The Evolution of Ernest Hemingway

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Ernest Hemingway is praised for his use of the “iceberg effect”. The effect giving the reader just enough information to get the point across and grab his or her attention. The tip of the iceberg are the facts that the reader must know, and the rest of the Iceberg, the majority of it - is left up for the reader to discover. This portion is uncovered by how the reader interprets the “two different meanings of a phrase, not from multiple interpretations of its thematic import” (Cohen 1). As Hemmingway’s writing evolved, so did the “crystalline clarity and structural simplicity” (158) of the tip of his icebergs, but in Soldier’s Home one of his first published works the “iceberg” appears to be an unclear, uncertain, and clouded object. Cohen analyzes Soldier’s Home and comes to the conclusion that it is not Hemmingway who is being cloudy and “ambiguous” but, “Perhaps the question is wrongly put and should be not why Hemmingway was vague, but why Krebs was.” (160).
Cohen claims that Hemmingway was not the one being vague and ambiguous, but instead it was Krebs. Cohen says that is Hemmingway taking the styles of other authors and allowing their influence to show in his own writings. Such as “Joyce’s stream-of-consciousness techniques in A Portrait of the Artist and Ulysses” (160). Cohen claims that by Hemmingway “staying faithful to a characters thoughts, their sometimes ambiguous twists and turns must be include.” (160). This just so happens to be a coincidence of some sorts. I cannot come to the conclusion that Hemmingway was modeling his writing from that of another author, even though he still hadn’t perfected the “structural simplicity and crystalline clarity” (158) he is so well known for. I think the ambiguity and vagueness is...

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...hy frat boy with a vague and ambiguous mind to a war hardened soldier who had clear and concise and structured thoughts. Which could also be interpreted as how Hemmingway evolved through his writing and his life from a confused and vague boy to a war hardened clear and concise man. In a way you could say the war influenced what Hemmingway is most known for. The iceberg effect could have been influenced by his time spent in war. As a soldier in the battlefield you need to be as simple and clear in your messages as to not avoid confusion. Hemmingway transferred this into his writing and created one of the most well-known writing styles in the process, the “Iceberg Effect”.

Works Cited

Cohen, Milton A. "Vaguness and Ambiguity in Hemmingway's "soldier's Home": Two Puzzling Passages." The Hemingway Review. University of Idaho, Moscow, Idaho, n.d. Web. 10 Apr. 2014.

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