The Genius Ice Berg
The Iceberg Theory
is what makes Hemingway such a unique writer and also what makes him such a
stark contrast from Woolf. From Woolf's writing we were reading from the
perspective of the iceberg beneath the surface. In this way we had to imply or
discuss the surface level of the characters and to find out who they truly are.
This however is the complete opposite of everyday life. Normally, unless you
possess some mind reading power, you are unable to view a human from the inside
of the brain. Like Hemingway's style you must view their outward appearance and
dive into every little bit that they say to truly understand them as a person.
This is the genius of the Iceberg. Through Hemingway's style we, as the reader,
perceive as close to a real life experience as possible when it comes to Jake's
interactions with others. Of course we also have the narration inside Jake's
head, but it is not an unrelenting torrent of ideas and feelings as in Woolf's
writing. This tip of the Iceberg, to my slightly lower than average reading
capacity, is a much more engaging and interesting perspective on an equivalently
in depth and unique narrative.
From
this style we glean small, but profound, bits of knowledge that make the reading
much more interesting. Unlike in Woolf’s writing where you have to pick the important
bits out of large sections of writing, Hemmingway hides it in his short and
brunt sentences. Some examples of this are his slight Anti-Semitism, the
opinion that the group of young men we first see Brett with are gay, his particular
injury, and even his feelings for Brett. Some of the more hidden things, like
his Anti-Semitism, are things we wish we didn’t see in our hero. His injury
makes it seem like his daily “manliness” may be just a façade behind which a
much more broken Jake is hiding. Jake is not the man the day to day people perceive
him as and this writing style subtly emphasizes how different he truly is in a
way that takes an engaging amount of deliberation to find.
I personally like this "iceberg" style a lot, for all the reasons you describe. It might be one of my favorite writing styles. It draws the reader in closer, narrows the focus. It's interesting to compare this style (where details are pared down to the most essential and surface-level) to Woolf's (where you get a barrage of details that delve deep into the character's mind).
ReplyDeleteI think that the Iceberg Theory is what makes the book a lot more interesting than Mrs. Dalloway. The way Woolf writes it leaves little to be inferred or read into because you get such a deep reading into their mind. The more more surface focused writing of Hemingway means that it often takes you a while to understand and if you go back and reread it you can see where he suggests something that you figure out later.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Woolf and Hemingway's styles are very different, I don't know that I prefer one above the other. One thing that I really enjoyed about Woolf's prose was how completely it immersed you in the head and world of the characters. On the other hand, I also like how Hemingway takes a step back and is able to complete a scene with just a few well-chosen details or comments.
ReplyDeleteI really like the idea that the iceberg style of narration reflects how much Jake is hiding from the world. When you as a reader have to glean what Jake is hiding, it makes you think more about all the different factors affecting each interaction. Woolf's process of simply telling you character's secrets and then portraying how the secrets affect interactions isn't as engaging.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoy Hemingway's use of the iceberg effect. It gives readers a chance to analyze the details and make conclusions for themselves, like in real life. It gives the novel a really authentic sense. It really impresses me because Hemingway is able to make these deep conclusions and implications with just a few short words, which shows how much thought and precision goes into crafting his sentences.
ReplyDeletePersonally I found "The Sun Also Rises" to be much more engaging and interesting than I found "Mrs. Dalloway." A lot of this was because more happens, but also I found that the iceberg style makes you actually think and analyze things like you would in a normal story or in real life. I also found Hemingway's short prose much easier to understand and more fun to read than Woolf's. These two factors led me to feeling much more engaged in "The Sun Also Rises" than in "Mrs. Dalloway" where I felt lost and trapped in the characters' heads.
ReplyDeleteThe connection that you made between the way human perception works in real life and the way Jake's narrative in The Sun Also Rises works was really accurate in my opinion. We get to see the characters as they are in a more physical manner rather than diving deep into the narrator's personal discussion of them as they approach the scene. With Jake's narration, it's like he is taking his mind and making it ours, and very subtly casting his bias on our interpretations of the characters as he interacts with them but not enough to have us understand the rest of the characters fully just by reading the narrative, as the free indirect discourse in Mrs. Dalloway offered us quite easily.
ReplyDelete