The style of Hemingway's works

For reference only/zzxk/200205/no5-24.htm

/hero/fuzm/5_1.shtml

As a well-known writer, Hemingway's character, life style and habits and hobbies are not at all the type of literati scholar that most people imagine. When he was a child, he was a lively and naughty "wild boy". He often pestered his father, who loved outdoor activities, to take him hunting and fishing with him. After entering school, he participated in almost all sports activities, especially boxing and rugby, which were almost crazy, and he maintained them until his later years. Due to this long-term exercise, Hemingway's strong physique and rugged appearance The shape makes it impossible for people to associate him with the image of a "literary man". In fact, even when he was a student who was so obsessed with intense sports activities, he was already deeply interested in writing. He often imitated the popular humorous style and wrote some sketches and reports. Soon he showed his talent that was appreciated. At the age of seventeen, he was elected editor-in-chief of the Oak Park Township Senior High School magazine. After graduating in 1917, the 19-year-old Hemingway left his home in Kansas to work as a reporter for the "Kansas City Star" through his uncle's recommendation.

Long before he graduated, World War I broke out. When the United States entered the war, Hemingway, who was still in school, was inspired by his patriotic enthusiasm and asked to join the army several times. However, he was unable to do so due to age restrictions. It was not until the end of the war in May 1918 that he was able to get a job as a reporter for the American Red Cross. Hemingway had the opportunity to serve in the field service corps and went to the Italian front line. Unexpectedly, he was seriously injured by a shell when driving an ambulance across the line of fire. (The field hospital doctor removed 237 pieces of large and small shrapnel from his body), and Hemingway At that time, he was actually carrying these shrapnel, carrying a more seriously injured Italian soldier on his back, and struggled to the aid station before he fainted. After three months of treatment in a rear hospital, Hemingway returned to the front line. It was not until the armistice that he returned to the United States in early 1919 with scars all over his body. These scars earned him the Silver Cross Military Medal awarded by the Italian government, but the cruel horror of the war also left an indelible trauma deep in his soul. At this time, he had a profound impact on his later literary creation. Returning to China Later, he created more than a dozen sketches, but they were all rejected. In order to make a living, he accepted the recruitment of the "Toronto Star" and became a reporter for the newspaper. Soon he married Hadley Richason. In 1992, Hemingway was appointed as the newspaper's European correspondent and took Hadley to Paris.

While in Paris, Hemingway was engaged in interviewing and reporting while re-starting his literary career. But the beginning was not smooth. When his first collection of works (including three short stories and ten poems) was published in 1923, only three hundred copies were printed, and the social response was also very cold. And Hemingway was the kind of "tough guy" who refused to admit defeat. He simply resigned from his position as a reporter to concentrate on his creation, and published his second collection of works "In Our Time" at the end of that year. The first edition of this collection did not attract much attention in Paris, but when the expanded second edition was printed in the United States the next year, it became one of the top ten bestsellers in 1925, and Hemingway became famous in one fell swoop. From 1921 to 1926, Hemingway stayed in Paris. He was one of a group of "spiritual wanderers" who came to Paris from the United States. After experiencing the shock wave of World War I, this group of people lost their spiritual balance and felt confused, depressed, and at a loss as to what to do. This group of young people who had lost their direction in life became the objects of Hemingway's observation and analysis, and used them as material to write the short story collection "In Our Time" and the novel "The Sun Also Rises" published in 1926. . The book quotes the American poet Gertrude Stein's sentence "You are all a lost generation" as the title page. From then on, the "Lost Generation" became the collective code name for these spiritually empty young people, and also became the name of a new literary school representing this ideological tendency. In "The Sun Also Rises", Hemingway spared no effort to expose and condemn mankind. mutual killings, acts of violence and corruption of souls. Through the image and character of Jack Barnes, the protagonist of the novel, the author not only shows the empty spiritual world of the young people of the "Lost Generation", but also reflects his own negative world view. In fact, the Barnes in the book is Hemingway's self-portrait.

In 1927, due to the breakdown of their relationship, Hemingway divorced Hadley. He then married Pauline Perfeiffer and returned to the United States with her the next year, settling down in Florida. He engaged in writing with peace of mind, and published another masterpiece of his in 1919 - the novel "A Farewell to Arms". In this work. Hemingway's insight into the evolution of people's inner world in an era is extremely profound. On the other hand, the author directly complained about the evils of the war and sighed with sadness and sympathy for the suffering of the people. At the same time, he also more exposed his own negative and pessimistic mood, which was reflected in a series of his subsequent works. Express something.

In the first half of the 1930s, Hemingway spent most of his time traveling abroad, fishing, hunting, watching bullfights, etc. In these years, he only wrote two works, "Death in the Afternoon" ” and “The Green Hills of Africa”, but neither were very successful. In 1936, he published "The Short Happy Life of Francie Macomb" and "The Snows of Kilimanjaro". These two short stories were generally appreciated and recognized as among the dozens of short stories he wrote. Outstanding work.

In July 1936, the Spanish Civil War broke out, and Franco's rebels fought fiercely with the Nazis and government forces. Hemingway resolutely threw himself into this mortal struggle between democracy and dictatorship. In the winter of that year, he launched an extensive fund-raising and support campaign and traveled to most of Europe. In early 1937, he served as the captain of the medical ambulance team organized by the Americans. , four trips to Spain in two years. At first, he was a war correspondent, and then he directly joined the International Brigade, fighting alongside the Communist Party and government troops. Due to various reasons known to people, this hard struggle against fascism finally failed. Hemingway returned to the United States dejected. The experience of war and the pain of defeat provided him with the opportunity to change his spiritual world and the source of creation. He successively wrote the script "The Fifth Column" and the novel "For Whom the Bell Tolls". The latter is a masterpiece that has been translated into dozens of languages ??and is a best-seller around the world. It is an epoch-making milestone in Hemingway's creative career. , universally recognized as an immortal work, ranked first among the top ten best-sellers in the UK in 1940.

In early 1941, Hai Mingyi came to China amid the continuous war in Europe and Asia. He was extremely impressed by the heroic struggle of the Chinese people against the Japanese invaders. After returning to China, he delivered many public speeches, highly praising the Chinese people's spirit of fearless violence and bloody resistance. Due to his popularity, these speeches played a great role in inspiring the American people to support China's anti-Japanese struggle. In December of that year, Japan launched a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor, triggering the full outbreak of World War II. Hemingway immediately converted his private yacht into a patrol boat, participated in coastal patrols and reconnaissance, and provided a lot of intelligence to the government. In 1944, he accompanied the American troops to Europe and conducted interviews on the front lines. He suffered a head injury in a plane crash and nearly died. For this, the U.S. government awarded him a Silver Star after the war.

In March 1945, Hemingway returned to China on the eve of victory, and immediately moved to Havana, the capital of Cuba, where he settled and continued his creative career. He published some short stories and two novellas, among which "The Old Man and the Old Man" "The Sea" (1952) is another of his immortal works, which won him the Pulitzer Prize for Literature in 1953 and the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954.

In the last few years of his life, Hemingway suffered from several illnesses and lost the energy to create. In 1970, ten years after his death, he published his last novel "Island in the Current". This novel was completed as early as 1951, but it has never been published, nor has it been revised in any way (repeated revisions of the work are his consistent cautious style), and he sent it to a bank vault. It was not until 1970 that his widow Mary Hemingway and publisher Charles Scribner took out the manuscript, compiled it and made it public. This is the only novel written by Hemingway with the Second World War as the background. novel.

In 1958, Hemingway moved back to Idaho, United States, for recuperation, and "battled" chronic diseases such as high blood pressure and diabetes for nearly three years. Finally, in accordance with his pessimistic point of view: "In the struggle between man and nature or external forces, man will inevitably fail in the end." He decided to take the initiative to get rid of the pain and torture on the sickbed, and used his The beloved double-barreled shotgun ended his life.

Although suicide can be seen as a kind of passive self-destruction, if we compare it with the "tough guy" Jingshen who has always praised Hemingway who never admits defeat and despises death, his suicide has not begun. It is not a solution to the disease of "rather die than give in" and "die together"; it may also be considered that this made the contradiction between his negative worldview and the "tough guy" spirit he advocated finally come to an end in him. unified.

With his unique artistic style and superb writing skills, Ernest Hemingway created a concise, smooth, fresh and concise style of writing, which purified the traditional writing style of a generation and had a huge impact in the European and American literary circles. influence. The famous American literary critic Willard Thorp in his "Twentieth Century American Literature". Hemingway was highly praised. He believes: "Hemingway is one of the greatest naturalist writers of our time. He dared to break through tradition and create new styles and techniques to meet the needs of the subject matter."

Creation of Ernest Hemingway The artistic style expressed in his novels, whether long or short, is basically a seemingly rough and simple brushwork with extremely deep emotions flowing, like slowly flowing volcanic lava. The temperature it contains cannot be seen on the surface, but But it is a stream of heat that reaches incandescence. Hemingway's creative creed is: "The characters in novels are not characters made up by skill and imagination. They must come from the author's own dissolved personal experience, from his knowledge, from his mind, from his heart, from his heart." Everything about him” (quoted from Hemingway’s short story “Death in the Afternoon”). Because Hemingway adheres to such a principle, Hemingway never believes in any "theory". What he pursues diligently is: direct communication between the vision and the characters he describes, and between the characters and the readers. He wants the readers to grasp the characters' emotions from the characters' language. Mental states and reactions. In order to achieve this primary goal, he explored the kind of gorgeous words that exaggerate characters, deleted the descriptions and discussions that are generally considered essential, and all redundant metaphors, broke away from the lifeless article conventions, and used concise and concise writing style. Give the article its original appearance. The main basis for the Nobel Prize Committee for Literature of the Royal Swedish Academy to award Hemingway the Literature Prize in 1954 was: "...due to the influence the writer has exerted on contemporary literary style..."

Hemingway's new style The artistic style has infected almost all American writers after World War II. This style can be seen everywhere in the works of famous writers such as James Jones, Nelson Algren, Norman Mailer and others. profound impact. Another characteristic of Hemingway's works is the "tough guy" spirit of perseverance and never admitting defeat and the opposite negative and pessimistic mood that runs through most of his works. Hemingway was not only a member of the "Lost Generation" after World War I, but also their spokesperson. A series of works he published during this period strongly expressed the huge psychological trauma caused by the war. It also left a mark of pessimism deep in his own heart. Although Hemingway repeatedly emphasized the "tough guy" spirit in many of his later works, this pessimism was always revealed from time to time. This is a contradictory yet unified characteristic of Hemingway's spiritual world, and he integrated this characteristic with his creative style.

Regarding Hemingway’s writing skills, the famous British literary critic H.E. Bates commented: “Unless I am mistaken, Hemingway was deeply influenced by Turgenne. Hemingway was influenced by the writing style of Husband, Balzac, Maupassant and Defoe." Specifically, he said that when writing, Hemingway often only uses epigrammatic language to express the words and actions of the characters in the novel. His style of writing is free and natural, without any artificiality, nor any deliberate exaggeration or generalization, but it can sharply depict the inner world of the characters, fully embodying the naturalistic line drawing technique.

Hemingway's writing skills are particularly superb in writing character dialogue. In his writing, the characters' dialogues are simple and concise, but each sentence has strong vitality and a certain depth, and can convey the characters' detailed and subtle thoughts and feelings. Sometimes, even though it is just a half-sentence, it contains hidden "subtext" that is left to the readers to explore and understand, so as to gain some kind of spiritual communication with the characters. This is because most of the characters in his works are boxers, matadors, hunters, and thugs who are not accustomed to boasting, especially some of the mentally poor people at the bottom of society.

These types of characters tend to act only on instinct, and even if they occasionally express their feelings, their language is very simple. Hemingway faithfully wrote their dialogue based on their tone, so that their spiritual outlook was vividly displayed in his writing. This "Hemingway-style" oral writing technique has been popular in European and American literary circles since the late 1920s. But although there are many writers who have imitated him, there are very few who can reach his superb level in terms of skills and effects. As for the simplicity, conciseness, freshness and smoothness of his writing, it is even more obvious to everyone, and there is no need to introduce it here.

Looking at each house, there are indeed some things that have a necessary influence on the development of Hemingway's character. The basket at the foot of the bed in his father's bedroom contained the bones of human hands. Xiao Fang placed a skull directly on it. The wooden box on the desk was opened, and inside was a microscope. This is natural, Hemingway's father was a doctor. Outside the closet door rests a whole tortoise shell and fossils of sea anemones and starfish. Hemingway's strong interest in biology and fascination with outdoor activities were already evident in his childhood environment. Not far from his former residence, there is a forest, which was Hemingway's paradise. When he was young, he went boating and fishing, played with crossbows and guns, and wandered in the dense forest as contentedly as a bear. There are walls full of books in my grandfather’s house, and there is a piano in the living room on the first floor, with a plaster statue of Beethoven on it. The writer's mother was good at music and art, which of course was of great benefit to Hemingway's artistic feeling and literary accomplishment. However, among the hundreds of beautiful small buildings in Oak Garden District at that time, every family had pianos, oil paintings, and shelves full of books. Nature-loving fathers and elegant mothers were quite common. The wild forest that thrived on its own had received many Boy, how come he alone became the later Hemingway? The film crew walked two blocks to the Hemingway Memorial Museum. The museum contains mostly photos of the writer from various periods, with only a few real objects. For example, fishing boats, compasses, manuscripts, helmets used for battlefield interviews during World War II, military boots, military shirts, etc., can be displayed in just one large exhibition hall. Then there are the posters for movies adapted by later generations. The painting is lively, and Gregory Peck's appearance is handsome, but it doesn't do much to explain the writer's growth context.

The film team also visited the taverns and cafes that Hemingway frequented in Havana, Cuba. A tavern has a window seat where Hemingway often sat. From the window, you can see the bay where the writer went fishing. The filming team even met an old boatman, who used to take Hemingway to the big ship in a small boat. I bought a glass of Roma wine for the old man, and the old man only explained the old photos on the wall. One of them is a photo of Hemingway and Castro. It was once that Hemingway funded a fishing prize, and Castro participated and won the championship. But the old man could not talk about why Hemingway became Hemingway.

Who can tell us about Hemingway’s series of whys? For example, how the writer originally cut off all the branches, leaving only the main body of the simple and concise style of writing; for example, how the writer gave language the maximum meaning load and the function of structuring the article, without allowing any stray and redundant elaboration; for example, the writer wrote about an old fisherman in the story. How can "Drifting on the Wild Sea" become a masterpiece passed down from generation to generation?

The film team seems to have only found some images in minute details.

Hemingway left Chicago at the age of 20. Not long after he participated in World War I, he was wounded in the leg. The enthusiasm for participating in the war contrasts with the critical attitude towards war reflected in his works "A Farewell to Arms" and "For Whom the Bell Tolls". The conflicting tendency between the fierce anti-war and heroic participation in the war may come from the small dining table in his former residence. The war certificates of Hemingway's two grandfathers (grandfather and grandfather) who participated in the Civil War (Civil War) are nailed to the wall. One grandfather abhorred war, the other believed that war could express a man's heroism. My grandfathers were all good storytellers, and this is probably where the writer’s rich personality of contradictions and unity comes from.

Virginia said that Hemingway returned to Chicago when he was 29 years old. He came home for the first time in his life. He went home to attend his father's funeral after he committed suicide. What people see from works such as "The Snows of Kilimanjaro" is not the application of wild hunting experience, but the fatal temptation of danger and death to men.

During World War II, Hemingway still went to various front lines for interviews, and even restlessly organized maritime patrols to guard against German invasion from the sea. Although they were just cruising on the sea on a modified yacht, their high level of direct participation and sense of mission made people awe-inspiring.

As a professional journalist and writer, Hemingway rarely dealt with urban life themes. He makes active choices throughout his life and never leaves passivity to himself.

After experiencing two wars, completing countless adventures, leaving a batch of works that only he could write, performing many heroic acts, and satisfying his addiction as a soldier, hunter, and fisherman, he calmly chose death.

It is easy to tell the differences between him and others, but it is difficult to tell why these differences are formed. In the dense spring of May, the dense green wafers on the tree branches in the Oak Garden area reflect the sunlight. That piece of wild forest has long been covered by the green space of the new district, and at best there are only a dozen or so locust trees left. Where else could one go to discover Hemingway?

Hemingway grew up in an era when capitalism was in decline. The characteristics of this era make Hemingway's thoughts complex and contradictory. He saw the disintegration of the capitalist world and the so-called degradation of Western civilization, but could not find a way out from his narrow vision. Therefore, he felt confused before his eyes, and was called the main representative of the "lost generation." The content of Hemingway's works, in addition to his favorite fishing, hunting, skiing, and bullfighting, the most common theme is the praise of ordinary people's sincerity and bravery, that is, the image of facing death without fear. In his view, life is nothing but a tragedy, and the only value and way out for people is to face death without fear. Therefore, the characters in his works are often "tough guys", but they are often lonely and desperate.

In terms of artistic techniques, Hemingway used the conciseness, liveliness, and power of dialogue, the cleanness of rhetoric, and the natural rhyme to form a unique creative style. The language Hemingway uses and the images he depicts are clear and specific, but his themes are subtle and subtle. When you first read his works, it seems clear at a glance, but if you read carefully, you can't help but feel that they have profound implications. He once compared his work to an iceberg floating on the sea, with only one-eighth of it above the water and seven-eighths hidden underwater.

Therefore, deep and implicit is a prominent feature of Hemingway's writing.

Hemingway's prose style is unpretentious, concise and fresh. When he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1954, special emphasis was placed on his unique narrative ability in modern prose.

Hemingway's artistic description also has obvious limitations. He is not good at developing broad descriptions of social life, and his characters lack multi-faceted and rich personality traits.

Due to contradictions in his worldview and serious illness, Hemingway committed suicide with a shotgun in 1961.