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Literary Themes In Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea

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Throughout his various works, novelist Ernest Miller Hemingway conveys a variety of literary themes accompanied with an almost indistinguishable style. As an intellectual who reached maturity during the era of World War I, deeming him a member of the “Lost Generation”, who also lived to witness the horrors of World War II, Hemingway explores themes such as fatalistic heroism, criticisms of society, disillusionment (a common theme amongst Lost Generation writers), and the meaning, or lack thereof, of life. Overall, his works delve into the complexities of human nature, using his first-hand experiences with external conflict as somewhat of a guide to exploring the even larger internal conflict within the common person. This focus on a particular set of themes stems from his belief that “all things truly wicked start from innocence.” (Hemingway) In his allegorical work, The Old Man and the Sea, Hemingway utilizes metaphors and a subtle, yet simple diction to portray the story of a common literary everyman and his journey of relentless perseverance through the character of Santiago. The common style utilized within The Old Man and the Sea can be paralleled with another one of his works, The Snows of Kilimanjaro, in which the present themes of an idealized past and nature are also expressed through the utilization of a subtle, yet simple diction. Although Hemingway explores a variety of topics throughout The Old Man and the Sea, the most prevalent theme is that of relentless
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Hemingway’s symbolism in Hills Like White Elephants Ernest Hemingway among the best of authors of his time, uses a quite different approach to his writings. His style to of writing is often vague and unclear. Hemmingway only gives a bit of content about the story, and the rest is hidden or missing entirely. The audiences are therefore forced to read more carefully and piece together the story. The style of writing he uses is known as the iceberg theory.

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In the short story “Hills Like White Elephants,” by Ernest Hemingway, there is a relationship unfolding, a complex relationship difficult to understand. The relationship is revealed by a conversation between a man and a woman, a topic of conversation that people rarely discussed in the period that the story was set. After researching interpretations, it is consistently said “She is pregnant, and he wants her to have an abortion” (Weeks 76), to which I agree that this conversation is about abortion. With the man seemingly pushing the topic and the girl hesitant and questionable, it is unsure as to the result of their conversation. However, it is my belief that she chose to follow her heart and not get the abortion.

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Relationships are the core of everything we do in life. We love someone, so we do something for them; we value someone 's opinion, so we respect them; we dislike someone, so we avoid them. Relationships cause people to act on their emotions which impact how and why they do the things they do. Ernest Hemingway’s short story “Hills Like White Elephants” is about a couple trying to come to a conclusion on a delicate matter. While the man strongly promotes his opinion the girl is hesitant but wants to do whatever will make him happy.

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The novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is a story about an old man, Santiago, who experienced great adversity but did not give up. The author, Ernest Hemingway, describes how an old man uses his experience, his endurance and his hopefulness to catch a huge marlin, the biggest fish he has ever caught in his life. The old man experienced social-emotional, physical, and mental adversity. However, despite the overwhelming challenges, he did not allow them to hold him back but instead continued to pursue his goal of catching a fish with determination. Santiago’s character, his actions and the event in the novel reveals an underlying theme that even when one is facing incredible struggles, one should persevere.

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Ernest Hemingway’s characters are frequently tested in their faith, beliefs, and ideas. To Hemingway’s characters, things that appear to be grounded in reality and unmovable facts frequently are not, revealing themselves to be hollow, personal mythologies. Hemingway shakes his characters out of their comfortable ignorance through traumatic events that usually cause a certain sense of disillusionment with characters mythologies, moving them to change their way of life. His characters usually, after becoming disillusioned, respond with depression, suicide, and nihilism. However, this is not always the case.

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Have you ever swam in the ocean? Ever fought against the waves? Have you ever felt its intensity?? Oceans can be quite treacherous and rigid, but once you sink down beneath the water, all is calm and peaceful. In “The Ocean” by Nathaniel Hawthorne, he paints an image of this by illustrating the waters and the men at sea.

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Symbolism plays a fundamental role in Hemingway’s “Hills Like White Elephants”. The different symbols used throughout the story are capable of subtly conveying intricate concepts to the readers of this recognized literary work. It then becomes essential for them to detect all these symbols, and discern the deep meanings which they hold in order to truly grasp the story’s message which the author intended to transmit. Without this insight, many first-time readers may view the story as a simple and casual dialog between two people, a man and a woman, waiting for a train from Barcelona to Madrid. Thus, they become unaware of the intense conflict the two main characters are actually facing, haunted by the difficult decision of terminating a pregnancy

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Every novel or stories gives a fundamental ideas or lesson for the readers. Most of the lesson are informative and it brings a changes to the readers mind. There will be a universal of an ideas explored in a literature and readers can abstract numerous themes depending on each individual. Similarly, in the novel “the old man and the sea” Hemingway depicted several themes related to nature, people and so on. However determination can also be one of the theme for the readers because the old man, Santiago didn’t gave up fishing even if he had cramp but he took this as an encouragement in his old age.

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Pablo Neruda's choice of diction and literary devices combine to give off a very calm and soft tone. Neruda, throughout the piece conveys a sense of calmness using sounds and words such as: “sea”, “me”, and “waves . Each of these words fly off of the tongue with ease and grace, similar to how the seas waves are. Neruda creates the image of being near the sea by his diction by choosing words with smooth sounds such as: “me” ,”rose”, “foam”, and “vast”. These words create the soft sounds like what we would see at the sea and that was Neruda’s goal.

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He showed this literary technique by reiterating situations relating to World War I; which he was injured in. Repetition of the word “never” denotes the strong belief the parent has; striving for their child to excel at life by not making the same mistakes they made. This adverb is symbolic of the child who is silenced by the emphatic parent. The overuse of this word should serve to engage and teach us, a generation in need of a reminder, that we can’t go through life living up to the expectations of those around us, because the repeated word ‘never’ will seem to become ‘never’-ending. The “never” is relevant and comprehensive, as Hemingway summarizes both the rich details of one person’s experience, yet a whole view on humanity and youth

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In the novel The Old Man and The Sea, written by Ernest Hemingway a credible author, the use of figurative language was not sparse. Figurative language enhances the story line and makes the book interesting and detailed. The most notable uses of figurative language were similes, metaphors, personification, idioms, and hyperboles. Similes are described as a comparison using like or as. We found many examples throughout the text.

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1371 Words | 6 Pages

Ernest Hemingway’s classic American novel, A Farewell to Arms is the story of the first-hand account of Frederic Henry, a man who served in World War I and fell in love with a nurse named Catherine. Hemingway utilized several techniques to manifest the theme of war and love with the ultimate result of death. The author fostered the characters through an emotional journey of highs and lows as death constantly hovered over them. Hemingway had to capture the concept of death correctly and impose the overall theme, which is why the ending was rewritten forty-seven times. Hemingway’s distinctive writing style centered around the dark perspectives of the 20th century, which sparked much controversy and criticism.

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One of the themes in the novel, The Old Man and the Sea, is that one should persevere even in the most challenging situations. The old man’s, Santiago’s, lone struggle with the fishes and the forces of nature over a period of almost three months demonstrated an almost mythical persistence. The purpose of this essay is to evaluate whether this theme has any value compared to God’s word. The Bible often discusses the theme of perseverance in the midst of adversity. Even though one views Santiago’s endurance and tenacity with admiration, the root causes of that perseverance is different from the reasons for a Christian’s perseverance in the world.

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1138 Words | 5 Pages

The novel, The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway, describes the life of some people from the Lost Generation in post-World War I Europe, but mostly in Paris, France and Pamplona, Spain. This novel rotates around Jacob, or Jake, Barnes’, the narrator’s, life; which mostly includes drinking with his friends, Robert Cohn, a Jewish man who is often verbally abused by his “friends”, Ashley Brett, an attractive woman who Jake is in love with, Bill Gorton, a good friend of Jake’s, and a couple others. Their life in dull Paris seems to revolve around spending money and drinking, but when they go to colorful Pamplona, Spain, they have an amazing time during the fun-filled fiesta. Ernest Hemingway uses the “iceberg theory” when he presents Jake Barnes to the reader; he does not directly tell you a lot about Jake, but through Jake’s thoughts and emotions, one can tell that he was injured in the war, he is not a very religious person, he would rather do what he loves, instead of what he must, and he does not like to be honest with himself, despite the fact that he is one of the more honest characters in the novel. Ernest Hemingway does not directly let the reader know that Jake is injured in a special place; he allows the reader to interpret that from Jake’s thoughts and memories.

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Hemingway presents the elements of failure and suffering in The Old Man and the Sea by depicting several instances of suffering and failure which the Old Man, Santiago, has to go through throughout the course of the novel. According to Hemingway, life is just one big struggle. In the beginning of the novel itself, The Old Man, is presented as a somewhat frail old man who is still struggling with his life as well as his past failures. His skiff even had a sail which bore great resemblance to “the flag of permanent defeat”, with its multiple patches all over.

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