Ernest Hemingway: Style Essay, Research Paper

Ernest Hemingway was a writer whose style was very different to that of most writers in his time. Instead of using more drawn out, overly descriptive writing, his stories were more of a “get to the point” style. This gave his works a much different feel and set them aside from what was common during his lifetime.

Hemingway’s style came from his background as a journalist, where he was taught to make stories short and informative, as most articles in newspapers are. When he made the move to writing he brought this style along with him and incorporated it into his various stories. Instead of using 20 pages to describe one person’s odor or something along those lines, Hemingway would finish an entire story in a small amount of space. But what set him apart from the rest was his ability to use such few words, and still get the reader to know what he was talking about.

This style used by Hemingway appealed to the greater of the masses because it enabled the reader to get the full effect of a story, and not have to sit through chapter after chapter of boring details. Readers, such as myself, and other teenagers of modern day, could read a story such as “The Old Man and the Sea” in a short amount of time, but feel like they had just read an epic. He transferred the content of a novel into the length of a short story.

Another aspect of Hemingway’s style was his use of atmosphere. When you would read a story written by Hemingway, you could feel like you were in the setting, seeing what the characters saw, and feeling as the characters felt. Although Hemingway did not spend a lot of time writing about details, he still paid close attention to them.

In the story “The Old Man and the Sea,” Hemingway writes about an old fisherman who goes out into the sea in search of fish. The story is about 15% dialogue and 85% of the old man alone in the sea. This scenario seems as though it would be quite boring, with no human interaction, and excluding the shark encounter, nearly no action, and yet there is not one moment where you do not feel glued to the pages. Hemingway wrote the story in such a way that you feel like you are there sitting in the skiff with the old man, watching him as he waits for the fish. This aspect of Hemingway’s writing enables him to keep the reader at full attention through even the dullest sections of the story.

Hemingway’s style of short and too the point writing enabled him to appeal to a whole new type of reader, and today his stories are still popular, due to their short, yet still exciting style. Hemingway’s writing elevated him into one of the greatest writers of our lifetime, and his style will be prevalent for years to come.