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Discuss the style of Hemingway? Discuss Hemingway as a Novelist? Throw light on Hemingways artistic merits? Write a comprehensive note on Hemingways prose style?

Ans:
Hemingway began his career as a journalist. As a war-correspondent, he initially used the colorful vocabulary, exalted expression that is why we primarily find his writings so in which he used literal words and bombastic style but, later on, he turned up as a writer of living English. By virtue of this quality we find his textual matter in a spontaneous manner which implies that his words, sentences and thoughts maintain their level as water flows and maintains its surface. His style is now marked by the following admirable traits which justify his being a celebrated American novelist:

(1) Use of colloquial and non-literary language (2) Self-restraint and simple (3) Use of effective dialogues (the impact of Ezra Pound) (4) Vision of NADA, existentialism philosophy, lost generation (5) Presentation of Tyro and Tutor (6) Spiralic Plot (7) Symbolism
First, Hemingways Prose style is colloquial and non-literary which is one of the important innovations in the history of twentieth century American Novel. The sole aim of this modernity is to make the text easier to understand and to grasp the thematical contents of what is under discussion. Moreover, the interest of the reader of this literary genre is made rich through living and colloquial English. For instance, the following passage taken out of his novel A Farewell to Arms stamps the quality of the non-literary and colloquial style of Hemingway.

I dont like Rome, I said, it is hot and full of fleas you dont like Rome? No I love Rome; Rome is the mother of nations.

Secondly, another important trait of Hemingways prose style is simplicity and self-restraint. He uses aphoristic sentences. It seems that when he is writing he becomes himself like a Neo-Classical writer. Hemingway maintains Beauty, Truth and Nature in his writings which show his being a self-restraint writer. For instance, let us look into the following lines taken from his Novel For Whom The Bell Tolls; it is Robert Jordan who talks to Maria:

I love thee as I love all that we have fought for. I love thee As I love liberty, fraternity and dignity of human rights I love thee as I love Madrid. I love thee as I love all my comrades who have died. I love thee as I love most in the world and love thee more.
The critical evaluation of these lines leads us to say that with the help of Similes Hemingway is going to clearly define the strength of bond of love between Maria and Robert Jordan. The purity of soul of Jordan is evident in these lines. Thirdly, when the critics and students of American Literature evaluate Hemingways prose style, they find Ezra Pound there. As Ezra Pound uses simple, laconic and effective dialogues and conversation, Hemingway as such stresses upon living language and intelligible prose. For instance, we quote an example from his short story The

Killers: I cant stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing his going to get it. Its too damned awful.
Similarly, we come to his another novel The Old Man And The Sea where the characteristics of his style are obvious:

He was an Old Man who fished in a skiff in the Gulf Stream.

Fourthly, Hemingways Heroes feel a certain void within them. This void is due to Hemingways philosophy of NADA which implies to his nihilism. Nihilism penetrates into the depth of existential dilemma that man faces today. It is existentialism philosophy that brings forth absurd literature. And this view of absurdity in literature leads us to pessimism. That is why Hemingways heroes are successful in others eyes. Hence, they seek refuge in the lap of existentialism philosophy. As a result, they establish their own line of

actions to pass their lives in this world and give meaning to their meaningless life. For example, Jack Barneys, after losing his sexual organ in the war and after that the love of Bret Ashley(a nymphomaniac lady) in The Sun Also Rises and Lieutenant Fredric Henry of A Farewell

to Arms adopted the stoic isolation to pass the rest of their lives. Their existential philosophy
presents a gloomy picture of life. Such heroes give some universal kind of messages to their world but themselves remain fruitless and are known as lost generation by public around them. For instance, Santiago of The Old Man And The Sea gives a universal lesson:

Man is not made for defeat; man can be destroyed but not defeated. Failure or success does not matter it is struggle which matters

Fifthly in Hemingways Novels, we find almost two kinds of heroes: (1)

The Tyro or A typical Hemingway hero or autobiographical hero (2) The Tutor or the code hero. The tyro is either a young boy or a young man who is learning to live in the
world of chaos, violence, uncertainty, anxiety and depression. Robert Jordan is a typical Hemingway hero of For Whom The Bell Tolls. The code hero is sharply distinguished from the Tyro. The function of code hero or tutor is to balance the Tyros deficiency and provide him the code of life. The tutor is usually an old man who possesses immense courage and endurance. In For Whom The Bell Tolls, El Sardo, a guerrilla leader acts as the code hero who provides a code to Jordan that is, Grace under pressure. Sixthly, Hemingways plots are simple and spiralic. It implies that his novel usually ends at a point from where they began. For instance, Jack Barneys love for Bret Ashley in The Sun Also Rises cannot be consummated because of sexual injury and at the end he learns to live without love, and lives the rest of his life stoically. Santiago of The Old Man And The Sea returns as empty-handed as when he set out hopefully. Similarly Marias hope of being loved conjugally by Jordan ends in fiasco. All the evidence shows that Hemingways plots are simple and spiralic. Seventhly, one of the characteristic qualities of Hemingways prose style is his use of Symbolism. For instance Maria, in For Whom the Bell Tolls is a symbol of comfort and inspiration for Jordan and vice versa. Similarly, her cropped hair symbolically stand for the lost womanhood. While her growing hair represent the regaining of her womanhood. The bomber and the planes in the same novel stand for devastation and destruction of Beauty, Goodness and Truth- the fundamental values of humanism.

Similarly, when we go through another novel of Hemingway that is The Old Man And The Sea, we come across that the sea is personified as LaMar, a Spanish word used for female. It is both kind and cruel which implies that sea in this novel acts and responses to the old man in the character of a female who is kind and cruel simultaneously. Manolin of the same novel symbolically stands for Old Mans youth. In the same way when we read The Sun Also Rises we find Bret Ashley who becomes the symbol of pleasure and tension-free object for the TyroJack Barneys. She also becomes a source of inspiration for Barneys when he goes to War and fights there bravely. But it is an irony of fate or concept of NADA that the indifferent attitude of the same lady toward Jack Barneys in the post-bellum time makes him lost.