Hemingway's (not-so-)Secret Inclination

--analysis of writing style
       Ernest Hemingway's writing style can be summed up in three words, much like the writing style itself: concise, economical and editorial. The most noticeable hallmark of Hemingway's style is his basic and austere word choice. In contrast to the rich description and vivid imagery of his predecessors, Hemingway barely uses any adjectives or adverbs in telling the story of The Sun Also Rises, as seen clearly in dialogue where the only context he provides is a mere "I said" or "he said" to progress the story (Hemingway 4). Even when Hemingway adds action, there is little to no description for it such as when "[Cohn] turned with the paper in his hand" (Hemingway 4). Hemingway doesn't add adjectives or adverbs like "thick" or "contentiously;" rather, he lets the story speak for itself in concrete nouns and verbs. He lets the actions of the characters unfold without adding explicit meaning in the text, as most famously characterized by his concluding line, ""Yes," I said. "Isn't it pretty to think so?"" (Hemingway 129). For the future, there are endless possibilities for Brett and Jake, but Hemingway chooses to state nothing at all and let the characters move forward without his intervention or interpretation of meaning for the readers. This emphasis on noun and verb over extravagant adjectives seems to reflect the delicate balance of peace after the war during which Hemingway lived and served, characterizing the time's preference for tangible over theoretical.
        Hemingway is also very economical and frugal with his word choice. If a word isn't necessary, then he removes it. In fact when Hemingway's close friend, F. Scott Fitzgerald, the author of the masterpiece The Great Gatsby, advised Hemingway to trim two thousand and five hundred words from the opening sequence, Heminway cut all thirty pages of the opening sequence from the book altogether (Wagner-Martin 11-12). As a result of his frugality with syntax, the text ends up in told in short thoughts and phrases in short sentences or longer ones comprised of short thoughts. For example, in the longer sentence "I told her about watching the bull, not the horse, when the bulls charged the picadors, and got her to watching the picador place the point of his pic so that she saw what it was all about, so that it became more something that was going on with a definite end, and less of a spectacle with unexplained horrors," Jake describes how he explains bull-fights to Brett, but it is not a single cohesive thought (Hemingway 87). He starts with telling her to watch the bull, not the horse and then moves onto a second thought of telling her to watch the picador place the point and then explains to us that he does this so that Brett could understand what was going on in the sport instead of watching it like some sort of pedestrian spectacle (Hemingway 87). In The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway utilizes short, simple sentences and witty, realistic dialogue to progress the story with practical action over the vivid movement of lush imagery. As a result, the story seems to progress clearly at the rate we read it, rather than in its own realm of time.

Works Cited
Hemingway, Ernest. The Sun Also Rises. New York: Scribner, 2006. PDF. -- note: idk how to cite    my pdf its not published by a group
Wagner-Martin, Linda (1990). "Introduction". in Wagner-Martin, Linda (ed). New Essays on Sun Also Rises. New York: Cambridge UP.

 --micropiece.
         I don't contend that self-confidence is not important. I cannot think to contend it after meeting Robert Cohn. Upon meeting, he had barely a thought of his own nor interest. He merely adopted the trending and the timeless, half-baked. Looking down and around, Cohn was the leader of the library committee in our college days, and his claim to fame was a small medal the head librarian rewarded him for reading however-so-many books. Cohn liked to boast that he was quite well-read. Otherwise, he had not much to him. Although I would argue even with the reading, he had not much to him.
         Cohn is a handful. Since joining the troupe, he's been nothing more than a stagehand, and while the other hands have begun to acquire roles, Cohn has been stuck in black. I'm no more than the stage director, but at least I have progressed. Originally, Cohn sought to be a comedian for whatever reason. It ill-suited him. I suspect it was the introduction of Brett. He was trying to draw her attention. And he certainly did. He was as much a failure as expected. Only out of courtesy did acquaintances spare a chuckle. Brett later told me she found him "dull" and "bland." I didn't tell her that I thought so too.
          He's pitiful, but somehow I can never manage to shake him off. Again, Cohn's already caught sight of me before I can make off.
           "Jake!" Cohn calls, coming over with soft footsteps.
           "Ah, Cohn." I answer. "Found a gig yet?"
           "No, but I've got a very APT tale to tell you from Advanced Placement English Literature back in high school."
        I smile in response.

Undetectable bias in Wuthering Heights

          In Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë cleverly utilizes the viewpoints of several different narrators to tell the story. Despite the only clear ones being "Nelly" Dean and Lockwood, Brontë intersperses several primary viewpoints as well as the secondary and teritiary viewpoints of Nelly and Lockwood into Wuthering Heights to glimpse into the life of Heathcliff.         
           "Nelly" Dean is clearly the principal narrator of the story itself. She recounts the tale as a secondary party to her audience to hear in a passionate tale of suspense and actuality, using quotes from the involved parties and her own experiences. Overall, her sheer confidence in the reliability of her account overshadows all else and brings us live to the action from the past. However, Nelly has a distinct personality and bias in the plot, which cannot be disregarded. A more obvious bias would be in her initial opinion of Heathcliff that "Hindley hated him, and to say the truth I did the same" (Brontë 34). Having grown up in the community and experienced the crossfire firsthand, Nelly is biased--unconsciously or not--over details in the story. Her shifting loyalties are especially clear in the love triangle between Edgar Linton, Catherine Earnshaw, and Healthcliff and parrot in the relationship between Cathy Linton, Linton Heathcliff and Heathcliff. As displayed shown when Nelly confessed of Cathy's and Linton's relationship, when "Catherine [learns] of my betrayal of her confidence" (Brontë 234). Nelly's allegiance constantly shifts back and forth and inbetween the involved parties, and her intentions are obscure and unclear. As a narrator, these qualities have suspicious consequence on the apparent action of the story. Not the mention, as seen in her advice to young Heathcliff "who knows but your father was Emperor of China, and your mother an Indian queen, each of them able to buy up, with one week's income, Wuthering Heights and Thrushcross Grange together?...Were I in your place, I would frame high notions of my birth," (Brontë 52-3) Nelly also seemed to love storytelling as much as she loved reading when she describe that she had "examined [all the books]...in Catherine's library" (Brontë 19) and that "You could not open a book in this library that I have not looked into"(Brontë 57). These personality traits of Nelly must be kept in mind when reading her interpretation of the events.
          Although Nelly is the main viewpoint the content itself comes from, the primary narrator of the novel itself is--peculiarly--the tertiary party: Lockwood. Lockwood narrates Nelly's narration through his own journal diaries, written a length after he initially heard the story from Nelly herself in the advent of 1801's winter. The mere fact that a year has passed between his recording of the story and Nelly's recount of it is alarming. Another clue that he isn't an especially reliable source is evident when he mistakenly identifies the people of the household upon first exposure, revealing himself to be a bit slow and blundering as he himself recognizes for a moment when he realizes that Catherine Linton is not Heathcliff's wife as "perceiving [himself] in a blunder" (Brontë 13). What Lockwood does not realize, however, is that he is probably always making false connections and assumptions much like this. Another hint is his quick assumption of characters by his first impression, as seen when he calls Heathcliff as a "capital fellow" only to change his opinion to an "unmannerly wretch" after he evaluates the situation longer (Brontë 1, 16). as readers we must take the hint from Brontë to note this indiscrepancy in viewpoint and true point. Not to mention the fact that Lockwood consistently sees himself as a potential suitor for Cathy II throughout the course of the story only highlights his own bias in the story--towards himself as he slightly demeans the other characters present to emphasize his own self-worth for his ego.
          The small excerpts of primary information from Catherine Earnshaw's diaries and Isabella's Linton's letters provide slightly more insight into the actual occurrences of the tale, however they are then interpreted and filtered by both Nelly's and Lockwood's unconscious personal evaluations, and he words thereafter the accounts are not reliable. The obstructive nature of truth in the tale of Wuthering Heights contributes to the debatable factor of the book, and add depth and layers to the story itself.

Works Cited

Brontë, Emily. Wuthering Heights.  New York: Scholastic, 1961. PDF file.