader knows something before he says it. He must have know what he was writing about because he the reader can infer certain things.
Throughout the 20th century there were many influential pieces of literature that would not only tell a story or teach a lesson, but also let the reader into the author’s world. Allowing the reader to view both the positives and negatives in an author. Ernest Hemingway was one of these influential authors. Suffering through most of his life due to a disturbingly scarring childhood, he expresses his intense mental and emotional insecurities through subtle metaphors that bluntly show problems with commitment to women and proving his masculinity to others.
Ernest Hemingway was a great American author whom started his career humbly in a newspaper office in Kansas City at the ripe, young age of seventeen. Once the United States joined World War One, Hemingway deemed it fit to join a volunteer ambulance service. During this time Hemingway was wounded, and decorated by the Italian Government for his noble deeds. Once he completely recovered, he made his way back to the United States. Upon his arrival he became a reporter for the American and Canadian newspapers and was sent abroad to cover significant events. For example, he was sent to Europe to cover the Greek revolution. During his early adulthood, Hemingway became a member of the group of expatriate Americans in Paris. This is known as the time in his life in which he describes in two of his novels; A Farewell to Arms and The Sun Also Rises the latter of the two being his first work. Hemingway was able to use his experiences of serving in the front during the war and his experience of being with other expatriates after the war to shape both of these novels. He was able to successful write these novels due to his past experience with working for newspapers. His experience with the newspaper seemed to be far more beneficial than just supplying him with an income, with the reporting experience under his belt he also was able to construct another novel that allowed him to sufficiently describe his experiences reporting during the Civil War; For Whom the Bell Tolls. Arguably his most tremendous short novel was a about an old fisherman’s journey and the long, lonely struggle with a fish and the sea with his victory being in defeat.
...l of the relationship. Carver relies on the readers? knowledge of these popular stereotypes instead of telling you about each character.
Ernest Hemingway was a man whose writing could be summed up as minimalistic and dynamic. While his stories at first glance seem simple, they are deceptively so. He wrote sharp, deliberate dialogue with exact descriptions of places and things. A postmodernist icon, Hemingway broke chronology in his stories and nudged towards the idea of multiple truths. In his story, "In Another Country" he uses both of these postmodern techniques. By effectively using fewer words than his contemporaries to deliver works that resonated stronger with his audience, Ernest Hemmingway earned his place as one of the great postmodernists of the twentieth century.
When a writer picks up their pen and paper, begins one of the most personal and cathartic experiences in their lives, and forms this creation, this seemingly incoherent sets of words and phrases that, read without any critical thinking, any form of analysis or reflexion, can be easily misconstrued as worthless or empty. When one reads an author’s work, in any shape or form, what floats off of the ink of the paper and implants itself in our minds is the author’s personality, their style. Reading any of the greats, many would be able to spot the minute details that separates each author from another; whether it be their use of dialogue, their complex descriptions, their syntax, or their tone. When reading an excerpt of Hemingway’s A Moveable Feast one could easily dissect the work, pick apart each significant moment from Hemingway’s life and analyze it in order to form their own idea of the author’s voice, of his identity. Ernest Hemingway’s writing immediately comes across as rather familiar in one sense. His vocabulary is not all that complicated, his layout is rather straightforward, and it is presented in a simplistic form. While he may meander into seemingly unnecessary detail, his work can be easily read. It is when one looks deeper into the work, examines the techniques Hemingway uses to create this comfortable aura surrounding his body of work, that one begins to lift much more complex thoughts and ideas. Hemingway’s tone is stark, unsympathetic, his details are precise and explored in depth, and he organizes his thoughts with clarity and focus. All of this is presented in A Moveable Feast with expertise every writer dreams to achieve. While Hemingway’s style may seem simplistic on the surface, what lies below is a layered...
Hemingway was extremely influential to many authors, he showed the world that stories did not need to be detailed and concrete. He showed that threw simplicity and mystery a great story could be told. He made it so his story had a sturdy base line to help guide the reader, but leaving out the main idea for them to uncover. He was able to do this because he was master with diction, being able to strip away most of the true story and still get the main idea across would require little to no ideas or hints that could cause a reader to stray from the central idea. Many authors have tried to do what Hemingway did, but their stories rather than taking away some of the background would leave holes in the story where they were unsure what to write.
To explore the two distinct writing styles, one can begin with how the stories do. (That is, how they begin too.) The opening paragraphs of Fitzgerald's "Winter Dreams" and Hemingway's "Indian Camp" epitomize the basic difference between their writing styles. "Winter Dreams" begins, "Some of the caddies were poor as sin and lived in one-room houses with a neurasthenic cow in the front yard, but Dexter Green's father owned the second best grocery-store in Black Bear-the best one was 'The Hub,' patronized by the wealthy people from Sherry Island-and Dexter caddied only for pocket-money" (1504). "Indian Camp" starts out, "...
While reading short stories, two stood out: Ernest Hemingway’s Hills Like White Elephants and Raymond Carver’s Cathedral. The themes in both stories are powerful and convey strong messages that really pose existential thoughts. Not only is each story’s theme attention grabbing, but so is the common and reoccurring use of symbolism throughout the stories. They did not just use the Element of Fiction symbolism, but even used one common symbol. Ernest Hemingway’s story Hills Like White Elephants and Raymond Carver’s story Cathedral each contain existential and similar themes such as talking versus communicating and looking versus seeing, as well as demonstrating creative and comparable symbolism throughout.
Throughout the two pieces of literature both authors use symbolism to describe characteristics about the two main characters. Nick Adams seeks a return to simplicity after his harrowing experience in World War I and that Hemingway’s prose replicates the veteran’s internal quest for manageable simplicity (Cirino 115). This story describes Nick’s journey through a town he once knew, that is now burnt down and along a river. Throughout the story Nick seems very confident and precise when it comes to setting up his camp, making decisions, and has great knowledge of his natural surroundings. Nick is the only character throughout the story. There is mention of some friends Nick had in the past.
The minimalist story I am going to analyze is “Cat in the Rain” by Ernest Hemingway. One of the main characteristic found in minimalist pieces is an evident lack of detail. This is done through short and simple sentences. The Cat in the Rain is a story of an American couple on vacation in Italy; Hemingway’s’ story could be misconstrued as a dull literary piece, in fact it is not even close, it is like a complicated jigsaw puzzle in reverse order so that you have to take the story apart, to completely understand the underlying meaning of the text. Hemingway uses a lot of symbolism and repetition which is two of the characteristics of minimalism to emphasize specific emotions within the text and has embedded the theme of the story deep within it. I felt that the specific theme of this short story was the couples’ troubled relationship. As the reader I questioned many things, how was the mood set? What emotions were being shown through the sub-content? What did the cat represent? Who was the dominant one in the relationship and was this shown within the story?
...emingway are able to enhance the meaning of their work and provide extra credibility and realism into their plot. Fitzzgerald takes a rejection from his life and uses that idea to expand off from to write a social commentary on the corruption of the American Dream by the old-rich of the Eastern United States. Hemingway takes actual events from his life and used that as a basis for the plot of his novel. This enhanced the theme by describing the effect of World War I on Hemingway's generation.
In novels or other literary works many authors write about things they dream about. Many write about what stories they have heard from fellow companions. None have written about such vivid, yet traumatic experiences as the twentieth century writer, Ernest Hemingway. That is why Hemingway's tend to concur to his real life experiences.