Features of the Hemingway style
- Strong minimalist nature
- Elementary school-like grammar
- Strict choice of words
- Unadorned descriptions
- Short, declarative sentences
- Uses language understandable to the average reader
Hemingway is a master of dialogue. It is not so much that he accurately reproduces how persons speak, but rather, through his brilliant use of repetition, he manages to make the reader remember what is said. Hemingway's writing style was probably most influenced by his early work as a young reporter for the Kansas City Star.
There he was forced to follow a style book for young reporters that included the following advice, "Use short sentences. Use short first paragraphs. Use powerful English, but do not forget to strive for smoothness. Be positive, not negative."
Hemingway's words are just words like any other, but the way he stirs them together is his unique formula, a stylistic recipe that no other writer could duplicate. There are sentences that only Hemingway could write because we know Hemingway wrote them. Take this short sentence from Who Rings the Bells:
"He was dead and that was all." This remains a Hemingway sentence. That a reader can immediately recognize that "Hemingway wrote that" just by reading the words is a remarkable legacy for a writer. Hemingway is truly alive in his words because his words are truly his. His style is unmistakable. That makes him a writer in the truest sense of the word.
Another important feature of his diction is based on his imagination because in his texts we can vividly imagine what he wants to convey to us. After all, clear and concise diction would have enormous potential to become a Nobel Prize winner and an award-winning writer.
