Hemingway Argument Essay

Alexis Garcia

6th Period

E.L Doctorow once said, “ Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader- not the fact that it is raining, but the feeling that it is being rained upon.” This clearly relates to Hemingway because he was such an extraordinary writer who wrote stories that had everyone wondering what they meant and who they were about. He used many writing techniques that he may not have been aware of, but that is what helped make him the most influential writer since Shakespeare's death. Hemingway used complex literary devices to demonstrate his code hero and the theory of nada, but the two that were vital to his detailed stories were situational irony and symbolism.

Symbolism helped Hemingway get his point of the theory of nada across in a way that wasn’t the most direct, but if taken into deeper thought seemed more obvious. In Hemingway’s “A Clean Well Lighted Place”, more often times than not, he used symbolism to embed his theory of nada. “‘I am of those who like to stay late at the cafe,’ the older waiter said. ‘With all those who do not want to go to bed. With all those who need light for the night’” (page 3). The theory of nada is embed in what the older waiter said. He’s among those who are scared of the darkness because they fear what comes after death, which they believe to be is darkness and that symbolizes nada. Hemingway also uses symbolism throughout The Old Man and The Sea in a way that is mysterious, yet straightforward. “‘This is the second day now that I do not know the result of the juegos, he thought. But I must have confidence and I must be worthy of the great DiMaggio who does all things perfectly even with the pain of the bone spur in his heel. What is a bone spur? he asked himself. Un espuela de hueso. We do not have them. Can it be as painful as the spur of a fighting