Short Stories, Big Meanings : Hemingway's Literary Techniques

The epic journey of “The Old Man and the Sea” describes struggle, discipline and manhood. The main characters relationships exemplify how faith and skill overcome man’s adversity during life on the sea. Santiago’s growing relationship with the boy idealizes his statute as a father figure and develops his integrity and values towards the boy. Hemmingway shows us how an old fisherman’s will to overcome the sea’s obstacles proves his manhood to himself and the young boy. His skills and knowledge of the sea provide a positive influence for the young boy to become a great fisherman someday.

Benson, Jackson, J. The Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway Critical Essays. Durham: Duke University Press, 1975. Print.

The Old Man and The Sea, is a tale of an old man named Santiago who is a fisherman. He hasn’t had any luck with fishing, resulting in the other town members viewing him as a lame old man. A boy who used to fish with him inspires to change up his usual fishing tactics resulting in him catching a great huge fish. After fighting the fish for a couple days in his tiny boat he ties it to the side, headed for shore. On the way in sharks eat his entire catch leaving a skeleton to show for his work. The reader can see a clear metaphor painted by Hemingway. The fish

Hemingway’s story relies primarily on dialogue. During the three page story, there are really only four sections that only provide description -- not counting small details like “he said” or “she said” or one sentence paragraphs like “The girl did not say anything” (Page 2). It is interesting that he chose to do this when considering it artistically. Descriptions of the characters, of the environment, of the objects people interact with are often major points of the story that reveal something to the reader. If nothing else, these descriptions fill out the story and make the world in which it is occurring feel real. Hemingway’s choice to use only dialogue shows the reader that they need to pay close attention to what the character’s are saying. The story lies in their words, not in the movements they make or how the

In Hemingway’s writing, he is always searching for truth, although, he often looks at the world in a nihilistic way. When reading through the authors’ short-stories or novels, he often refers to nothingness and the meaninglessness of existence. However, he also uses a practical application to repair his existential nihilistic viewpoints. Hemingway’s work is often seen as a representation of himself, and I believe that he used pragmatism as a distraction from the meaninglessness of the world. With suicide being prevalent in his family, I firmly believe that Hemingway himself strived for meaning in life, but eventually opted out because life is chaotic and there are too many unknown answers in the world. Hemingway tried to establish values and morals through pragmatism, but in reality, values are constantly changing and everything is temporary. By looking through a philosophical lens, I will demonstrate how Hemingway uses absurdism, nihilism, and pragmatism as a way to understand and interpret the world. In order to do so, I will look through Hemingway’s short-stories and novels and analyze passages critically to showcase the theories that are present in his work. In order to undertake this grand idea, I will also incorporate biographical elements to display Hemingway’s family history of suicide and to showcase his personal struggle to find meaning in the world.

Hemingway chose a unique approach to his story. Many short stories are filled with formal speech. However, Hemingway presented to us his story, without using exquisite words or elongated sentences. His writing was direct and minimal, but also precise. The author allowed us to create our own environment, by playing off common experiences in everyday life. By doing that he produced an atmosphere that can easily be fashioned and manipulated by the reader in order to create a relatable surrounding.

The period between World War I and World War II was a very turbulent time in America. Ernest Hemingway most represented this period with his unrestrained lifestyle. This lifestyle brought him many successes, but it eventually destroyed him in the end. His stories are read in classrooms across America, but his semi-autobiographical writings are horrible role models for the students who read them. Hemingway’s lifestyle greatly influenced his writings in many ways.

Ernest Hemingway is well known throughout American literature for his unique style of writing, which contributed greatly to the overall effect and meaning of his stories. Before writing short stories, Hemingway was a journalist, which is where he adopted many of his unique techniques of writing. While writing as a journalist, Hemingway tended to write pieces that contained brief, choppy sentences and were generally minimalistic and terse. More importantly, this is where Hemingway developed his skill for writing “on the surface”. Hemingway’s use of the iceberg effect, diction, and syntax were largely what made him successful due to the contributions these styles had on his stories.

One way Hemingway uses symbolism to explain how the man and woman have different thoughts about their relationship. For example, “ the station was between two lines of rails” , this may mean that their relationship is at a crossroad, because the rails have different destinations which in turn means that the man and women have a different idea for the future of their relationship. Another example is the quote, “they look like white elephants” the woman says this when referring to the hills. She is trying to tell the man that the baby she is expecting is like a “white elephant” because it is like an unwanted gift or something that's hard to dispose of. We have to keep in mind that during this time period in which this took place abortion was

The Old Man and the Sea is a novella written by Ernest Hemingway. It details the journey of an old fisherman who sails out to sea one day in an attempt to redeem himself after his 83 days of not catching any fish. His assistant, Manolin, has been forced to work for another fisherman that is more successful. Santiago, the fisherman, decides he’s going to try to finally catch a fish. He sails out too far and ends up in the Gulf Stream. This is where he engages in a 3-day long battle between himself and an 18-foot marlin. Santiago and the marlin are two of the most important characters in the book. At first glance, they seem completely different, but further reading reveals that the two are more alike than one would think. Santiago and the marlin

Santiago of The Old Man and the Sea is the quintessential “Hemingway Hero”-a type of fictional character created by Hemingway in all of his books whose basic response to life appealed very strongly to the readers. The Old Man begins the narrative with all the elements of such a hero despite his senescence and poverty. He shows strength, determination, and dedication to himself despite his struggles. Santiago relates back to readers as a strong failure who picks himself up repeatedly.

Many authors, critics, and everyday social readers define Ernest Hemingway as the prime example of 20th century American literature. Hemingway’s works transcend time itself, so that even readers today analyze and criticize his works. His works, of course, have drawn praises and animosity from all corners of the globe. Critics often applause Hemingway on his short simple prose, for which many people recognize him for. His writing builds upon the masterful usage of “short, simple words and short, simple sentences” (Wagner, 3) to create clear and easy to

A man and a woman are at a bar that is located in a train station in Ebro, Spain. They have had a few drinks and are enjoying the view of the hills and scenery. They also are having a conversation and start talking about an operation. The author, Ernest Hemingway, uses many literary devices but the three that stand out the most to me personally are imagery, allusion, and a cliffhanger. The author uses imagery throughout the whole story and puts everything is great detail. The imagery used gives a background and also a time frame, this adds to the hidden message in the story. Hemingway uses allusion when talking about the operation. He doesn’t give any clues or ideas of what kind of operation the women might have but this definitely creates

Hemingway died July 2, 1961, at his home, as the result of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Ernest Hemingway had a different style of writing than the other authors in his

“Hemingway’s greatness is in his short stories, which rival any other master of the form”(Bloom 1). The Old Man and the Sea is the most popular of his later works (1). The themes represented in this book are religion (Gurko 13-14), heroism (Brenner 31-32), and character symbolism (28). These themes combine to create a book that won Hemingway a Pulitzer Prize in 1953 and contributed to his Nobel Prize for literature in 1954 (3).