On the Writing Style of Ernest Hemingway 论海明威的写作风格

1、on the writing style of ernest hemingwayabstracthemingway，a great stylist and one of the most important writers of the 20th century america， is a representative writer of “the lost generation”. his colorful life as a game hunter, fisherman and nobel prize winner began in the quiet oak park, illinois

2、, july21, 1899. he acquired his fathers enthusiasm - a love of hunting and fishing, and it is that phase of his childhood which forms important impressions and is reflected later in such stories as the old man and the sea and big two hearted river.his influence is world-wide and his distinctive writ

3、ing style-the “iceberg style” even caused a stylistic revolution in the field of literature all over the worldhemingway always tries his best to avoid using kinds of ways to depict things or piling big words and gorgeous adjectiveson the contrary，he always adopts direct description and short sentenc

4、es which are precise，laconic，bright and vividhis writing style only serves his particular characters and theme key words: iceberg style， writing style，zero ending，code heroes摘 要 海明威是美国二十世纪最重要的作家之一，写作风格具有独特性。他独具匠心的写作风格冰山理论甚至引起全世界文学领域写作风格的变革。 所谓“ 冰山理论”是海明威把自己的写作比作海上漂浮的冰山，用文字表达出来的东西只是海面上的八分之一，而海面以下的八分之

5、七需要读者细心研读文本，才能体会其中的意蕴。 他总是竭尽全力避免过度描绘，堆积词藻；反而经常采用简洁，简明，明了，清晰的短句力图简单描绘。他还将自己做强者的精神品质融入“硬汉”性格，塑造的“硬汉”人物贯穿他创作的各个时期，并形成了一个可辨认的群体特征。海明威笔下的人物的生存方式，即便是死亡，也具有悠久的魅力，优雅的风度。海明威一生的作品中毫无例外地一直表现了这种惨烈的悲壮，硬汉形象在作品中，体现出悲壮的美感,也蕴涵着海明威一生的写照。关键词： 冰山理论，写作风格，悬念式结尾，硬汉outlineintroductionthe principle of iceberg, which hemingw

6、ay adopts in his literary creation, was the main reason attracting readers and critics. the whole art of the principle is concision and profoundity, or saying what you mean in the fewest and clearest words. this essay mainly clarifies the connotation of the two parts of iceberg-the one eighth and th

7、e seven eighths ; and the relations between them. it emphatically expounds how the writer uses the symbolism technique and how his language reaches a unique impact. in the last part of it, the author of the essay traces back to the key elements forming the principle and gives a pertinent conclusion

8、on the style.i. an introduction to hemingway and his writing style1.1 ernest hemingway 1.2writing styleii. characteristics of hemingways writing style2.1about simple2.2about narrative2.3about dialogue2.4about iceberg theory2.5about code heroconclusion hemingways writing style is famous. his sentence

9、s only give one small bit of the meaning. the rest is implied. one must go very deep beneath the surface to understand the full meaning of his writing. his lean, economical style of writing is striking: sentence short, uncomplicated, but active; words simple but filled with emotion; few modifiers, a

10、nd great control of pause with action of the story continuing during the sentences.introductionernest hemingway is a giant of modern literature. among twentieth-century american fiction writers, his work is most often compared to that of his contemporaries william faulkner and f. scott fitzgerald. c

11、ombined with his outstanding short stories, hemingways four major novelsthe sun also rises (1926), a farewell to arms (1929), for whom the bell tolls (1940), and the old man and the sea (1952)comprise a contribution to modern fiction that is far more substantial than fitzgeralds and that approximate

12、s faulkners. as or more important, hemingways style, with its consistent use of short, concrete, direct prose and of scenes consisting exclusively of dialogue, gives his novels and short stories a distinctive accessibility that is immediately identifiable with the author. owing to the direct charact

13、er of both his style and his life-style, there is a tendency to cast hemingway as a “representative” american writer whose work reflects the bold, forthright and rugged individualism of the american spirit in action. admittedly，ernest hemingway was a great stylist and one of the most important write

14、rs of the 20th century americain 1954 hemingway received the swedish academys nobel prize for literature，“for his powerful style-forming mastery of the art of modem narration，as most recently evinced in the old man and the sea”his “iceberg style” even caused a stylistic revolution in the field of li

15、terature all over the worldso many critics comment on hemingways “adventure” or “representative of the lost generation”the uniqueness of hemingways “iceberg style” will be emphasized in this essayi. an introduction to hemingway and his writing stylehemingway was unique for his writing style，which he

16、 described as “iceberg principle” in a paris review interview after the publication of the old man and the seaaccording to hemingway, he “always tries to write on the principle of the icebergthere is seven eights of it underwater for every part that showsanything you know you can eliminate and it on

17、ly strengthens your icebergit is the part that does not show”he advocates that a good writer should catch “the whiteness of the bone”，that is to say，one should try his best to use simple and specific words to express the theme or depict the characters when writing a novel1.1 ernest hemingway ernest

18、miller hemingway (july 21, 1899 july 2, 1961) was an american author and journalist. his distinctive writing style, characterized by economy and understatement, influenced 20th-century fiction, as did his life of adventure and public image. he produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the

19、mid-1950s. he won the nobel prize in literature in 1954. hemingways fiction was successful because the characters he presented exhibited authenticity that resonated with his audience. many of his works are classics of american literature. he published seven novels, six short story collections, and t

20、wo non-fiction works during his lifetime; a further three novels, four collections of short stories, and three non-fiction works were published posthumously. hemingway was born and raised in oak park, illinois. after leaving high school he worked for a few months as a reporter for the kansas city st

21、ar, before leaving for the italian front to become an ambulance driver during world war i, which became the basis for his novel a farewell to arms. he was seriously wounded and returned home within the year. in 1922 hemingway married hadley richardson, the first of his four wives, and the couple mov

22、ed to paris, where he worked as a foreign correspondent. during his time there he met and was influenced by modernist writers and artists of the 1920s expatriate community known as the lost generation. his first novel, the sun also rises, was published in 1926. after divorcing hadley richardson in 1

23、927 hemingway married pauline pfeiffer; they divorced following hemingways return from covering the spanish civil war, after which he wrote for whom the bell tolls. martha gellhorn became his third wife in 1940, but he left her for mary welsh after world war ii, during which he was present at d-day

24、and the liberation of paris. shortly after the publication of the old man and the sea in 1952 hemingway went on safari to africa, where he was almost killed in a plane crash that left him in pain or ill-health for much of the rest of his life. hemingway had permanent residences in key west, florida,

25、 and cuba during the 1930s and 1940s, but in 1959 he moved from cuba to ketchum, idaho, where he committed suicide in the summer of 1961.1.2 writing styleno style could be clearer than hemingways. there was little chance for confusion through too many words or the use of big words. hemingways style

26、is short, simple, to-the-point, and has the feel of a newspaper article. his sentences are short, and even the longest sentences have a perceived feeling of division that presents “one thing at a time,” all in an appropriate manner.hemingways style is simple enough to include declarative, subject-ve

27、rb-object sentences. he doesnt try to become fancy. over and over again, hemingway is content to write with this simple structure. in big two-heart river(part two), we see lines such as “he found plenty of good grasshoppers”, “they clung to a wet stem”, and “he stepped into the stream”, “the cord we

28、nt over his shoulder”, “a trout had taken him.” these keep the story moving because each quickly moves from one to the other. plus, they enforce his style of getting straight to the point.narrative also plays a role in hemingways style. most of his works are written with an omniscient third person n

29、arrator. this allows the readers to visualize more of the characters actions and surroundings in a detailed manner that creates a feeling of active participation on the part of the reader. this would be difficult in first person. however, hemingway is not above using other narrative styles to enhanc

30、e his writing. in big two-hearted river(part two)there is a sudden switch to first person narrative when nick exclaims “by god, he was a big one. by god, he was the biggest one i ever heard of.” this switch makes the story ,which already allows to feel as if they are in the story with nick, even mor

31、e alive and personal. nickhemingway referred to his style as the iceberg theory: in his writing the facts float above water; the supporting structure and symbolism operate out-of-sight. writing in the art of the short story, he explains: a few things i have found to be true. if you leave out importa

32、nt things or events that you know about, the story is strengthened. if you leave or skip something because you do not know it, the story will be worthless. the test of any story is how very good the stuff that you, not your editors, omit.ii. the characteristics of iceberg theoryhemingways “iceberg s

33、tyle” is unique in several aspects：2.1 telegraphic characteristic first of all，it is well known for its “telegraphic characteristic”a “telegraphic style” is such a writing style that there should be no mentions of “i” or “me”and only minimal use of articlesin other wordsa “telegraphic style” means t

34、hat one will choose brief and clear words instead of those big and gorgeous oneshemingway always adopts direct description and short sentences which are precise，laconicbright and vividall this owes to his experience as a reporterlong times news reporters work contributed to his growth in literatureh

35、is terseness and accuracy had some in common with the language used in news report2.2 the portraying of characters psychologyby adopting the “telegraphic writing style”，hemingway is good at portraying the characters psychologyin a farewell to arms，when catherine was in the delivery room，her lover he

36、nry struggled in his mind.“what if she should die? she wont die? she wont die? she cant? she cant die why would she die? but what if she die ? she cant die? but what if she should die? what if she should die?(hemingway,1994)using very simple words and sentences，the author depicts henrys feeling of b

37、eing upset and anxious very vividly2.3 an open ending besides, another unique feature for hemingways “iceberg style is that he usually adopts an open ending when finishing a story. this kind of open ending is different from other writerscarefully designed，well-made onesa hemingway style ending seems

38、 always ended when it is still halfway，which makes the reader feel that the story is to be continued and the writer does finish it deliberatelythe author omits the heroes destiny and let the readers imagine it by themselveshere is hemingways“iceberg style”endingzero endingwith this“zero ending”hemin

39、gway leaves readers in suspense and cleverly avoids committing himself to any conclusionthis deliberate avoidance from making judgment and explanation renders the story even more intriguinglets take the ending of the old man and the sea as an examplein the end，“up the road in his shack，the old man w

40、ag sleeping againhe was still sleeping on his face and the boy wag sitting by him watching himthe old man wag dreaming about the lions”(hemingway，1994)santiago was sleeping soundlythen，when would he wake up? would he still go fishing after his waking up? different readers will have different conclus

41、ions，just like“one thousand hamlets in the eyes of one thousand readers”hemingways hills like white elephant is another good examplein this story，hemingway does not tell readers directly what the characters think and feel in the endinstead，he only reports their conversations in a journalistic manner

42、 and makes readers read between linesfill the information gap by themselves and draw conclusions on their ownthis kind of ending form of hemingways fictions is also one of his strategies to achieve his“iceberg principle”and he can “gain more while using very littleby using a“zero ending”2.4 the mode

43、rate use of symbolismfurthermore，the moderate use of symbolism is also a dazzling feature of hemingways “iceberg theorynot only the plots，theme，but also the passage have the features of emphatic symbolismhemingways hills like white elephants describes the young mans complicated feeling before taking

44、 his girlfriend to the abortion operation hemingway enabled readers to detect the heavy burden through the talk between the young man and her girlfriend instead of mentioning any word about itand“white elephant”used in the title of this story means“heavy burden”in englishhere，although the girls preg

45、nancy signifies the love between the two，it may bring“heavy burden”to life in future(especially the girls life)also，in a farewell to arms，“arms”not only means “weapon”，but also means“hug”iii. the unique writing style of hemingway many people attempt to imitate hemingways unique writing style，but few

46、 ones get great achievementsmaybe the most important reason for their failure is that they didnt make enough studies on the relations between form and content of hemingways works3.1 the importance of the unique writing style hemingways unique writing style only serves his particular charactersheming

47、way heroes3.2 the typical hemingway hero the typical hemingway hero is a man of action and of few wordshe is such an individualist, alone even when with other people，somewhat an outsider, keeping emotions under control, stoic and self-disciplined in a dreadful place where one can not get happinesson

48、ly for such kind of characters，can hemingways“iceberg style”be made the fullest use ofconclusion in conclusion，in a sense，hemingway is a world famous craftsman for his unique writing style characterized by short and terse sentences，simple dictionhemingway，to a certain extent, wiped out the demarcati

49、on line between journalism and literaturethis laconic but expressive style hemingway evolved on the basis of his belief that“the dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one eighth of it being above water” was well suited to evoke the stoical courage of his characteristic subjects：men who fa

50、ce lonely and thankness tasksa1though the times hemingway had lived has gone for ever, the “iceberg principle” of his drawing the world is still of great significance in the modern times，especially in a world where computers are so widely used and net literary works are so popularbibliography1 john, alfred. the art of e