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Summary Of Hemingway's Use Of Diction In A Farewell To Arms

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On September 29, 1929, “The New York Times” published a commentary piece on Ernest Hemingway’s A Farewell to Arms, describing his writing style as “so strikingly his own that it may bear his name, and is likely to henceforward” (Love and War in the Pages of Mr. Hemingway). Eighty-six years later, readers can experience this for themselves - in the first paragraph of Chapter XXI of A Farewell to Arms, Hemingway uses vivid imagery, staccato-like syntax, and a detached tone through simple diction to create his own unmistakable style. Hemingway’s use of vivid imagery is an aspect of his style that paints evocative pictures in a reader’s mind. One knows that when fall comes, the temperature drops and the leaves change color. When Hemingway introduces …show more content…

The characters speak about the war and how “he said they had lost forty thousand on the Carso besides. [They] had a drink and he talked” (Hemingway 133). Frederic Henry has just been told that 40,000 of his comrades in the war have died, and this plain wording shows how unaffected and separated he is, contributing to the overall detached tone of the passage. The unembellished language of this piece is again prominent when “he said the fighting was over for the year down here and that the Italians had bitten off more than they could chew. He said the offensive in Flanders was going to the bad” (Hemingway 133). Frederic Henry, although not an italian, is fighting on behalf of the Italian army and has many friends fighting in the war - and here he is speaking with another man about the inevitable fall of Italy as though commenting on the day’s weather. The simple and unemotional language contributes to the overall novel by revealing aspects of Frederick Henry’s character, specifically his attitude towards the war. Hemingway’s usage of simple diction to create a detached tone is just another aspect of his diverse

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