You will choose ONE to which you’d like to respond (250 words). Each prompt will have its own post and comment section. (Comments can be made on either prompt and are not limited to the one you chose for your initial response.)
#1
Consider Hemingway's use of imagery, including both what images he provides and how he presents them. What effect does this aspect of his style have on the reader? How does is add to the stories? Consider the pieces, "Under the Ridge," "A Natural History of the Dead," and "Nobody Ever Dies" and reference specific examples and excerpts.
Thursday, July 15, 2010
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Imagery can have many different purposes and effects within literature. It can be used in a simple way, as to describe the setting, or it can be used intricately, as to convey deep emotions. In these three pieces, Hemingway uses imagery for many purposes, but the use of imagery that presented itself the clearest to me was his simplest use: the setting of each story. He provides the background images for each story in by describing the view in each setting. Locations, sizes, and colors are given in order to make the surroundings more vivid. These descriptions allow the reader to better place the characters in the story and help the reader better interpret the cause of certain events or dialogue in the stories. In “A Natural History of the Dead,” the setting imagery is placed a little differently than the other two pieces. The setting that is described is used as explanation. Hemingway describes that “the most disturbing thing, perhaps because it was the most unaccustomed, was the presence and, even more disturbing, the occasional absence of this long hair” to explain away the surprise at “the sight of a dead woman” (Hemingway, 336). In “Under the Ridge,” the scene upon which the soldiers are viewing is described in order to explain to the reader the situation in which the soldiers are placed. “The tanks covered with branches chopped from olive trees” are described, as is “a long line of men carrying stretchers…to where, on the flat at the foot of the ridge, ambulances were loading” (Hemingway 460). These images show that the soldiers are in the middle of war during a difficult time. In “Nobody Ever Dies,” the first paragraph describes the house that “was built of rose-colored plaster that had peeled and faded with the dampness” (Hemingway 470). The descriptions of the house and of the actions going on immediately place the reader into the scene. Hemingway’s placing of his imagery at the beginning of each story to introduce the reader to the scene allows the reader to become imbedded more deeply into the story and therefore make the story more able to be identified with.
In “A Natural History” and “Under the Ridge” Hemingway uses imagery and sensory details to illustrate different facets of human tendencies. In “A Natural History”, Hemingway describes the parallel between mankind’s spiritual nature and physical being through the use of imagery. To describe spirituality, Hemingway uses a quote from Mungo Park. Park is on the verge of death,when he sees a “small moss flower of extraordinary beauty”. Park saw the “delicate conformation of the roots, leaves, and capsules” as being relative to the intricacies of human nature and proof of a greater, sentient, power that would care for him in his time of need(336). In another scene, Hemingway depicts hopelessness and isolation with death and destruction imagery. He describes the smell of the battlefield on a hot summer day, the bright yellow color of ground stained by mustard gas, the papers which often surround a bloated body; he relates these phenomenon to the same “natural” phenomenon which created that tiny flower(337). He asks where Mungo would have found proof of a caring supreme being in a display of nature as gruesome as the battlefield. These examples of imagery imply that hope is associated with faith and spirituality and hopelessness with doubt and physical destruction. In “Under the Ridge”, Hemingway describes the incomparable “thirst of battle”, man’s thirst for death and destruction. The soldiers must use water to quench their physical thirst, but crave wine. This image of blood red wine, accompanied with the thirst metaphor, illustrates the indulging aspect of destruction. Man does not always need destruction, but is capable of it, knows of it, and is inclined to cause it.
In Hemingway’s short stories: A Natural History of the Dead, Under the Ridge, and Nobody Ever Dies Hemingway uses imagery to make the short stories more interesting to the reader. The first imagery I noticed was the use of the olive branch in war time situations. In both of Hemingway’s short stories: Under the Ridge and Nobody Ever Dies there is the image of the olive. In Under the Ridge the soldiers had “tanks covered with branches chopped from olive trees”. Since the olive branch is supposed to be a symbol for peace this is given a sense of irony. In Nobody Ever Dies there is the imagery of where Vicente and some of the others had died. They were dead “in the rain in the olive groves of the Jarama”. Once again there is the irony of the contradicting symbols. These images of olive branches directly contrast the surroundings they are in; war versus peace. In one they are being used to camouflage tanks and in the other they are a marker for the death bed of soldiers at war. By displaying these symbols of peace Hemingway seems to be almost criticizing them. It is as if he is saying there is no such thing as peace. Another interpretation of why Hemingway uses symbols of peace such as the olive branches may be to show that there is peace coming, that it is in sight and will soon be upon them. The olive branches by the dead may represent the peaceful transition from life or death.
Hemingway’s imagery in “Under the Ridge”, “Nobody Ever Dies”, and “A Natural History of the Dead” is characterized by its graphic (as in violent) nature, meant to disgust and repulse. In “A Natural History of the Dead,” Hemingway starts the story in a rather unassuming way; he presents an inspired story of a naturalist who survived against great odds because he was inspired by a fauna native to Africa. What Hemingway does next is also inspired, though in a rather different way. He takes the story of the naturalist and applies it to his own life in war-ravished Spain, and examines the sights as if he were a naturalist looking at animals. This leads to some extremely graphic images, such as “The dead… change somewhat in appearance… from white to yellow, to yellow-green, to black,” (3). and “This general died… [by] a hole in front you couldn’t put your little finger in and a hole in back you could put your fist through…, and much blood” (5). The effect of this story-long juxtaposition is calculated revulsion and repulsion- by juxtaposing fauna and killing Hemingway makes the gory scenes seem worse. “Under the Ridge” also contains graphic scenes, but these are presented in a more personal way, with less gory description, as shown through the story of Paco. Paco “shot himself so badly that the bone was all smashed and there surged up an infection and his hand was amputated… Paco, looking very ashamed to be spoken of this way when he was already ashamed and sorry; the [officer] took his pistol out and shot Paco in the back of the head without any word to Paco” (7-8). “Nobody Ever Dies” is the least gory of all, but it deals mostly with one person, and his friends, relationships, and news. It still contains disgusting imagery, however, mostly when Enrique describes his wound as a “huge sunken place a baseball could have been pushed through, that grotesque scar from the wound the surgeon had pushed his rubber-gloved fist through in cleaning… from one side of the small of his back through to the other”(7). Disgusting imagery indeed.
Hemingway's use of imagery in, "A Natural History of the Dead”, is both vulgar and repulsive. In that throughout the story, Hemingway puts in a spin of graphic violence in this story. "Regarding the sex of the dead it is a fact that one becomes so accustomed to the sight of all the dead being men that the sight of a dead women is quite shocking"(Hemingway 336). This can cause the reader to either be very repulsed or cause him or her to want to read more. Hemingway has a very great style that causes the reader to become entangled into the story and make him or her to not put the book down. Also in Hemingway's piece, "Under the Ridge", the author put the same type of imagery but instead of focusing on the crude and vulgar areas, he added in the racial imagery. "I have no fear. Neither of planes nor of nothing", the Extremadura said. "And I hate every foreigner alive"(463). This does not cause the reader as much repulsiveness rather he or she would most likely feel a sort of disgust due to all of the hatred to people of different ethnicities. In the short story, "Nobody Ever Dies", Hemingway the author puts in imagery similar to the other two short stories but one that definitely breaches into its own special category. The category that this story would fall under is tragedy and personal loss, because even though the story is still a somewhat graphic, disgusting thing, Hemingway focuses more on the personal loss of Enrique. "Enrique how is Chucho?" "Dead at Lerida." "Felipe?" "Dead. Also at Lerida." "And Arturo?" "Dead at Teruel" (473-474). This is the main area where Hemingway shows how much pain and suffering Enrique persevered.
Imagery is an effective technique that most great writers consistently use to further connect to their audiences. Hemingway chooses to use this method in his various short stories to implant vivid pictures into the readers’ minds. For example, “A Natural History of the Dead” is written very objectively through the eyes of a journalist who portrays death as very unclean and without dignity. He describes death, destruction, and the aftermath of a grave war in a very detailed manner, stating that a human body “divided as capriciously as the fragmentation in the burst of a high explosive shell” and that if left long enough, the flesh resembles “coal-tar” and has a “visible tarlike iridescence” (Hemingway 337). By including grotesque images from the war, Hemingway is successfully able to evoke negative feelings about the war as well as feelings of hatred and repugnance from sympathetic readers. Likewise, in “Under the Ridge”, Hemingway describes how the soldiers are often “there in the dust, the smoke…the death, the fear of death, the bravery, the cowardice, the insanity and failure” (465). All positive feelings about the war that may remain are destroyed, and the readers are able to better understand the soldiers’ troubles and daily, unrelenting fears. Imagery of fear is also present in “Nobody Every Dies”, as Enrique describes how danger and the fear of it made him feel weak and unable to move (472). The profuse amount of imagery that Hemingway uses enables him to transport the reader into the scene as though he or she were actually there, experiencing the characters’ experiences.
In his short stories “Under the Ridge,” “Nobody Ever Dies,” and “A Natural History of the Dead,” Ernest Hemingway appeals to the reader’s senses and beliefs to display certain images and ideas. First, in “Under the Ridge,” he makes use of the under-used sense of hearing to paint a sorrowful and dolorous image. He does this by describing the slaughter of a soldier: “over the crest of the parallel ridge I heard the Mausers’ jerky barking. They kept it up for more than a dozen shots. They must have opened fire at too long a range. After all the burst of shooting there was a pause and then a single shot” (“Ridge” 465). By manipulating this sense that is not as often used in literature and ignoring the more obvious sense of sight, Hemingway lures the reader into the story by the simple fact that he bends his or her mind in a way it not often is. In “Nobody Ever Dies,” Hemingway manipulates the more commonly called-upon sense of sight to describe an aspect of the story. He describes Enrique’s wound as a “…huge sunken place a baseball could have been pushed through, that grotesque scar from the wound the surgeon had pushed his rubber-gloved fist through in cleaning…” (“Dies” 476). However, if one goes back and analyses this description, not only does Hemingway appeal to the sense of sight, he appeals to the reader’s sense of pain. This may not be a sense, per se, but it certainly paints a clear picture all the same. Finally, in “A Natural History of the Dead,” Hemingway appeals to the reader’s beliefs, or lack thereof, in an omniscient and omnipresent “Being.” Hemingway uses this belief to paint the image of “a small moss-flower of extraordinary beauty” that was created in the Being’s “own image” (“History” 335). This image of an omniscient being is one of the themes in the story.
Hemingway uses imagery to lay before the reader an entire world of scenery where the story will take place. He begins many of his works with descriptions of scenery. For example in "Nobody Ever Dies" he begins with, “The house was built of rose-colored plaster that had peeled and faded with the dampness and from its porch you could see the sea, very blue, at the end of the street” (470). By describing the house in the beginning gives the reader a transition into that world, as if the reader is entering from the outside world and into the story. Hemingway includes all the five senses in his works to give the reader a complete experience in his stories. For example, he gives the reader the sounds of the environment in "Nobody Ever Dies," when he wrote, “Then he heard a key turn again in the lock of the front door. He heard it unlock the door, heard the door pulled against the bolt, and then the lock being turned again. At the same time he heard the sound of a bat against a baseball and shrill shouting in Spanish from the vacant lot” (470). Hemingway gives the reader descriptive imagery of what the character has seen. This again is to place the reader into the shoes of the character and to give them a complete experience and understanding of the characters. For example, the character of the Extremaduran in "Under the Ridge" says, “Paco, looking very ashamed to be spoken of this way when he was already ashamed and sorry; the other took his pistol out and shot Paco in the back of the head without any word to Paco. Nor any word more” (467). Another example of this is from "A Natural History of the Dead," where Hemingway vividly describes the image of the dead. These images evoke emotions out of the reader to again, place them in the lives of the characters, so that the reader may see and have the similar reactions to these images as the character did in the story. For example, “Until the dead are buried they change somewhat in appearance each day. The color change in Caucasians races is from white to yellow, to yellow-green, to black” (337).
Initial responses end.
Comments are open.
Keep up the good work!
"The Dean"- Why do you think Hemingway made the imagery for these three pieces similar to each other? Do you think that it was a coincidence or do you think there is something more?
Psinghal-
I like your observations on the grotesque imagery used by the author and its effect on the reader. I, however, would argue, that even if the piece is anti-war, the author is depicting war as a natural product of humanity.
Madelyn-
I noticed the olive branch references as well. I totally agree with your interpretation of their use. Its as if Hemingway is saying that peace is something ethereal, unattainable to unenlightened beings.
Ashby: I recognize the fact that Hemingway was trying to repulse in "A Natural History of the Dead," and I agree. I would like to know what you think Hemingway's reasoning behind this was. What was he trying to accomplish, besides making his readers green in the face?
Many people who wrote about the imagery noticed one thing, the grotesque nature. However, does something grow more grotesque when emotionally connected to an idea or person? I felt the matter of fact speech in "Natural History" kept me from being repulsed. However, when I heard the story of Paco in "Under the Ridge" I felt much more repulsed by the actions. I feel that although the vividness of the imager scales down from story to story, the connection with the characters grows making the imagery more and more poignant. Finally we follow Enrique, a man who freed the bird from its cage and lost many friends, to his sad end with his many wounds. This is just my opinion but I believe Hemingway made it so that the atrocity of the imagery was the same, as the vividness and the connections balanced out.
Madelyn- Nice Observation! I didn't even notice the olive branches were in the story until i read your comment. And you're right, Hemingway does use irony a lot in his stories. In fact, Hemingway's use of irony is epitomized throughout "A Natural History of the Dead"; because a naturalists view of a battlefield is SO inspiring, and dead people are SO enlightening.
Nellie- I think Hemingway made the imagery in the three stories so similar because they have a similar subject- war. Hemingway (as shown throughout his stories,) portrays war in an intensely graphic manner to convey a very simple message;
Only one thing is certain in war- men die, in very nasty ways
You going to answer my question, Ashby?
Preeti – I really enjoyed reading your response about Hemingway’s use of imagery. I agree with you; he is really able to create a clear image in the reader’s mind with good concise descriptions. He does not muddy down his work with too many descriptions. The only place where I contradict is when you say in “The Natural History of the Dead”, that Hemingway describes death as “very unclean and without dignity”. I believe that Hemingway was not trying to portray that image, because later in the story the journalist describes “war in the mountains the most beautiful of all war” (Hemingway 339). Something that is without dignity is not depicted as beautiful. Normally, one word is not as important, but because Hemingway uses such concise descriptions each word has gains importance. That is the only minuscule point I differ in opinion with you.
Emily,
I loved the example you used about hearing the soldier's cry! That example particularly stuck out to me when I read it. You stated that this appeal to that sense (hearing) is often under-used. Why do you think that? And do you agree or disagree? Is appealing to the sense of hearing less effective than that of sight?
Madelyn - I really like the fact that you noticed Hemingway's use of irony and of juxtapositions with the olive branches in the middle of war. I like that you brought up Hemingway's own personal views on the matter delicately called, peace. Why exactly do you think Hemingway would be criticizing the peace with an example of war?
RAF: Thank you for your input. Let me clarify what I meant to say.
What I am describing as "unclean" and "without dignity" is death itself, not necessarily in correlation with the war. I drew this conclusion fromt the various descriptions of blood and gore that the journalist presents, all of which have strong, negative connotations that have the power to repulse and horrify the reader.
While the location of the war may be beautiful, it does not necessarily negate the impact of death. When Hemingway mentions that a war in the mountains is the "most beautiful of all war", I believe that he is trying to be ironic, bringing is a "bright-side" to the war, which, in my opinion, is thorougly impossible (Hemingway 339).
I agree with what Zoe said about the speech in “A Natural History of the Dead” kept her from being repulsed and how in “under the ridge” she was much more repulsed. I feel that Hemingway writes his stories for a reason (obviously) but also for the reason to let people know the extent of the story but to not be completely “repulsed” as she mentioned. As for what Sarah said about “The house was built of rose-colored plaster that had peeled and faded with the dampness and from its porch you could see the sea, very blue, at the end of the street” (470) was very insightful mentioning how he has all 5 senses in the story and using the metaphor of “entering from the outside world and into the story”
(In response to Psinghal response) I agree that Hemingway uses imagery to connect the readers to the world he has written out. I find it interesting how Hemingway has taken images that most would probably over look if they themselves had been placed in the setting and gives such emphases to them. For example, the dead mules or the fact that the deceased soldiers were positions differently according to pockets on their uniforms. Only a person who had experienced it for themselves would remember such images. This type of observations, that the author has either observed or created in his mind, gives the reader a firsthand experience to the world within the words.
Let me make it simpler for you, Emily. Hemingway intends to repulse because he is a pacifist. Disgusting the reader makes them more likely to protest against war, knowing its probable horrific outcome for the combatants. Hemingway's message is simple: War is evil.
Wow, Ashby, way to patronize me.
Kali: It's not that I think that appealing to the sense of hearing is less effective; I think quite the opposite, actually. The use of hearing really brought out the pain, in my opinion. It just seems that in my reading career I've encountered many more instances of visual imagery.
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