AnAnalysisofHemingway’sAClean,Well-lightedPlace-精选文档

1、An Analysis of Hemingway s“A CleanWell- lighted Place1、IntroductionErnest Hemingway was regarded as the most important spokesman for “The Lost Generation ”. He was famous for his novels and short stories written in his spare,laconic terse,clear,telegraph-like,yet intense prose with short sentences a

2、nd very specific details. This style is his famous Iceberg Principle that emphasizes simplicity and economy of expression. Almost all his stories deal with the theme of courage in the face of tragedy. They reveal mans impotence and despairing courage to assert himself against over-whelming odds. And

3、 these heroes are called The Hemingway Code Hero.In his life,Hemingway wrote lots of famous works,which include In Our Time,The Sun Also Rises,A Farewell to Arms,For Whomth e Bell Tolls,The Old Man and the Sea,Death in the Afternoon,To Have and Have Not,and so on. And just for his novels and for his

4、 short stories,which include some of the finest in the English language,Hemingway received wide acclaim. In 1954,he was awarded a Nobel Prize for hismastery of the art of modern narration.His short story A Clean,Well-Lighted Place was written in his early time,which has a typical Hemingways style. I

5、t is primarily set in a cafe late in the evening as two waiters wait for their last customer to leave so that they can close shop for the evening. The plot of the short story is very simple,but in this story,Hemingways vivid description of the characters and his arrangement of the structure shows hi

6、s unparalleled artistic achievement.2、Literature ReviewAlthough Hemingway is a never paralleled writer,his works have been enormously popular with the people from all around the world,his life and death leaves people too many doubts,and he is still a controversial writer in the 20th century. His wor

7、ks also received high critical acclaim. Some critics pointed out that Hemingways idea was based on his own experiences,his own living conditions and the pessimistic philosophical theories of the western countries.Hemingways A Clean,Well-lighted Place was first published in a magazine named Scrimers

8、Magazine,then in the same year,it was embodied into a collection of shortstories named Winner Take Nothing. In the February of 1959,both F. P. Kroeger and William Colburn wrote articles to attack this story. They think that Hemingways dialogues in this story have the problem of confusing the identit

9、ies of the speaker. Answering to this attachment,Charles Scribner Jr. recorrected this part of the story in 1965.20Chinese scholar Du Yanyan also talked about this point in her paper,and she thinks that a minimalist story relies on dialogue and perfect surface details rather than introspective comme

10、nts by the narrators to tell a story. Hemingways short story A Clean,Well-lighted Place is of such characteristics since the writer omits the identities of the speakers of the discourse in conversations. Hence,readers,by seeking for the confirmation of the ambiguous identities of the speakers in the

11、ir reading,recognize the theme of this story.8Other criticisms go to Hemingways writing style and language characteristics,as Hemingway views the long,dull words as the natural enemy of art. He thinks that it is the concise words that lead to the success of art. 9He advocates using the short and cle

12、ar patterns inwriting,using the terse,simple words to express complicated meanings. Iceberg Art which he constructs forms a writing style,arises an art storm.Just as Shen Zhaoli pointed out that Hemingway is good at using simple statements rather than the very complex compound structures to construc

13、t his novels. 18 As for the choice of words,he likes the basic English vocabularies which have the exact meaning. He prefers noun to adjectives; verbs to adverbs,uses nouns and verbs to present the things vividly in front of the readers. According to Hemingway,what you should do is to put down the t

14、hings as they are,as for their inner meaning; he believes the reader will appreciate it. 73、Backgrounds3.1 Hemingway and the chaotic worldHemingwayl ived from 1899 to 1961,during this time,the whole world is in war,and he experienced many wars in all his life. That is the reason why most of his work

15、s take the war as background,describing the pains the war brings to human being,and reflecting a younger generations aimlessness after the war.During the First World War,Hemingway volunteered to join the Red Cross of America and became a driver in the ambulance corps. In one mission of rescuing the

16、wounded,Hemingway was seriously wounded and then went back to his hometown. He was the first American to be wounded in Italy during World War I,so after his recovery,he was given a decoration for valor,and then he become the hero in peoples mind. And in the middle of 1930s,he went to Span,becoming t

17、he reporter of battlefield about Spanish Civil War. During the World War II,he was a soldier against the fascist. The war had left endless pains both on his body and spirit. Like the characters he created,he preferred to choose dignity. 10Wars have left such a deep hurt in his mind that he can not f

18、ind a direction even after the war.In the early morning of July 2,1961,standing beside his beloved gun rack in his home,he shoot himself with his favorite gun.3.2 Hemingway and the Lost GenerationThe Lost Generation is a term first used by Gertrude Stein to describe the post-world War I generation o

19、f American writers:men and women haunted by a sense of betrayal and emptiness brought about by the destructiveness of the war. Full of youthfulidealism,these individuals sought the meaning of life,drank excessively,had love affairs and created some of the finest American literature to date. And the

20、three best known representatives of The Lost Generation are F. Scott Fitzgerald,Ernest Hemingway,and John Dos Passos. Others usually included among the list are Sherwood Anderson,Kay Boyle,Hart Crane,Ford Maddox and Zelda Fitzgerald.The writers of The Lost Generation have many common points. The fir

21、st is that they all devoid of faith and alienated from a civilization. Second is all of them were weary of the imperialistic wars but cannot find the way out. The third is expatriation. Many young writers of this school had an experience living in the European countries,especially in Paris. Although

22、 the government pronounced recovering the atmosphere before the war,war had left deep hurt in peoples heart. 12Therefore,these writers struggled with their inner pains and lived a terrible life during their whole life.They are victims of the war,in the post-war life,they write novels to express thei

23、r hope for a kind of life that full of frustration and beyond the tradition.Anyway,their moods are the most typical in the life after world war,that is why their works are advocated by all of the young people in that age. Just as the book named Backgrounds of American Literature Thought writes:The L

24、ost Generation was shocked,uprooted for a time,bitter critical,rebellious,iconoclastic,experimental,often absurd,more often misdirected-but never lost. 63.3 Hemingway and Hemingway Code HeroHemingway created a series of heroes in his novels and short stories,they appear as the protagonists of most o

25、f his work,and all these characters are well known,and appreciated by the people of his age. Hemingway Code Hero is one who,wounded but strong,more sensitive,enjoys the pleasure of life(sex,alcohol,sport,etc.) in faceof ruinand death,and maintains,through some notion of a code,an ideal of himself. B

26、arnes in the Sun Also Rises,Henry in a Farewell to Arms,and Santiago in The Old Man and the Sea are typical of Hemingway Code Hero.The sign of these heroes is that they are never defeated by the pressure of the world. Just like Hemingways words in The Old Man and the Sea:A man can be destroyed but n

27、ot defeated. In the authors opinion,the world wants todefeat all the human beings,but some of people is full of courage and never give in. The world is anxious to kill all of the brave,kind and wise people,only the superexcellent people who stand straight in the face of fragment and despair can be t

28、he hero. May be they are people who are destroyed in the body,but they are never defeated in their mind. They is always a hope in their mind.4、Analysis4.1 CharacterizationThis story depicts three characters:an old man,and two waiters. At the beginning of this story,an old man was sitting in the shad

29、ow of the trees and drinking brandy,he is deaf and now he is drunk.Last week he tried to commit suicide, one waiter said.why?He was in despair.What about?Nothing.How do you know it was nothing?He has plenty of money.11This is a simple and short dialogue between an oldwaiter and a younger one. Yet ju

30、st from this part,readers get general information about the three characters in this story. The first is the old rich man,who has wanted to take his own life last week because of nothing. The second is the older waiter,he might be have some kind of similar feelings with the old man,from his words,we

31、 can see his sympathy with the old man. And the last character,the younger waiter is very curious with the old mans suicide,from his saying,we know his attitude to nothing,in his opinion,nothing may be means poor,the old man is rich,why he want to take his own life is the thing he doesnt understand.

32、With penetrating analysis of the text,it is easy for us to identify the old man as a Hemingway Code Hero,he is living in loneliness and under the great pressure of the world. He isnt feared of death,although he is drunk every night,he never failed to pay his wine,even after his drunk,his words is st

33、ill speak as a gentleman. The old man stood up,slowly counted the saucers,took a leather coin purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks,leaving half a peseta tip. Walking unsteadily butwith dignity.15All these features indicate that this old man is the typical hero in Hemingways mind.The three t

34、ypical characters in this nocel,the old man,the middle aged waiter and the young waiter,obviously have no belief,no hope or aim. Here Hemingway describes a spiritual waste land of the people after the First World War. Because of the industrial development and the War,Peoples value tended to be vario

35、us. Peoples perplexity,loneliness,depression and rebellion actually reflected the great changes in social thoughts. 134.2 StyleHemingways novel is famous for its conciseness and simplicity,he likes to use the small and simple words,which makes it easily to be understood. The short story A Clean,Well

36、-lighted Place consists of about 1300 words,83 paragraphs and 136 sentences in all. In the whole story,there are many short dialogues,with the questions and answers in short turns.And from this short story,we can see that Hemingways style is deliberate and polished and is never natural as it seems t

37、o be,and its simplicity can be disastrously deceptive,as it is highly suggestive and connotative and capable of offering layers of undercurrents of meaning.Hemingways strength lies in his short sentences and very specific details. His short sentences are powerfully loaded with the tension which he s

38、ees in life. His abhorrence for the vague and general is extreme. 3With a careful reading of this work,we also can easily find Hemingways lively oral words,everyday expressions. Hemingway applies refined oral language into written language,brings life to literacy. His cleaned words can easily presen

39、t the characteristic of his characters,on the other hand,it can reveal the inner feelings of the characters due to its exactness and vividness,as a result,avoid the vagueness of the obscure words. Hemingway often uses monosyllabic words,because they are suitable for oral expression. 25、ConclusionHem

40、ingways A Clean,Well-Lighted Place is really an artistic success not only for its technical refinement and unique writing style,but for the intellectual brilliance with which the theme is handled,giving it a specifically modern appeal. The three characters,the old man,the middle-aged waiter and the younger waiter representthreegroups of people in their ages.And we must admit that A Clean,Well-Lighted Place was ahead of its time,the protagonists spirit of never be defeated,and his courag