Summary
Our discussion of Hemingway was preceded by a discussion of WWI. WWI had a huge impact on Modernist Literature; the war's resulting destruction forced people to alter their views of the world and to see it in its new form. Due to WWI's heavy casualties, those who died are sometimes referred to as a "lost generation." Thanks in part to Hemingway's involvement in the war and his distinctive writing, his works are a classic example of that lost generation of WWI.
Hemingway's modernist style is reflective of the telegram, short and concise. In a way, he also illustrates Pound's imagism through prose by not wasting words or using flowery language. Another major aspect of Hemingway's writing is the "iceberg principle," which is a notion that the reader should only be given 10% of the information upfront. He believed that an author should be deliberately ambiguous and allow a reader to discover the other 90% that lies beneath the surface. For example, in "Big Two-Hearted River" the fact that Nick is returning home from WWI is never openly stated. And it is not until "Now I Lay Me," which is published years later, does the reader get a direct glimpse into Nick's life during the war. Having been a veteran himself, several of Hemingway's works revolve around the mental repercussions that affect soldiers after having gone to battle. During Hemingway's time, this state was known as "Shell-Shock," and it is not until trains become prevalent the 1980s that the term "Post-traumatic Stress Disorder" get used. "Big Two-Hearted River" and "Now I Lay Me" are prime examples of this inhibitory and anxious condition. Through Nick's restless nights and controlled thinking, Hemingway not only illustrates his style as a writer but allows the reader a glimpse into the mind of a distressed solider.
Word Count: 298
Passages
"This was omitted on my new theory that you could omit anything if you knew that you omitted and the omitted part would strengthen the story and make people feel something more than they understood" (taken from A Movable Feast)
- Hemingway explains in this passage the Iceberg Principle, a tactic he used extensively.
"Across the open mouth of the tent Nick fixed cheesecloth to keep out mosquitoes. He crawled inside under the mosquito bar with various things from the pack to put at the head of the bed under the slant of the canvas. Inside the tent the light came through the brown canvas. It smelled pleasantly of canvas. Already there was something mysterious and homelike. Nick was happy as he crawled inside the tent. He had not been unhappy all day. This was different though. Now things were done. There had been this to do. Now it was done. It had been a heard trip. He was very tired. That was done. He had made his camp. He was settled. Nothing could touch him. It was a good place to camp. He was there, in a good place. He was in his home where he had made it. Now he was hungry."(Big Two-Hearted River: Part I, Hemingway, 167).
- This passage is especially indicative of Hemingway's writing style as it displays his use of short sentences, conversational use of language, and imagism. Hemingway's distinctive writing style, as well as often being thought as the voice for the lost generation of those Americans who died in WWI helped to establish his importance to American literature.
"He watched them holding themselves with their noses into the current, many trout in deep, fast moving water, slightly distorted as he watched far down though the glassy convex surface of the pool . . . . Then he saw them at the bottom of the pool, big trout looking to hold themselves on the gravel bottom in a varying mist of gravel and sand, raised in spurts by the current. (Big Two-Hearted River: Part I)"
- Even though this passage expresses Nick's love for fish and fishing, it more importantly illustrates how Nick is trying to emulate these trout in his life. Like the fish, Nick is trying to hold himself steady and not submit to the post-traumatic stress that he suffers from. The movement of the trout also reflects how motion appears to be problematic for Nick due to its connection to memories.
“The train went on up the track out of sight, around one of the hills of burnt timber. Nick sat down on the bundle of canvas and bedding the baggage man had pitched out of the door of the baggage car. There was no town, nothing but the rails and the burned-over country. The thirteen saloons that had lined the one street of Seney had not left a trace. The foundations of the Mansion House hotel stuck up above the ground. The stone was chipped and split by the fire. It was all that was left of the town of Seney. Even the surface had been burned off the ground.” (Big Two-Hearted River: Part I)
- In this passage, the burned town is described as if it were a war-torn town rather than just a semi-burned town. Using phrases such as "There was no town" and "It was all that was left of the town of Seney" makes it seem as if it was like France in World War II being stripped by the fighting and left for the people to clean up.
Key Terms
The Iceberg Principle - Hemingway's theory that intentionally leaving something out of a text can in fact add to the value of the text as a whole, that the absence of certain elements can actually help the reader's overall understanding. He famously demonstrated this principle when a friend challenged him to write a story in six words or less. His reply was, "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."
Isolationist - A political move in foreign in foreign policy in which a country is a non-interventionist. For example, The United States affirmed that they were a isolationist country at the beginning of Word War I.
Shell Shock - A psychiatric condition resulting from the stress of warfare
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder - A psychiatric condition, resulting from any traumatic event (in this case warfare). Usually a person suffering from PTSD suffers from depression or anxiety.