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STYLE (HFORSTYL)
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Rarely have authors become so identified with a particular writing
style or with the word \"style\" itself as Ernest Hemingway. Many
writers have attempted to \"write like Hemingway.\" Few have succeeded.
To many readers, the essential characteristic of the Hemingway style
is simplicity and precision of word choice. That description, while
accurate, can be deceptive.
\"Simplicity\" is not the same thing as short, grammatically simple
sentences. \"Precision of word choice\" does not mean an abundance of
unusual words in order to achieve precision. And Hemingway\'s style
cannot so easily be explained as in his own often quoted advice (which
needs to be taken with a grain of salt!) to write the story and then
remove the adjectives and adverbs.
At the conclusion of For Whom the Bell Tolls, you will have a
distinct picture of the places, the objects, the people in the
story. If you diagrammed or sketched them, they might be somewhat
different from another reader\'s mental picture. That\'s inevitable.
It\'s the distinctness- giving the reader the feeling of being there-
which is Hemingway\'s literary feat.
Beyond question this effect is achieved by a heavy use of nouns
and verbs. If there is an object in the scene he is relating,
Hemingway will mention it. If a character moves, Hemingway will
mention it.
It is true that Hemingway often leaves the adjectives and adverbs to
the reader. The resulting effect is all the more vivid and
memorable. An excellent example is the description of the sights and
smells both inside and outside the cave, at the opening of Chapter
5. At the same time, Hemingway does not avoid modifiers altogether.
A good example is the description of Joaquin when he is first
introduced at the beginning of Chapter 11.
Much has been made of Hemingway\'s dialogue, through which you get
the feeling of being at the scene. Yet when the dialogue is
transferred to the motion picture screen, directors have had to be
careful to keep it from sounding stilted and formal, because its
effectiveness does not depend on reproducing the exact words
(including the \"uh\'s\" and \"er\'s\") that people utter in real life.
Hemingway also doesn\'t often punctuate his dialogue with italics,
capital letters, ellipses (...), and exclamation points to suggest
emphasis. The effectiveness lies in stating with utmost simplicity the
heart of what the characters mean.
In general, however, For Whom the Bell Tolls is often regarded as
somewhat of a stylistic departure from Hemingway\'s earlier novels,
such as The Sun Also Rises. Earlier works relied more heavily on
colloquial dialogue to communicate action and rarely included
lengthy descriptive passages. Some experts have suggested that in
For Whom the Bell Tolls, Hemingway was responding to criticisms of his
style. In this, his longest novel, he inserted lengthy lyric
passages that describe the countryside, portrayed the mind of Robert
Jordan with extended interior monologues, and replaced flowing
conversation with a sometimes stilted attempt to reproduce the Spanish
language. The leanness of the prose in his earlier novels- which
prompted critics to call him a major literary innovator- was thus
sacrificed for what some consider pretentiousness, but what others see
as brave and successful strides in experimentation. Those who disliked
his work in For Whom the Bell Tolls were pleased when he returned to a
simpler, terser style in works like The Old Man and the Sea.
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Stylistic features peculiar to For Whom the Bell Tolls should be
noted. They concern Hemingway\'s deliberate attempt to reproduce in
English the flavor of the Spanish language.
Spanish (like other languages) preserves a special second-person
singular pronoun and related verb form such as English formerly had
(thou, thy, thee). This form is used in speaking to another person
in a familiar manner. Hemingway uses the antiquated English form to
better approximate the speech of his Spanish characters. Readers
differ in their reactions to this device. Some find it awkward and
distracting. Others find that it begins to sound natural after a
while. You\'ll recognize other English sentences that display strange
word order or style, such as \"That this thing of the bridge may
succeed.\" This kind of construction is also an attempt to capture
the flavor of the Spanish language.
Both Hemingway\'s actual Spanish and his attempt to render the flavor
of Spanish in English have been criticized as frequently inaccurate by
people who know Spanish better than he did. An exiled Loyalist
commander, Gustavo Duran, read the manuscript of For Whom the Bell
Tolls before it was published and was critical of Hemingway\'s Spanish,
although impressed by the story. A more contemporary Spanish critic
has called the language abstract when it should be concrete (to
properly mirror real Spanish) and solemn when it should be simple.
Hemingway also tries to convey the extremely physical and earthy-
often crude- dialogue of Spanish peasants (particularly when they
are upset with each other). Today, when there is very little
censorship in the publishing industry, there would be no problem in
printing the exact English equivalent of what Hemingway wanted his
Spanish characters to say. But in 1940 there was a problem in using
obscenities.
One of Hemingway\'s solutions was simply to quote the original
Spanish word or phrase. It\'s then up to the reader to check with a
Spanish/English dictionary to learn how crudely someone has insulted
someone else.
A second method was to employ an all-purpose and acceptable
English word that at least suggests the original. Anselmo, in his
early tirade about Pablo\'s negative attitude, says: \"I this and that
in the this and that of thy father. I this and that and that in thy
this.\" On several occasions one character advises another to \"Go
unprint thyself.\"
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