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¶ … Fitzgerald, Hemingway, and Cather

I'm so sorry this is late. My aircard went wacko and they have overnighted one that hasn't made it to me yet. I'm using a friend's card and the software for it is crashing my machine. I feel so bad about this and am so stressed about it!

Style emerges as one of the most distinctive aspects of many writers. More than subject matter, theme, or symbolism, style is subtle but significant when it comes to connecting with readers. F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and Willa Cather are three authors that have impressive but incredibly different writing styles. From the words used to the length of sentences, these authors demonstrate how style is purely one's own and how it is rarely a mistake. Fitzgerald uses the structure of his sentences to convey a particular mood in order to emotionally connect with readers. The narration becomes important as readers follow along. Hemingway, on the other hand, uses short prose to pack his writing with a punch. Fitzgerald will take more time to explain something to the readers while Hemingway and Cather choose to let simplicity rule. Examining the Great Gatsby, "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," "Hills Like White Elephants," and My Antonia, we see how style makes fiction work and become more powerful. These authors represent distinct styles that share are equally successful because they rely on subtle nuances to develop plots and characters.

Fitzgerald incorporates compound and complex sentences into his writing to illustrate his characters on a subconscious level. He establishes a rhythm within his narrative that indicates a control with his vocabulary. In the Great Gatsby, one of the recurring themes is the chasm between the affluent and the lower class. This difference is often played out with complex sentences and modifying clauses. One of the most popular passages in the novel appears near the end when Nick reflects on Gatsby, in light of Tom and Daisy. We read:

"It was all very careless and confused. They were careless people, Tom and Daisy -- they smashed up things and creatures and then retreated back into their money or their vast carelessness, or whatever it was that kept them together, and let other people clean up the mess they had made..." (184)

The ellipsis establishes a certain mental break with Tom and Daisy. They are not normal and most people cannot relate to their status, their relationship or their way of thinking. The ellipsis shows us a slice of Nick's mind as he tries to put it all together only to realize the best Tom and Daisy can do is mess things up. There is no solution to that problem and Nick cannot change how Tom and Daisy live. We see how they do not love each other but will remain connected to one another because of their status. The carelessness is stunning and easy to describe. The complexity of the couple's relationship is not, as seen in the language. Fitzgerald also captures a nuance of Gatsby with language. When describing his dreamy nature, he writes:

"He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly, he could find out what that thing was. . . ." (113)

In this scene, the sentence structure is complicated and concluded with another ellipsis, as if to leave the thought hanging in our minds just as the face and name of Daisy has hung in his mind all of thee years. The mention of confusion and disorder is deliberate for we know Gatsby can never return to any place in the past. We also see how Fitzgerald utilizes

"There is no confusion like the confusion of a simple mind an as we drove away Tom was feeling the hot whips of panic. His wife and his mistress, until an hour ago secure and inviolate, were slipping precipitately from his control" (127)

Ernest Hemingway employs a different technique than Fitzgerald, generating the same effects upon readers. Hemingway leans on the simple while Fitzgerald moves toward the complex. Hemingway is notorious for being a man of few words but it simply is not the fact that he uses fewer words. He leaves much out of his stories to force readers to figure out the deeper meaning. Hemingway's style emerges strong in "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place," where sentimentality is scarce throughout a somewhat simple plot. Regardless, the story is complicated and problematic for the characters. These waiters become the story and Hemingway says as little about them as possible. Through their language, we discover their humanity and where they happen to be at certain points in their lives. The old man, too, becomes a focal point as we see the older waiter relate to him on a certain level. Age and experience separate the waiters and we only learn the depth of that chasm through their seemingly simple conversation closing up one night. This story illustrates how Hemingway controlled the narrative in his stories to xxxxx.

Another story that displays Hemingway's mastery of dialogue is "Hills Like White Elephants." Again, we find brief sentence structure woven around an extremely delicate and emotional situation. Hemingway does not explain these characters to us; instead, we must discover who they are through their conversation. This conversation is filled with short and abrupt sentences and with that conversation, we still know very little about this couple. We do not know their ages, their history, or what they do. However, we know the most important thing to them but that is only revealed through careful attention to what they say to one another. Careful reading is the only way we figure out what is going on. The short sentences reflect the couple's distance from one another. When the man tells Jig, "We'll be fine after ward. Just like before," (615) we know he could be lying to her because he cannot predict the future. When she stands walks to the end of the station, she sees "fields of grain and trees along the banks of the Ebro. Far away, beyond the river, were mountains. The shadow of a cloud moved across the field of grain and she saw the river through the trees" (616). This scene is significant to her because Hemingway included it in the story. The rhythm here is terse but the imagery is suggesting something deeper for Jig. The scene is peaceful and the cloud, mountains and river juxtapose the mood of the conversation she is having. The contrast is felt through the abrupt sentences and concise descriptions.