Sunday, September 23, 2012

Romance and War

Suddenly having interest in classical books I searched on the internet, "Top 100 Classical Books." As I went through the list I found "Farewell to Arms" by Ernest Hemingway in the top ten. Previously reading "The Old Man and The Sea", another classic by Hemingway I decided to pick it up at my local library. After all it was a "Gripping war story." However, after a few chapters in I realized that although the story was based during the first world war, the book primarily focused on the romance between Lieutenant Frederic Henry, an American working for Italy's army, and Catherine Barkley, a British nurse. Even though it was a romance novel it was still gripping. And romantic books are just not my genre. So why am I drawn to this book? There's only one answer, the author had a writing technique.


One thing I noticed from both of Hemingway's books was that most of his sentences are very long. This, depending on the reader, could either make the book more interesting or very slow. Another technique that made me personally more entertained was his use of dialogue. Particularly in the beginning of the book, there was quite a lot of dialogue. With short lines and constant questions from each character you can't resist to keep reading. For example, when Frederic and Cathy first begin to date they often questioned one another as they were suspicious of one another, not knowing anything about one another other than they were fighting on the same side. As well as long sentences and short dialogue Hemingway used descriptive language. For example, "In the bed of the river there were pebbles and boulders, dry and white in the sun, and the water was clear and swiftly moving and blue in the channels." As I continue the book I look forward to finishing it and finding out what happens and what other techniques Ernest Hemingway uses.



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