I have to admit, reading Hemingway while traveling feels right. It just seems to fit. I also have to admit that I was disappointed that no hipsters approached me to debate the merits of Hemingway’s famously economical writing style, or his ability to convey his point of view on large social issues by focusing on the experiences on a small group of people.
Hemingway’s style has been referred to as the “iceberg theory.” Essentially this writing style is characterized by describing the facts and allowing the supporting structure, comprised of unseen background story, emotion and subtle symbolism remain “underwater.” Hemingway described the style by saying “If you leave out important things or events that you know about, the story is strengthened. If you leave or skip something because you do not know it, the story will be worthless. The test of any story is how very good the stuff that you, not your editors, omit.” “The Sun Also Rises” is understood to be a prime example of this style, and is considered by some to be Hemingway’s most important work.
“The Sun Also Rises” describes the experiences of a group of Americans living in Paris after the First World War. This group of friends knock around the bars and clubs of Paris before traveling to the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. There two prominent views of Hemingway’s message behind the novel. Some believe he was relating the sense of decadence and frivolousness the “lost generation” of soldiers destroyed both physically and emotionally by war, and of women living with more personal, especially sexual, freedom. Others believe he was trying to convey the resilience of a generation ravaged by war; a generation of young adults trying to pick up the pieces of their lives and find morality in a world that can so quickly and completely descend into chaos.
It is my opinion, especially in light of what I have learned of his writing style, that the latter is more likely his primary focus. Hemingway lived in Paris, traveled to Spain, and based many of his characters on the people he encountered. He explains the facts, the tip of the iceberg concerning the decadence of the age and how a group of Americans in Paris and Spain enjoy their sport, their booze and their freedom, and leaves the story of the resilience of these friends, and the generation they repsresent hovering underneath the surface.
