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Marissa Whitey

Ms. Dugan

IB English III

26 October 2015

Complexity Beneath the Surface of Hemingway’s Writing

That which can be easily seen is often deceptive; for instance, the visible portion of an

iceberg is deceivingly small in comparison to the entire structure. Whether in regards to

people or events, it is crucial to look beneath the surface to truly understand the way the

world works. No writer has applied this principle more eloquently than Ernest Hemingway,

a disciplined twentieth century author whose works are among the most significant

contributions to American literature. His writing is easily identified by his simple sentence

structure and lack of detail, but what earned him prestige was what he contained between

the lines of his text. His extensive implications hidden within minimal details allowed him

to enhance his stories with personal experiences, complex characters, and intense conflict.

The short story “Indian Camp” is an example of how the iceberg principle was used to

blend real life experiences with narrative text. Ernest Hemingway wrote seven novels

along with a multitude of short stories in his lifetime. He often used the name Nick as a

reflection of himself, such as in “Indian Camp”, where Nick is a young boy who accompanies

his father, a doctor, to an Indian village. On the boat ride to the village, “Nick lay back with

his father’s arm around him,” (Hemingway 1). Although the relationship between the boy

and his father was never directly explained, an image implying love and trust is evident. It

can be concluded that the relationship between Nick and the doctor is a reflection of the

author’s relationship with his own father, also a physician, who he looked up to in the early
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part of his life. While writing was a unique skill of Hemingway’s, his passion for the

outdoors was a result of his father teaching him how to hunt and fish when he was young.

Hemingway’s talents were as plentiful as his relationships with women, having been

married four times in his life. Nick’s healthy relationship with his father quickly changes

when he observes his father on duty, who states, “that’s one for the medical journal,” after

performing a caesarean section on an Indian woman using “a jackknife and sewing it up

with nine-foot, tapered gut leaders” (“Indian Camp” 3). The use of dialogue, rather than

straightforward description is one of the author’s trademarks, which he used to express the

father’s barefaced contempt for the Indians. The physician does not even bring the proper

medical tools to perform the procedure, which shows a glaring lack of concern for life of the

woman, or her child. Later, Nick is scarred and he distances himself from his father

suggesting that even the strongest relationships have tendency to change, as was often the

case in the author’s life. In addition to the incorporation of real-life experiences, the iceberg

principle also aids in characterization.

Hemingway employed small details to create complex characters, such as that of

Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea. While the novella earned the author the Pulitzer Prize

in 1953, analysis of the story’s conclusion remains controversial. Hemingway does not

clearly reveal the fate of the protagonist, who is described to be “still sleeping on his face”

at the end of the novella (The Old Man and the Sea 127). His euphemistic imagery suggests

that the protagonist is dead. The seemingly ambiguous ending forces readers to analyze the

character of the old man, who feels he has nothing left to offer the world after his

exhaustive escapade at sea. The journey lasted three days, which is a significant number

that connects Santiago’s life with that of Jesus Christ. Although Hemingway was not a
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religious man, he included various biblical symbols in The Old Man and the Sea. When the

old fisherman returns from his three-day voyage, he shoulders the mast of the boat and

climbs up to his house (The Old Man and the Sea 121). While religious reference is never

directly explained in the text, the image of the old man carrying the mast on his shoulders

is an allusion to Jesus carrying the cross on his shoulders, which suggests Santiago as a

symbol of Christ. Since everyone has a different view of Jesus, the symbolism may be

interpreted differently for each reader, creating a more interactive reading experience. The

experience is even further enhanced with the analysis of complex conflicts in the plot.

In Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”, the adherence to the iceberg principle

heightens intrigue concerning the main conflict of the story. Hemingway spent a great deal

of his life travelling to different parts of the world, so the setting of the short story, a train

station, was a familiar place to him. He described, “on this side there was no shade and no

trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun” (“Hills Like White

Elephants” 1). The two lines of rails symbolize that there is a decision to be made by the

characters in the story, a man and a woman. The light side of the station symbolizes life,

while the shaded side symbolizes infertility, which shows that the issue the couple is

fighting about is the woman’s pregnancy. Such a serious issue could make or break the

couple’s relationship. Hemingway had numerous relationships with women, and often

wrote about women as feeble and incompetent in comparison to men. In “Hills Like White

Elephants”, the man encourages the girl to go through with a “simple operation” (“Hills Like

White Elephants” 2). Details about the operation are not stated, but with context it is

apparent that the couple is arguing about abortion. The man tries to manipulate the girl’s

opinion by sugarcoating the idea of abortion, about which he, in reality, knows little. The
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incorporation of the highly controversial conflict causes readers to take sides and become

more engrossed in the story. Intriguing conflict is just one of many distinguishing features

for which the writer is remembered.

Hemingway’s adherence to the iceberg principle allowed him to contain personal

experiences, complex characters, and intriguing conflicts within the simple components of

his writing. In stories like “Indian Camp”, he reflected on the complications of human

relationships, including his own, with brevity. He used a similar method to create

multifaceted characters, including that of the protagonist in The Old Man and the Sea. His

unique style also helped intensify conflicts in his stories, such as “Hills Like White

Elephants”. The great American writer’s masterful blending of simplicity and complexity

sets him apart from other writers and keeps people reading to discover what more is

hidden beneath the surface of his stories.

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Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. “Hills Like White Elephants.” Ernest Hemingway The Short Stories.
Charles Scribner’s Sons. New York, 1955. Print.
Hemingway, Ernest. “Indian Camp.” Ernest Hemingway The Short Stories. Charles Scribner’s
Sons. New York, 1955. Print.
Hemingway, Ernest. The Old Man and the Sea. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1952. Print.