Ernest Hemingway Questions and Answers
Ernest Hemingway
What is a "code hero"?
In the works of Ernest Hemingway, a code hero is a man—and it's always a man—who lives by a certain moral code that provides him with some measure of certainty in an uncertain world. A code hero...
Ernest Hemingway
How can the short story "Under the Ridge" be critically analyzed?
The first-person narrator, a journalist filming a battle in the Spanish Civil War, recounts what really occurred one day on the battlefield, emphasizing the failure and futility of the fighting....
Ernest Hemingway
In "The Old Man at the Bridge," does Hemingway tell you directly what you should think about the old man?
In the story, Hemingway does not tell us directly what we should think about the old man. He does, however, hint indirectly that the old man will die if he chooses to stay in the area. The narrator...
Ernest Hemingway
How does Harvey Stone insult Cohn? How does Cohn respond to these attacks?
While Jake was taking to the streets of Paris, he ran across his old friend, Harvey Stone. A heavy drinker and inveterate gambler, Stone sat alone with "a pile of saucers in front of him." Although...
Ernest Hemingway
What are the similarities between The Old Man and the Sea and A Clean Well Lighted Place by Ernest Hemingway?
Some very marked contrasts exist between The Old Man and the Sea and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway. Santiago, in The Old Man and Sea, is characterized by hope. He hopes to catch...
Ernest Hemingway
Hemingway employs a direct, unadorned style of writing in order to: A.remove all uncertainty about what he is trying...
I'm not sure that there's a single correct answer in that multiple choice question about Ernest Hemingway's writing style, but I think that I can safely rule out two answers. "A. Remove all...
Ernest Hemingway
What is Hemingway trying to say in his iceberg theory?
In a famous quote from a 1958 interview with the "Paris Review," novelist Ernest Hemingway used the iceberg as a metaphor to explain how he achieved his terse style and exactly what details he had...
Ernest Hemingway
What are the similarities between Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-lighted Place" and "Soldiers Home"?
In both short stories, Hemingway captures the tragic essence of life. In "A Clean Well-Lighted Place," the older waiter whose sympathies lie with the old man point to the existential condition of a...
Ernest Hemingway
Do you see any similarities between Helen (from "The Snows of Kilimanjaro") and Margot Macomber ("The Short Happy...
I see several similarities between Helen and Margot. To begin with, obviously, they both married adventurous men who came to Africa to trophy hunt. Both women come from wealthy families, and both...
Ernest Hemingway
How did Ernest Hemingway use understatment in his fiction?
Ernest Hemingway was famous for using understatement in his fiction and for being a great advocate of this technique. He once said that a good work of fiction should resemble an iceberg, in which...
Ernest Hemingway
How did Ernest Hemingway influence modernism?
Modernism demanded that writers experimented in order to find new ways to express difficult new realities. Ernest Hemingway developed his own writing style to express the reality of war. Hemingway...
Ernest Hemingway
Do you have any information on the multiple suicides in the Hemingway family?
HEMINGWAY SUICIDES Ernest Hemingway committed suicide in Ketchum, Idaho by shooting himself in the mouth with a shotgun on July 2, 1961. He was disconsolate because of failing health. Clarence...
Ernest Hemingway
What does Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory,” stating that seven eighths of any story exists below the surface, help...
Ernest Hemingway's "Iceberg Theory" is particularly applicable to Hemingway's own fiction, in which characters often have what appear to be inconsequential conversations, with their true feelings...
Ernest Hemingway
Compare and contrast The Old Man and the Sea and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" by Ernest Hemingway.
The Old Man and the Sea and "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" are alike in focusing their attention on the dignity of a poor, elderly man. In Old Man, this is Santiago, who fights the good and shows...
Ernest Hemingway
Does this work for a thesis? "Many have criticized Hemingway; however his use of symbolism is effective in getting...
I would like to add an item that I hope will complement mshurn's excellent comments. If you choose to include a reference in your thesis statement to the "many [who] have criticized Hemingway," you...
Ernest Hemingway
What are the key events in Hemingway: A Film by Ken Burns and Lynn Novick?
Hemingway: A Film is a six-hour documentary about writer Ernest Hemingway split into three sections that chronologically follow his literary and personal life. In part one, we learn of his troubled...
Ernest Hemingway
Discuss the iceberg principle in Hemingway's writing.
Hemingway believed in showing only what was going on with the fewest and simplest words possible to do it. He doesn't explain why his characters make the choices they do. He simply presents the...
Ernest Hemingway
What writers in our national literature have addressed the theme of war and the isolation and loneliness it brings?
So many American writers have touched on this theme in many different wars. The list below is by no means exhaustive but a sampling of some literature you could begin to examine with this theme:...
Ernest Hemingway
How does Ernest Hemingway use characterization in “The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber” and “The Snows of...
In both short stories, Hemingway uses direct and indirect characterization to highlight his personal convictions about masculinity and femininity. As a writer, Hemingway tended to favor traditional...
Ernest Hemingway
How does Hemingway explore the issue of masculinity in his writing?
This is a very broad question and I'll answer it using the short story "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place." While this isn't the most obvious story to examine how Hemingway examines masculinity in his...
Ernest Hemingway
What is your response to Ernest Hemingway's style? Do you Like it? Explain your answer.
As a reader, theme is very important to me. This applies to novels and short stories and I find that all of my favorite writers are writing about things that mean something to me or about issues...
Ernest Hemingway
Who were the influences on the Ezra Pound's, Gertrude Stein's, and Ernest Hemingway's writings?
Ezra Pound's advice to young poets includes items that seem to describe Hemingway's later writing: Use no superfluous word, no adjective which does not reveal something. and Don't be...
Ernest Hemingway
What term was applied to the stoic, disillusioned, yet noble and modest protagonists in Hemingway's novels who...
The male character who endures heroically and stoically is referred to as the Hemingway Code Hero. [Interestingly, Santiago of The Old Man and the Sea is the only protagonist of Hemingway's work...
Ernest Hemingway
What was (or is) Hemingway's special contribution to the art of novel?
First, one should note that Hemingway was a realistic novelist who did not radically innovate in terms of the genre as a whole. The Sun Also Rises, for example, uses a straightforward first person...
Ernest Hemingway
What was Hemingway's relationship with his son Bumby in later life?
According to Paula McLain, who researched Hemingway's life extensively for her novel about his first wife Hadley, Jack "Bumby" Hemingway admired his father and valued his time spent with him. He...
Ernest Hemingway
As a writer Hemingway is on a quest for the 'one true of perfect sentence.' What do you think Hemingway has in mind...
In 1964, literary critic and author Alfred Kazin explained that Hemingway, journalist and minimalist, sought the perfect sentence to the point of almost obsessive behavior. Kazin stated that...
Ernest Hemingway
In what short stories does Ernest Hemingway relate his life to events in the stories?
Ernest Hemingway often drew on events from his own life when composing his short fiction. An especially significant example is his tale titled “A Very Short Story.” In this extremely brief work,...
Ernest Hemingway
Why does Ernest Hemingway write the way he does, which reflects the "iceberg theory"? What is the function of this...
In Hemingway's own words on the subject: If a writer knows enough about what he is writing about, he may omit things that he knows. The dignity of movement of an iceberg is due to only one ninth...
Ernest Hemingway
What are some recent analyses of Hemingway's works from the field of literary stylistics?
Two recent works dating from 2010 that examine Hemingway from a stylistic perspective are an academic paper and a book. The scholarship comes from academicians in China and India, respectively....
Ernest Hemingway
How important is the denouement compared to other stages of development in Hemingway's short stories?
The denouement is arguably the most important and most impactful stage in most of Hemingway's short stories. It is in the denouement stage of the story that there is often a dramatic revelation,...
Ernest Hemingway
What made Ernest Hemingway one of the most popular American writers of his time ? possible examples from his life ?
The soul of the journalist never left Ernest Hemingway. Whether he wrote of upper Michigan where he grew up or the conflicts of war and the heart and the soul where Hemingway had lain himself, he...
Ernest Hemingway
Define the idea of the Hemingway hero in reference to the stories "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" and...
The definition of a Hemingway hero changed as Hemingway himself grew older. This should not be surprising, however, since much of his work was based on his own life. The first real Hemingway hero...
Ernest Hemingway
George is able to make his harmonica "sing." Why is this not considered playing by Walter?
In Hemingway's writing, seemingly inanimate objects end up taking on greater meaning than one would think on first analysis. He'll often focus on an object in a scene and touch on it several times...
Ernest Hemingway
What are some reasons for Hemingway's interest in violence?
What might appear to be violence to many seems to be adventure to Ernest Hemingway. For example, Hemingway grew up traveling to Michigan to hunt; he enjoyed the adventure aspect of those hunting...
Ernest Hemingway
How can Ernest Hemingway be considered an international artist?
If Hemingway is considered an international artist, it might have something to do with the fact that Hemingway never felt himself needing to be confined to one nation. Hemingway understood early...
Ernest Hemingway
What is the difference between Hemingway's third person point of view used in "Hills Like White Elephants" and The...
I think that the fundamental difference in the third person style of narration in both stories is one of support for the protagonists. It is evident in the narration of Santiago's narrative that...
Ernest Hemingway
Compare the women protagonists in The Sun also Rises and "Hills Like White Elephants" by Ernest Hemingway.
The women protagonists in The Sun Also Rises and “Hills Like White Elephants” have a few similarities and considerably more differences. In part because one work is a novel and the other is a short...
Ernest Hemingway
Why did Hemingway connect his writing to heroism or classical notion of heroism?
One of the critical elements that Hemingway defined as part of his conception of "hero" is the idea of representing grace under pressure. The Hemingway hero is a figure who is able to carry on and...
Ernest Hemingway
What is some information about the historical time in which Ernest Hemingway was alive, and how did it affect his work?
I agree with the posts above and I'd like to discuss Hemingway's disillusion with the modern world. Hemingway's protagonists from his novels are always bound to a code, a set of behavior...
Ernest Hemingway
What makes Hemingway distinctively modern?
Most literary scholars and critics accept that Hemingway was a modernist. Among other things, this means that he takes as his point of departure the fragmented, fast-changing world that took root...
Ernest Hemingway
Why is Ernest Hemingway considered an international artist?
Hemingway set his stories in many different parts of the world, as pointed out by bullgatortail above. This use of setting lends his writing some international appeal as does his interest in the...
Ernest Hemingway
I am a PhD scholar on Hemingway I need access to the full text like The Cambridge Companion to Hemingway
This text is not available online, at least not free and to the general public. If your unversity subscribes to a digital library, you may be able to find it there. Otherwise, the going rate looks...
Ernest Hemingway
What are some elements in Hemingway's writing, such as alcohol, war, bullfighting, etc.?
There are many element sin Hemingway's writing that you mentioned. The Sun Also Rises has all of them. Post -war in America had left many disillusioned, and left America in search of finding...
Ernest Hemingway
What is Hemingways definition of revision?
Cut. Omit. Those two words capture, in a nutshell, Ernest Hemingway's defintion of revision. Susan Beegel wrote a very good book on Hemingway's "craft of omission," and another book-length study...
Ernest Hemingway
What is the reason that prevented Ernest Hemingway from serving in the U.S. army during World War I?
When Hemingway was a boy, his father arranged to have a older professional boxer give his son boxing lessons. During the first lesson, the old pro broke Heminway's nose and inflicted what turned...
Ernest Hemingway
How would I write a paragraph as Ernest Hemingway and also a paragraph as William Faulkner? I have to write a dinner...
Having been a journalist as a young man, Ernest Hemingway practiced writing in a clear, simple style that was economical. That is, he did not write sentences that had many introductory words or...
Ernest Hemingway
What are two biographical facts about Ernest Hemingway that correlate with his fictional writing? Please only use the...
"Soldier's Home" relates to Hemingway's own life because Hemingway was an ambulance driver during World War 1 and served in the same regions as the fictional Krebs does in the story. Another...
Ernest Hemingway
Notable style of writing with short stories ~ Hemingway. Citing different Short Stories and their related style of...
Hemingway's signature style has been given the name "iceburg." With this style, the reader must discern meaning which is beneath the surface rather within the content of what has been written....