Introducing Ernest Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway
(July 21, 1899 July 2, 1961)
Hemingway's 1923
passport photo taken
a year before the
publication of "Indian
Camp
A Nobel Prize Laureate
1954, representative
of the Lost
Generation;
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

The "Lost Generation"

The "Lost Generation" is a term used to refer
to the generation that came of age during
World War I. The term was popularized by
Ernest Hemingway who used it as one of two
contrasting epigraphs for his novel, The Sun
Also Rises. In that volume Hemingway credits
the phrase to Gertrude Stein (1874 1946)
who was then his mentor and patron.
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

In our Time (1925)

Bildungsroman
Bildungsroman is a type of novel
concerned with the education,
development, and maturing of a young
protagonist.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/
bildungsroman
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

"Indian Camp"
"Indian Camp" is a short story written by
Ernest Hemingway. The story was first
published in 1924 in Ford Madox Ford's
literary magazine transatlantic review in
Paris, and republished by Boni & Liveright
in 1925 in the American edition of
Hemingway's first volume of short stories
In Our Time.
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

the Hemingway Canon-a fundamental principle or general rule

The story is important because it shows the
emergence of Hemingway's understated style
and use of counterpoint. "Indian Camp" has
themes such as childbirth and fear of death,
which permeate much of his subsequent
work. When In Our Time was published the
quality of writing was noted and praised;
scholars consider "Indian Camp" an
important story in the Hemingway canon.
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

Iceberg Theory
Understated Style
The Iceberg Theory (also known as the
"theory of omission") is a term used to
describe the writing style of American writer
Ernest Hemingway. Hemingway is best known
for works such as The Sun Also Rises, A
Farewell to Arms, and The Old Man and the
Sea.
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

only one-eighth of it (iceberg)

being above water
If a writer of prose knows enough of what he is
writing about he may omit things that he knows and
the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will
have a feeling of those things as strongly as though
the writer had stated them. The dignity of
movement of an iceberg is due to only one-eighth of
it being above water. A writer who omits things
because he does not know them only makes hollow
places in his writing.
Ernest Hemingway in Death in the Afternoon
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

get the most from the least

Hemingway biographer Carlos Baker believed that
as a writer of short stories Hemingway learned how
to "get the most from the least, how to prune
language how to multiply intensities, and how to tell
nothing but the truth in a way that allowed for
telling more than the truth".
Furthermore, Baker explains that in the writing style
of the iceberg theory the hard facts float above
water, while the supporting structure, complete
with symbolism, operates out-of-sight.
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

Criticism of Indian Camp

Gwendolyn (a female given name: from a Welsh
word meaning white. ) Tetlow believes that
Hemingway's early fiction such as Indian Camp
shows his lack of concern for character development
by simply placing the character in his or her
surroundings. However, in Indian Camp the use of
descriptive detail such as a screaming woman, men
smoking tobacco, and an infected wound build a
sense of veracity (truthfulness).
In other words, a story can communicate by subtext;
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

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Hemingway's use of counterpoint

Hemingway's use of counterpoint in
his fiction is evident in "Indian Camp",
as at the end Nick trails his hand in
the lake water that "felt warm in the
sharp chill of the morning".

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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

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Leitmotif = Guiding Motif

A leitmotif (pronounced /latmotif/), sometimes
written leit-motif, is a musical term (though
occasionally used in theatre or literature), referring
to a recurring theme, associated with a particular
person, place, or idea.
It is closely related to the musical idea of ide fixe.
The term itself comes from the German Leitmotiv,
literally meaning "leading motif", or, perhaps more
accurately, "guiding motif."
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

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Genre: Initiation Story

The story is an initiation story, in which Nick is
initiated to the adult world of childbirth and death.
Nick's father introduces his son to sexuality,
childbirth, and unintentionally to violent deathfor
Nick the two become inextricably interwoven.
Gwendolyn Tetlow maintains that in "Indian Camp"
sexuality culminates in "butchery-style" birth and
bloody death, and that Nick's anxiety is manifested
when he must turn away from the events in the
cabin.
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Initiation Story
An initiation story is a fiction in which the protagonist (the
most important character in the work) undergoes an
experience that is life-changing, and usually that character
is a young person who gains a measure of maturity from the
experience.
Good examples of initiation in short stories are James
Joyce's "Araby," John Updike's "A & P," Sarah Orne Jewett's
"A White Heron," and Alice Munro's "The Found Boat."

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In-Class Writing
Plot Summary
Story vs. Plot: Story vs. Plot: That The king
died and then the queen died is a story (in
which events are chronologically organized)
whereas that The king died and the queen
died of grief is a plot in which the events are
linked by causality.
E. M. Forster. Aspects of the Novel, 1927.
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

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Plot Summary
Convention: use the simple present tense;
Mention full name (of an author) for the first time
and then only use the last name throughout;
Condense: the art of selection
Michelangelo is said to have created David, a
masterpiece of Renaissance sculpture, by taking a
block of marble and cutting away everything that
was not David.
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Rewrite
No more than five sentences
Use the simple present tense and write a brief
summary of the story by using Six Ws;
Sequence: the chronological order, the
climactic/anti-climactic sequence or model it
on the Inverted Pyramid, a common method in
journalism by which events are organized from
most to least important.
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Introducing Ernest Hemingway

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Pathology vs. Psychiatry

According to Arnold Weinstein, Hemingway
has made a distinction between Pathology
and Psychiatry. The former refers to a wound
or sudden physical injury whereas the latter
adds the emotional shock or psychological
damage. Psychological traumas are hard to
identify from the outside and deepen with
time.
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Pro and Con

on Dr. Henry Adams
Claim: He is insensitive
in such a delicate
situation
Evidence:
Warrant:

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Claim: Dr. Adams

remains cool at a critical
moment.
Evidence:
Warrant:

Introducing Ernest Hemingway

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