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Sample Good Paper����� � Heidi Sjostrom���� A model for Eng. 042�not to be copied Style Reveals the Theme in
Hemingway's "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" ����������� Ernest
Hemingway's very short story, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," first published
in 1933, is written in his characteristic terse, unembellished style. The
definition of "Style" is "the characteristics of language in a
particular story and . . . the same characteristics in a writer's complete
works" (Gioa and Gwynn,
"Style" 861).� Short words
and a curt tone are so characteristic of Hemingway's style that writers
frequently parody them in "International Imitation Hemingway"
contests (Gioa and Gwynn,
"Style" 861).� But Hemingway
could only his express this story's theme -- that there is nothing beyond the
here and now of daily existence, no God to embellish our lives -- in an
unembellished style of writing. The somewhat empty style of this short story
is not "Imitation Hemingway"; it's consistent with
the story's theme of spiritual emptiness. Almost thirty lines of "A
Clean Well-Lighted Place" are pure dialogue with few clues, other than
what is said, about who is speaking. In the rest of the story, the percentage
of words with more than two syllables is very low.� Some biographers point out that Hemingway
learned his rules of writing working for the Kansas City Star,
whose style-book admonished reporters to "Use short sentences.� Use short first paragraphs.� Use vigorous English, not forgetting to
strive for smoothness" (qtd. in Desnoyers 2).� Was
the curt style of "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" caused only by Hemingway's having learned writing from a newspaper
style-book? He later said about those newspaper rules, "Those were the
best rules I ever learned for the business of writing.� I've never forgotten them.� No man with any talent, who feels and
writes truly about the thing he is trying to say, can fail to write well if
he abides with them" (qtd. in Desnoyers 2).�
Hemingway certainly abided with those rules for vigorous writing,
which gave his writing a fast-moving bluntness that was a departure from the
Victorian ornamentation and explanation that preceded him.� Other biographers point out the influence
on Hemingway of being in Paris between 1921 and 1927 with modernists like Gertrude
Stein and the Imagist poet, Ezra Pound, who demanded "direct treatment
of the 'thing' . . . [and] the use of absolutely no word that does not
contribute to the total design" (qtd. in Goia and Gwynn,
"Ernest" 370).� Hemingway
admitted learning from Pound, but one reason for the continuing fame of
"A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," first published in 1933, is that its
lean, Imagist style matches its message that there is nothing outside
of ordinary speech, events, and places to pad our earthly existence. In 1932, Hemingway published Death
in the Afternoon -- a non-fiction book that he hoped would "explain
that spectacle [bull fighting] both emotionally and practically" (qtd. in The Hemingway Resource 2).� In the early 1930s, he was intrigued with What did he fear?� It was not fear or dread.� It was a nothing that he knew too well.� It was all a nothing and a man was nothing
too. . . . Some lived in it and never felt it but he knew it
all was nada y pues nada y nada y pues nada. Our nada who art in nada.� (Hemingway, "A Clean" 374)� The older waiter here expresses the death of certain faith
that haunted the modernists and all who had experienced the horror and loss
of World War I, as Hemingway had first-hand in Hemingway said of his own writing, "If I
started to write elaborately, or like someone introducing or presenting
something, I found that I could cut that scrollwork or ornament out and throw
it away and start with the first true simple declarative sentence I had
written" ("One True" 376).�
Notice how the phrase "simple declarative sentence" echoes
"clean, well-lighted place."�
In his story, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," Hemingway was
declaring, without ornament or flinching, what he thought was true:� men of the 1930s would live stoically
without the comforts of God, Mary, or any outside powers to relieve the
surrounding nothingness.� They wouldh ave to make their own
world a clean, well-lighted place. Works Cited Hemingway, Ernest. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place."
The Longman Masters of Short ���� Fiction.� Eds. Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn. Hemingway, Ernest. "One True Sentence." The
Longman Masters of Short Fiction. ���� Eds. Dana Gioia
and R.S. Gwynn. Desnoyers, Megan Floyd. "Ernest
Hemingway: A Storyteller's Legacy." The Ernest ���� Hemingway
Collection. 12
December 2002. John F. Kennedy Library and ���� Museum. 20
August 2003. <http://www.cs.umb.edu/jfklibrary/eh.htm>. Gioia, Dana, and R.S. Gwynn. "Ernest Hemingway." The Longman
Masters of Short ���� Fiction.� Eds. Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn. Gioia, Dana, and R.S. Gwynn. "Style." The Longman Masters of Short
Fiction. Eds. ���� Dana Gioia and R.S. Gwynn. The ���� ���� <
http://www.lostgeneration.com/keywest.htm>. |
MY title not punc.,
bolded or anything � but the story's title is punctuated. I have a
title -- related to the thesis opinion. No beating around the bush
� gets right into this story and thesis. Word "style" leads into
the quote. Source authors have 2 entries on W.C. list, so I need a bit of
title in the ( ). Quote by copying exactly. Lead-out of a quote
with key words from it �talking about the quote's point. Dash formed w/ 2
hyphens. Style and theme are specifically described: empty, emptiness.
Semi-colon divides 2 sentences. "it's
means "it is."� Thesis
at end of 1st � � a strong opinion. Specifics about story's curt style. Title of whole
newspaper or book underlined or italics. Lead into the
quote with context -- KCS. I quote a newspaper but never read it � it
was qtd. in Desnoyers. I lead out of the quote, continuing its topic.
Hemingway said this, but he was qtd. in Desnoyers. Next quote same
topic as previous � KCS rules. A bit of lead-out for the quote. Some
lit. history I happen to know � no source. Leading
into the context of the next quote � influence of Lead into the next quote
with context � what's going on and who's thinking this? A quote longer
than 3 lines of typing can/should be indented on both sides, w/ NO quotation
marks and the period before the citation. Four dots when words are
left out and the thing after the dots is capital letter � 4th dot is the period. Don't indent your words after an
indented quote. A fact taken from a source. Back to my point, my thesis, linking
this � about nothingness & stoic Spanish men to the thesis. The sentence tells that H.
was the sayer of the words, so don't need his name
in ( ).I use the quote's words, linked to my own opinion, to lead-out from
the quote. I conclude with my point, echoing quotes & concepts I've used
to prove it.� Notice no big words,
almost no passive voice, no "It can be seen that," padding, or
overly-complicated sentences.� Lots of specifics.� No new page needed for Works Cited.
Works Cited list is double-spaced and alphabetized by the first word � and that
first word(s) is what goes into the parentheses inside the paper �
usually author(s) last name(s). Hemingway wrote his own story and his little
essay about style.� Hemingway has 2
entries here; so do Gioia & Gwynn,
so a bit of title will need to distinguish each entry in the paper's
parentheses. Desnoyers' Web article has an author,
so I use her.� It also had a date last
updated.� See MU's
"Build a Citation" site for how to cite Web Info. Here's our
anthology, since I used two little essays that H. did NOT write � the editors
did.� Notice ALL entries for the
anthology end w/ 1st and last page #s of the essay or story. Last Web
Site had less info., so less shown here � but
same order. |