An Ernest Appraisal of Style

            In a Movable Feast Hemingway presents an important insight into his style of writing, and how those elements of style can engross the reader in a story.  The most striking elements of Hemingway's style were the subtle uses of second person, and the vivid imagery.  The latter of the two is prevalent whenever Hemingway writes about someone or something.  Every initial interaction he has with an artist or author within the novel begins approximately the same way.  The first step in Hemingway's description is of the individuals is the physical features, which Hemingway describes in great detail, integrating similes, and other devices to enable the reader to see the situations and people just as he remembered them.  The descriptions then generally move to focus on the character of a person.  This element of Hemingway's description paints as in depth of a picture of the person as his description of their physical features, but rounds out a holistic view of the individual by including Hemingway's memory of how the person acted.  Together the descriptions leave little to the minds of the reader which reveals how this element of Hemingway's style allows for the people he portrays to be seen nearly uniformly in the minds of all the readers.

            Perhaps a greater element of Hemingway's style is the use of second person.  The novel is largely written in the first person, as to be expected since it is effectively a memoir.  However, portions of the book subtly integrate second person.  Hemingway explains gambling’s impact on his financial situation by stating,

“But we had made plenty of money, big money for us, and now we had spring and money too. I thought that was all we needed. A day like that one, if you split the winnings one quarter for each to spend, left a half for racing capital. I kept the racing capital secret and apart from all other capital” (Hemingway 59).

It is easy to miss the use of “you” in the excerpt, but its impact as an element of style is present whether you recognize its presence or not.  That impact being a subtle shift in the mindset of the reader, making him or her feel more like a part of the story, rather than just an outsider looking in.

            In conclusion the reasoning behind reading this book was to see a stellar example of the ways in which writing style can impact the way a reader perceives the characters within a novel, and how style can help draw a reader into a story.

Works cited

Hemingway, Ernest.  A Moveable Feast. New York: Scribner, 2009. Print.