... outward flourishes, I will be brief: your noble son is mad"." (Shakespeare 2.2.86-92) If brevity, then, is the soul of wit (meaning here canny intelligence and perceptive thought), then Hemingway may well be the wittiest writer of the 20th century. Hemingway is frequently contrasted with the lurid ... As explored in an essay by Zoe Trodd, Hemingway's propensity for brevity was developed out of a sense that war had 'used up his words'. This was reinforced when a snippet of a retyped Henry James quote was found among the pages of his unfinished manuscript of "A Farewell to Arms." On the sn...

• Word Count: 5359
• Approx Pages: 21
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... described and that she is unsure about having. However as we study the meanings of certain parts of the dialogue we begin to understand the true meaning of their conversation. We notice that they have conflicting feelings about the girl having an abortion. There is a type of power struggle between them ... through this big decision process. Although Ernest Hemingway uses unclear and ambiguous language throughout this short story, it becomes visible what its true meaning is by analyzing the symbols such as the title or the power struggle between those two lovers. The title "Hills Like wh...

• Word Count: 888
• Approx Pages: 4
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... States has not yet entered the war. While stationed on the front, Henry meets a British nurse named Catherine Barkley, and they fall in love. Lieutenant Henry is out one night during a battle and an Austrian bombardment badly wounds his knee. He is sent to an American hospital in Milan and Catherine transfers there soon after. The ... war. But in the end, he has to bid another farewell to arms' when he has to let go of Catherine when she dies, the arms in this meaning signifying love. This shows two of the major themes in the book, love and war. War in this case also symbolizes pain. Er...

• Word Count: 2266
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• Grade Level: High School

... of nothing, nothing is with thee. (Hemingway, par.74) But, does "nada- really mean nothing in this excerpt? There seems to be a deeper meaning to it. "Nothing- is what the old man is trying to keep at bay while he sits in the café and drinks. It is ... thing is only truly escapable through death, something that the old man seemed to realize when he tried to take his life. However, was this the meaning that Hemingway intended when he created A Clean, Well-Lighted Place? During the time that the story was written and published, Hemingway was living in Paris and ... school of philosophy....

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• Grade Level: High School

... the style of writing known today as Modernism. Modernism is defined as, the deliberate departure from tradition and the use of innovative forms of expression that distinguish many styles in the arts and literature of the twentieth century. It was influenced by the arts of the past and new ... the exact quality of that style comes to be better understood and is seen as an organic medium for the expression of symbolic meaning and human understanding, his reputation grows." (Klein, p. 357). Hemmingway's style seems anti-intellectual purely because its simply put. However it always has ... ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... emblem of sterility, the mark of a barren life doomed for destruction. Catherine instills the dismal weather with meaning while she and Henry are lying in bed listening to the storm outside. Catherine admits to Henry, as the rain is falling on the roof, that she has a fear of the rain, as it has a tendency to ruin ... the light it wasn't any good. It was like saying good-by to a statue. After a while I went out and left the hospital and walked back to the hotel in the rain- (332). During this moment, the falling rain validates Catherine's apprehensions and confirms one of the novel's ma...

• Word Count: 1000
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• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: High School

... his father, he committed suicide. Hemingway was dealing with despair, depression and desperation for much of his life. He struggled throughout, to find true meaning and purpose. Hemingway's theory proposes that life is naturally meaningless. This doesn't mean that life has to be meaningless, rather that one must find ... what the purpose of life is. One has to set standards for oneself and conform to them with dignity, thus not falling into despair. This theory can be found in this short story and throughout Hemingway's` writings. The short story "A Clean Well Lighted Place- is almost ...

• Word Count: 1553
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• Grade Level: High School

... They played like young cats in the dusk and he loved them as he loved the boy" (Hemingway 25). Through exile and self-awareness, Santiago learns the true meaning of his artistic integrity from his speech with the marlin to his wise words of the sea, "But the old man always thought of her as feminine and as ... trenches of the mind. Sorting through all thoughts, running through a mind that contains rivers of divine imagination and creativity trying to find what combines to make the ultimate expression. Every creature that comes across Santiago and his journey at sea is mentioned in stra...

• Word Count: 547
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• Grade Level: High School

... Rises was finished on April 1, 1926 and was published in October of 1926 (Selkirk 96, Bruccoli 75). The Sun Also Rises was Hemingway's expression of his own life. He had changed the names of his friends and some of the details, but the real identities of the characters were ... of introduction from Sherwood Anderson, Hemingway met some of Paris' prominent writers and artists and forged quick friendships with them during his first few years (4). Counted among those friends were Ezra Pound, Gertrude Stein, Sylvia Beach, James Joyce, Max Eastman, Lincoln Steffens and Wyndahm Lewis, and he w...

• Word Count: 2109
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• Grade Level: High School

... itself. Evidently, Hemingway refuses to provide any minor details in his work, and instead presents the reader minor clues and symbols to help establish a more in depth understanding and profound meaning. A distinct and perhaps the most obvious ongoing theme in "Hills Like White Elephants" is that of one's choices and it's corresponding consequences. Jig has become pregnant, and the ... the reader a subtle hint that maybe she wants to go through with having the baby. Hemingway's comparison between the white elephants and, figuratively, the unborn child also brings up the expression "the...

• Word Count: 1134
• Approx Pages: 5
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... preoccupation. Inez is more interested in the now and present, and doesn't see the countless precious history behind the things she takes for granted such as writing, philosophy and the meaning behind art. Paris as a memory concerning modernism and nostalgia are two movements which - if they lived together, would be a lie. The disparity between the two couldn't be more different due ... , modernism makes work of the past by the enlistment of rewriting, reprise, recapitulation, incorporation, re- interpretation, revision and parody. Redoing something that has been done in a wider contextu...

• Word Count: 1658
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... showing his self centered nature. Miss Moran symbolically emasculates James by rejecting his lame passes and pushing him to the floor when he doesn't get out of her way. To further emasculate James, Miss Moran sarcastically tells Minnie, "wasn't it[his fall] stupid of him-( 71 ). In ... the second scene, Minnie emasculates James by verbally berating him after he accuses her of falling in love with "the oily little Chink[Liu]-( 76 ). In a powerful assertion of her hatred for James, Minnie cries, "For all your[James ... in a similar esteem to her father, Minnie's statement further elevates...

• Word Count: 2224
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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... nothing to the reader's imagination in his classic novel A Farewell to Arms. The first chapter is written so well that "it deserves to be read again, and perhaps again, for among other things it illustrates the genesis and unity of the novel, showing how it's ending was in its beginning" (Oldsey 183). This famous excerpt reveals many important details about the ... 2 of the passage; "in the fall when the rains came, the leaves all fell from the chestnut trees there were mists over the river and clouds". The mists and leaves falling show that in the future there are going to be some unfo...

• Word Count: 1144
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A Farewell To Arms A Farewell To Arms written by Ernest Hemingway illustrates a typical love story between two people, this love story plays out in a war torn Italy during world war I, where Italy was battling Austria, the novels main characters, lieutenant Fredrick Henry an American ambulance driver serving in the Italian army and Catherine ... shown any emotions by Henry. The nurse signaled him to come into the room. He approached Catherine and began to cry by her side. Catherine was very ill and was falling unconscious; the doctor had asked Henry to exit the room. Henry exited the room to...

• Word Count: 1007
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• Grade Level: High School

... that he loves this nurse and he wants to introduce her to him. Frederic is smitten with Catherine from the beginning. He likes the idea of falling in love with someone. Frederic and Catherine begin playing this love game with one another. The rising action continues with Mr. Henry and Catherine continuing to ... Henry reveals to the audience that he loves his alcohol. He drinks a lot. Catherine reveals to Frederic that she is carrying his child. They both plan out an extended vacation together while he continues with his leave. This all is interrupted by the woman that was the head of the...

• Word Count: 1000
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... Catherine and Frederick must outlast long separations, life-threatening war-time situations, and the uncertainty of each other's whereabouts or condition. This love story plays out in war-torn Italy during World War One, where Italy is battling Austria. The novel portrays Henry as a drunk who travels from one house ... of rain in this scene causes a feeling of unhappiness. Hemingway also uses rain as part of the scene before Catherine and Henry are about to find out some terrible news. Before the barman enters their hotel room, Hemingway describes the weather outside as violent and stor...

• Word Count: 2198
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• Grade Level: High School

... , can mean so many different things to so many different people, and there should be no room for narrow-mindedness. One must understand that the meaning he or she derives from the text is one of a number of possibilities "even an infinite amount. What I have gained from this course ... been a large factor in how people approached the American literature that we were assigned. Some of the class may have never thought of meaning as existing outside of the text, possibly the byproduct of learning under professors such as the kind discussed earlier, where all must conform to "the ... new know...

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... things religious, is not a man. His masculinity is called into question in a different way as well. The priest indirectly states his opposition to the war, which later may become common among the soldiers, but at this point is in direct contrast to the macho proclamation that the army "shall attack". Overall, the soldiers express a complete distrust of the church itself. At ... Henry occupying the position of God: Once in camp I put a log on top of the fire and it was full of ants. As it commenced to burn, the ants swarmed out and went first toward the center where the fire was; then tu...

• Word Count: 1357
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... the stories I know from the fishing village I leave out. But the knowledge is what makes the underwater part of the iceberg."" (Plimpton p 126) Certainly, there are moments when the reader feels the suggestion of vast meaning beneath Hemingway's few, spare words. Santiago's beautiful and elusive memory of the ... Stein was an avant-garde American poet who was the center of a group of painters and expatriate writers living in Paris after World War I. Among those in her circle were Pablo Picasso, Sherwood Anderson and Ernest Hemingway. Stein named the generation that came of age during Wor...

• Word Count: 2697
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... with war, both in life and in writing, along with his "sparse writing style" (Schafer 1) made him extraordinary among other writers of his time and made him stand out. The Sun Also Rises, one of Hemingway's most celebrated novels, shows why Hemingway stood out among the writers of his time. Jake Barnes, the main character that represents Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises, is ... both "disillusioned and emasculated as a result of the war" (Schafer 1). Jake Barnes searches for truth and meaning in life and war. Hemingway was also cynical and weakened after the war ... of Barnes's life. Jak...

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... flourished in ancient times. Also, it takes a rather important position in American literature. This kind of philosophy was popular in the 20th century, especially among American writers who went through the tow world wars. The old man believes in simplicity. He is simply dressed and sails alone on the sea, ... useless skeleton. He returns home exhausted, bloody, stripped of gear, and even poorer than when he started out. It appears that the old man is a loser. But this is not the case, because the "meaning" of life is not to be found in "success" or "failure", but rather in the struggle...

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... and man's struggle against nature. Neither the old man nor the fish will back down. The old fisherman transcends the physical realm into the spiritual realm, his spirit flying free among the ghost less shadows. His goal was to persevere, and push his body to the absolute limit in order to achieve his dream of catching the marlin. Santiago's persistence earns ... with the fish throughout the journey. The marlin symbolizes the old man's belief that he has free will to make whatever choices he desires; choices that seem logical and have meaning behind them. Santiago's struggle with the mar...

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... it as a way to get students to like him. He yearned for social acceptance, which cultivated his ultimate goal to become rich and famous. The young author had a habit of falling in love with rich women. One of them told F. Scott, "poor boys don't marry rich girls." This saying would follow Fitzgerald wherever he went. When he met his ... ...

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... "On or about December 1910, the world changed". This statement is regarding the drastic change in the culture of society with the beginning of exploration of the meaning of life and the patterns that society are prone to following. This brought about curiosity and the religious affiliated explanations were no longer sufficient. The dissatisfaction for many, and ... ; "Romanticism emphasized the individual, the subjective, the irrational, the imaginative, the personal, the spontaneous, the emotional, the visionary, and the transcendental." Rejecting these concepts was among many of the cu...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... Romero because she will corrupt is strength and she is a danger to him because she does not conform to the traditional woman standards. The reader is shown two characters, both falling at opposite extremes. Jake struggles with not being man enough while Brett struggles with her relationships because she embodies too many strong masculine characteristics. In conclusion, Hemingway presents a concept of ... ...

• Word Count: 1229
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• Grade Level: High School