Ernest Hemingway Syntax

Ernest Hemingway is a profound writer who not only won the Nobel Prize, but also inspired many people, including other writers. Just as Hemingway begin writing, other authors also picked up his style and many books had been published with the same type of diction and syntax. By using the iceberg principle--simple text with deeper meaning--, manipulating syntax, and incorporating real life experiences into his writing, Hemingway crafts the text to reveal purpose and meaning.

Hemingway uses short concise sentences to express his meaning. He used the iceberg principle which is only getting a small amount of information, when the real information is either unavailable or hidden. Only one-tenth of an iceberg’s mass shows outside while about nine-tenths

In “The Way it Was,” Baker continues to say, “Hemingway always wrote slowly and revised carefully, cutting, eluding, substituting, experimenting with syntax to see what sentence could economically carry, and then throwing out all words that could be spared.” (Baker 19). Through the careful consideration of his writing, Hemingway does not waste any valuable factor that contributes to his text, such as syntax, to craft the writing to illustrate the effective dictum's he uses. Syntax also contributes to the simplicity of his style; so, certain words have specific connotations that could indicate more meaning than other words, thus the selection of words becomes important. In the short story, “The End of Something,” Hemingway chooses words with caution to showcase their symbolism, “‘You don’t want to take the ventral fin out,’ he said. ‘It'll be all right for bait but it's better with the ventral fin in.’” (Hemingway 32). The character Nick is not talking about a ventral fin, but rather the purity of a young girl that he his planning to break up with. The selection of the word and the choice of placement depicts how Hemingway controls syntax to achieve significance. Levin states in his essay, “. . . his syntax is informal to the point of fluidity, simplifying far as possible the already simple system of English inflections.” (Levin 9). So Hemingway’s language flows without effort and allows the reader to comprehend

Baker exclaims, “. . . his aim from the beginning had been to show, if he could, the precise relationship between what he saw and what he felt.” (Baker 6). Hemingway wanted to efficiently unify his experiences in the text, but avoid his opinions. To accomplish this, he made certain characters like himself, such as Nick, especially in the short story, “Big Two-Hearted River.” Relating to the iceberg principle, it is never stated in the story that Nick is recovering from war, but with close analysis, one could realize that, that is what the story is ultimately about. Nick has gone to war and has come back with physical and emotional damage, likewise, so has Hemingway. Words and sentences flow and adapt agreeably together when the author has experienced first hand what he or she is writing about; but, it is connecting the experience and the feelings together that create the purpose and meaning. In this quote from the short story, “. . . he realized that the grasshoppers had all turned black from living in the burned-over land. . . . He wondered how long they would stay that way.” (Hemingway 136), not only is Hemingway eluding to Nick, but also to himself. This lets the writing achieve much more purpose. Also, Levin states, “His writing seems so intent upon the actual, so impersonal on its surfaces, that it momentarily prompts us to overlook the personality behind them.