Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway is one of my favorite writers. He's one of my inspirations when it comes to writing. I admire his spare style.l To read his work, possessing a vivid imagination is necessary. In an interview, he compared his work to an iceberg where there is so much more going on underneath the surface. In a Hemingway short story, what is said is nowhere near as important as what is not said. He was a master of subtlety and subtext. Hemingway wrote according to what he called the iceberg theory of writing. He's known mostly for his hunting and fishing exploits as the prototypical macho man but his life was fuel for his fiction and nonfiction. His experiences channeled through his singular vision changed the way we see the worls. He made the world feel more visceral, more vital through the written word. I believe his greatest achievement was reminding us all, through his work, of the toughness, of the sheer resilience of the human spirit. Hemingway's characters attempt to live in a hars, random world exhibiting what he called grace under pressure. I think one of the best encapsulations of grace under pressure is said by Jake Barnes in Hemingway's novel The Sun Also Rises. In that book Barnes says "I don't care what it's all about. I just want to know how to live in it." Jake Barnes want to figure out a way to survive in a world that he feels makes no sense. It's a sentiment that many people in today's world can relate to. Hemingway's characters, in their various circumstances, are trying to live life according to some sort of moral code. They're trying to find some sort of framework or structure to live life with some sort of meaning or dignity. In today's world of uncertainties, with religious strife,economic crisis, higher degrees of tension between the classes, injustice, corruption in all levels of society, Hemingway's work reminds us all that we can endure and prevail. As the man once said, a man can be destroyed but not defeated.