Topic > The Relationship Between Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises and Journalism

Ernest Hemingway is widely regarded as one of the finest modernist literary minds, and his first novel The Sun Also Rises (also known as Fiesta) is held in high regard. It is based on real events in Hemingway's life, ones that he fictionalized as he was experiencing them, and centers on the running of the bulls ceremony in Pamplona, ​​Spain. Hemingway, having worked as a journalist in the years preceding the publication of his novel, employed an emergent writing style (known by some as "hard-boiled" writing) characterized by a spare, raw nature, avoiding the use of flowery descriptive terms. words. This essay will show, using The Sun Also Rises as an example, that this style was influenced by journalism and that the basic elements of the novel itself depended heavily on Hemingway's journalistic background. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay One of the most obvious ways in which The Sun Also Rises is related to journalism is that it was written virtually extemporaneously, with Hemingway working on the novel as events unfolded in his life. At first it contained the real-life names of the characters, with Hemingway the protagonist simply called “Hem” (Hays, 2011, p.2). During this time he took numerous notes and later began working on the novel itself; according to Linda Wagner-Martin, in Ernest Hemingway: A Literary Life, “It is a matter of literary history that Hemingway took notes… even while the Roman Clef was unfolding” (Wagner-Martin, 2007, p.52) . What emerged from these notes was a novel, subsequently edited and rewritten by Hemingway. The novel has special significance as Hemingway originally did not intend to write something so long, but rather to write about the celebrations of Pamplona, ​​a topic he deemed worthy of study because it was unknown to many Americans. It could be argued that Hemingway's journalistic background was entirely necessary for his presence in Pamplona (as he wanted to break away from it and write a novel about the Fiesta), and equally that journalism's focus on exhaustive note-taking made possible a novel be derived from the resulting information. There is a sense of urgency throughout the novel, produced by many factors, but the fact that it is an account of real-life events (more or less) and recorded practically "in the moment" undoubtedly added realism to the work. His sentences are short and matter-of-fact, especially during all the action scenes – a notable example is this account of the running of the bulls: “Then people began to come running. A drunk slipped and fell. Two policemen grabbed him and ran towards the fence. The crowd was running fast now” (Hemingway, 1926, p.103). This account is a running commentary, so to speak, and resembles what a journalist might record or write while observing the unfolding action. This entire descriptive section is devoid of emotional words and reads like a breaking news report. This is a holdover from his journalism training at the Toronto Star: "[the paper's] first commandment was 'use short sentences.' Use short first paragraphs.'” (Underwood, 2013, p.127). Whether or not it adds realism to the work is obviously a subjective question, but in this case it emulates the kind of micro-reporting you see in live blogs, reporting fact after fact. In this way, it could be considered more realistic as it is presented in the way we are used to receiving news, or factual information. This brings up the topic of Hemingway's writing style, another partmajor of The Sun Also Rises who was influenced by his background in journalism. His concise, reticent prose withholds much of the ancillary information from the reader and any authorial depiction of emotions that might influence how the reader views the information presented. Take this section as an example: "I say, you weren't there?" Mike asked. “Ring for some beer, Bill.” "What a morning!" Bill said. He wiped his face. "My God! what a morning! And here's old Jake. Old Jake, the human punching bag." “What happened inside?” "Good God!" Bill said, "What happened, Mike?" “There were these bulls coming in,” Mike said. “Right in front of them was the crowd, and one guy tripped and knocked them all over.” “And the bulls all came right on top of them,” Bill said. "I heard them screaming." (Hemingway, 1926, p.105) In this passage the characters discuss important things, but there is an absolute lack of detail outside of the dialogue to indicate this. Even "said", being a sort of "invisible" word when representing dialogue, is used incredibly sparingly. Every action described – and even then extremely little – is conveyed neutrally, without being imbued with an emotion or even a description. Throughout the book, there are many other examples of this type of brevity of representation, and it adds to a view of these characters as if the reader is simply observing them. This gives an aspect of truth to the novel, as "truth" for any person could be defined as what they themselves saw or heard. Examining the influence of journalism on the plot of The Sun Also Rises brings up an interesting point: since one of the principles of journalism is to represent reality, Hemingway was early in noticing the literary appeal of writing about one's life and conveying his ideas. reality. As stated by the critic Peter L. Hays, "Hemingway never states but tries to suggest the emotions of a character" (Hays, 2011, p.59), which is done in the above-mentioned style, which resembles the reporting of facts and it allows the reader to freely extract what they want from the dialogue. The characters express their emotions quite clearly, but by avoiding attaching adverbs and adjectives to the dialogue, Hemingway is not representing his characters; let everyone represent themselves. Again, this adds realism to the work; in real life, unless told directly, we must infer a person's mood by examining their behavior. This is exactly what Hemingway gives the reader the chance to do in The Sun Also Rises, and it is one of the most salient reasons why it is realistic. In The Undeclared War Between Journalism and Fiction, Doug Underwood states that “in The Sun Also Rises, Hemingway's technique was to merge the artist with the reporter by allowing Jake to present a journalistic account of the drama of the festival and the interactions of the his friends, but to do so in a way that invites us to see beyond the superficial elements of his narrative” (Underwood, 2013, p.129). This is perhaps the most realistic way to create a narrative, using a stripped-down version of the first-person perspective, so free of description that it invites the reader to do so. This is, in a way, ironic; Hemingway altered, removed, or combined some characters and changed dialogue and events to create a more complete story. This was also an important factor in the realism of the novel itself; presenting a semi-fictionalized story so crudely that it feels more real than reality. The modus operandi of journalism is to be truthful, but Hemingway wanted the reality of the story to surpass simple prose and become symbolic. This point leadsdirectly to another influence journalism had on The Sun Also Rises; Hemingway's rebellion against it. This rebellion was intrinsically part of the creation of The Sun Also Rises, as it was Hemingway's attempt to free himself from journalism. At this point in his life, he wanted to write a novel and become a respected writer (2007, Wagner-Martin, p.52), which he believed could only be done by leaving his journalistic roots behind. He has spoken out more than once against the limits of journalism; the power of editors over his creativity, the focus on newspaper families of the time and how it seemed to him like stunted, formulaic and disposable journalistic work (2013, Underwood, p.132). The Sun Also Rises was his attempt to buck the norms that had up until that point held back his work, and one of the main ways in which he did this was to take creative license with the plot and characters. According to Doug Underwood, in The Undeclared War Between Journalism and Fiction, “If scenes, people, and dialogue could not be reshaped – even if only slightly – Hemingway believed he would be prevented from expressing the deeper “truths” of human interactions that his instinct as an artist told him that this is where the fundamental dynamics of life take place” (2013, Underwood, p.129). By changing names and adapting the story and dialogue, Hemingway drew a thin veil of fiction over real, complex and profound characters, carefully crafting each moment in an attempt to represent the truth more truthfully than journalism. He stated that “[a writer's] standard of fidelity to the truth must be so high that his invention [which derives] from his experience, should produce a truer account than anything factual may be” (2013, Underwood, 2013 , p.127). So journalism's relationship with The Sun Also Rises could be characterized as antagonistic; Hemingway voluntarily attempted to transcend his limitations and convey real life as he saw it. One of the ways this was done was by addressing issues that would have been controversial at the time and certainly would not have been acceptable in a family. friend newspaper. Homosexuality is an example; Jake gets angry at two gay men, saying "I know they're supposed to be fun, and you're supposed to be tolerant, but I wanted to hit one of them... to shatter that superior composure and grimace." Jake is also impotent, due to a wound sustained in the war, which is another topic – incidentally, with interesting interpretative depth – that would be considered rude or taboo to discuss. Bill says so too, saying, “Never mention it…that's the kind of thing you can't talk about” (Hemingway, 1926, p.). Even the questionable main point of the story, Jake's inability to consummate his love with Brett, would have been a taboo subject at the time. Therefore the novel is itself a rebellion against journalistic censorship. These issues might be considered relatively common today, but considered in social context, the reality was new and explosively controversial. Therefore, addressing taboo social issues such as these had a huge impact on the realism of the novel, making it as close to real life as had ever been depicted at the time. As previously mentioned, Hemingway's major writing precepts were developed during his time at the Toronto Star, the two being primarily, according to biographer and critic Charles A. Fenton in his book The Apprenticeship of Ernest Hemingway, "short sentences and English vigorous" (Fenton, 1954, p.32). This ethic clearly stuck with Ernest Hemingway and many examples of it can be found in the novel. While Jake and Bill do 04/12/14.