What Lies Beneath: The Meaning Beneath the Surface of Ernest Hemingway's Work

The article “ Into the Dark Water” helped me understand what was happening by all of the quotes Lauren Tarshis put in the story. It also helped me feel how Jack Thayer a 17 - year old boy who was thankful to be on the Titanic felt about his whole journey through his quotes in the story that made me read till the end.

Smith, Paul. A Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway. Boston: G. K. Hall & Co. 1989. Print.

Traveling alone, ice traps, and building a fire under a tree are three poor decisions that cost the man his life. Ice traps are the first thing that brings about the man’s tragic demise. These deceptive traps are pools of water that are hidden beneath a thin layer of ice and snow. “And to get his feet wet in such a temperature meant trouble and danger” (London 85). Even with careful examination of the creek, the man proceeded to cross.

“She brushed the berg so gently that many on board didn’t notice it, but so lethally that she was instantly doomed (Lord).” The Titanic sent out her first distressed call at 12:15 a.m. (Lord). At 12:45, she began to fire rockets (Lord). At 1:10 when the first lifeboat pulled away, the water was up to the ship’s portholes (Lord). Fifty-five minutes later, at 2:05, the last lifeboat had left and there were 1,600 people stuck on the sloping decks (Lord). At 2:17, the Titanic majestically stood on end (Lord). It was at 2:20, on April 15, 1912, when the Titanic, the unsinkable ship had slipped beneath the sea (Lord). The sinking of the Titanic was known as the most famous disasters at sea (“Edward J. Smith”

Through tone, the authors portray each way the Titanic should be identified by using effective word choice. Many lives were lost on the Titanic that day, but instead

The Wrong Version of “Titanic” David K. Slavitt’s poem “ Titanic” explains the way most of the people look at the tragic event occurred in April 14, 1912. The poem uses a lot of sarcasm to portray its message describing how people would’ve bought the tickets for the ship even if they would’ve known that it was going to sink. With this poem, Slavitt’s work not only focuses on the sinking of the Titanic, but also on the impact it had on people and makes the reader think about the way most of the people look at the event based on movies and stories, which don’t show things as they happened.

Throughout his career, Ernest Hemmingway’s writing style has brought many questions from critics all over the world. These questions mainly emerged due to his writing being different from anyone else during that time. Hemmingway’s writing was simple and direct unlike other fellow writers. This made it easier for people to comprehend and it made connections to his ideas straightforward. In works such as Old Man and the Sea and For whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemmingway uses his style of writing to convey his purpose and ideas of literary elements, such as plot, mood, character, symbolism, and theme, which can be analyzed with New Critical Theory and Iceberg Theory.

In this article, Robert Gannon examines several flaws that were found decades after the Titanic’s tragic maiden voyage in an attempt to provide answers to the age-old question that titles his article, “What Really Sank the Titanic?”. Gannon begins the article by explaining various details of the well-known story of the Titanic’s trip in April of 1912. The readers are reminded that the massive vessel was considered unsinkable and disaster-proof prior to its first trip at sea. After crashing into a large iceberg, a few of the hull’s compartments were destroyed and the ship quickly began to take on water. The entire vessel sank in three short hours, and the exact causes of the disaster are still not fully understood.

The period between World War I and World War II was a very turbulent time in America. Ernest Hemingway most represented this period with his unrestrained lifestyle. This lifestyle brought him many successes, but it eventually destroyed him in the end. His stories are read in classrooms across America, but his semi-autobiographical writings are horrible role models for the students who read them. Hemingway’s lifestyle greatly influenced his writings in many ways.

Ernest Hemingway is well known throughout American literature for his unique style of writing, which contributed greatly to the overall effect and meaning of his stories. Before writing short stories, Hemingway was a journalist, which is where he adopted many of his unique techniques of writing. While writing as a journalist, Hemingway tended to write pieces that contained brief, choppy sentences and were generally minimalistic and terse. More importantly, this is where Hemingway developed his skill for writing “on the surface”. Hemingway’s use of the iceberg effect, diction, and syntax were largely what made him successful due to the contributions these styles had on his stories.

Ernest Miller Hemingway is known for his unique style and theories of writing, especially the iceberg theory. In the Death of the Afternoon, Hemingway says that “The dignity of movement of an ice-berg 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.” (92) Simple words, vivid images, rich emotions and deep thoughts are the four basic elements of the iceberg theory. Talk about how these stories illustrate four elements of theory. In both short stories, Hemingway describes scenery and characters with simple words directly to give readers a vivid image. Under this sketch, readers can know characters’ emotion and get the theme through their imagination and analysis.

You can identify Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory” in “The Doctor and the Doctor’s Wife.” The book starts off with conflict. There is tension between him and Dick Boulton, his son Eddy, and a Billy Tabeshaw. They see logs at a lake, logs like these typically never are claimed and left there to rot. The doctor saw these logs and took upon himself to to collect the logs for use, since they might not ever be claimed by anyone.The doctor hired the Indians to come and gather up the logs. The Indian men that the Doctor has hired sees the wood and assumes that the doctor had stolen the wood. Dick confronts the doctor about the wood. “Dick even looks to see where the logs came from.” He accuses him of stealing the wood by the lake. When Dick does this, the doctor is instantly offended and mad. The doctor is infurious and demands the men to leave at one instance. The

Hemingway. The Iceberg Theory is a style of writing that brings the point across without

Moreover, these complications even stem over to Henry’s guilt about the war. After arriving in Switzerland, Henry states, “The war seemed as far away as the football games of some one else’s college. But I knew from the papers that they were still fighting in the mountains because the snow would not come” (FTA, 291). Even in Switzerland, Henry cannot escape hearing about the war. While when he escapes the war, Henry cannot escape the guilt of deserting his friends, showing that his inner truth is not that simple. Even his inner meaning from existentialism has complications. With this idea, Friedrich Nietzsche states, “‘All truth is simple.’ Is that not doubly a lie?” This dichotomy between the simple and the complicated demonstrates nihilism’s

Hemingway died July 2, 1961, at his home, as the result of self-inflicted gunshot wounds. Ernest Hemingway had a different style of writing than the other authors in his