What aspects should be written about Hemingway’s Iceberg Principle?

Hemingway and his "Iceberg Principle"

May 24, 2002 10:21:47 NetEase reported Kelseytu

Popular in the 20s and 30s of this century The recognized representative writer of the "Lost Generation" literary genre of the 1990s is Ernest Hemingway, who is known as the most talented genius novelist in the United States in the first half of the 20th century. If he could be summed up in one sentence, it would be: a tough guy who loves sports and sports; a well-versed reporter; a warrior covered in scars; a Spanish bullfighting enthusiast; a man who is good at drinking alcohol. A gourmet who loves wine and pays attention to life. Hemingway's thoughts were very profound and his views were unique. In the words of poet Alan Tate, he had "an extremely subtle mind and a strong ability of selective observation." Among his profound and unique artistic thoughts, the "iceberg principle" can be said to be the most representative and the most well-known.

In 1932, in his documentary work "Death in the Afternoon", Hemingway compared literary creation to an iceberg floating in the ocean for the first time. He said: "The majestic movement of an iceberg is Because only one-eighth of it is above the water." This analogy was made many times later. Hemingway's metaphor of this image aroused the interest of literary critics. Therefore, the so-called "iceberg principle" has become one of the important topics in the study of Hemingway's creation in the literary criticism circle. It can be said that the "Iceberg Principle" is Hemingway's vivid summary of his many years of creative experience, and it is the basic principle he follows in dealing with the relationship between art and life.

So, what exactly is the "iceberg principle"?

Western critics have done a lot of research on this point. Let’s first take a look at how they understand it. The American art critic Malcolm pointed out: "You extract from life those vivid details that arouse your emotions. If you are not closed to atrocities and horrors, but accurately describe these details in the appropriate order, then You write something that still evokes emotion in the reader. This is the approach Hemingway followed in his early features, an approach that was extremely successful within its own confines, and even beyond it. Successful because the pictures he depicts show a wide range of suggestive power." British critic Bates said when talking about Hemingway's short stories: "Master the art of suggestion and use one sentence to explain two or more different things. The art of doing things will accomplish more than half of the work that short story writers have to do. "American critic Adel has a negative attitude towards Hemingway's "iceberg principle". He believes that it is an "evasive technique." Throw away emotions to create an emotional atmosphere."

The various discussions carried out by critics can help us understand the meaning of the "iceberg principle". However, if we further understand the "Iceberg Principle" from an aesthetic and poetic perspective, it is obvious that the arguments of various schools of appeal are far from enough.

For the "iceberg principle", Hemingway himself had an explanation in "Death in the Afternoon". He wrote: "If an essayist has a good idea of ??what he wants to write, he may omit it. As for what he knows, readers, as long as the writer writes it truthfully, will strongly feel what he omitted, as if the author had written it. "Obviously, the writer here emphasizes omission and advocates "eight" under the water. Seven out of seven” should be left to the reader to feel. According to Hemingway's explanation, we can make a rough summary of the "Iceberg Principle": The so-called "Iceberg Principle" is to use concise words to create a distinctive image, and to bury one's own feelings, thoughts and emotions in the image to the greatest extent possible. Make it full of emotion but not explicit, deep but hidden but not obscure, thus cleverly combining the perceptibility and thinkability of literature, allowing readers to explore the ideological meaning of the work through the feeling of vivid images.

Concise text, vivid images, rich emotions and profound thoughts are the four basic elements that constitute the "Iceberg Principle". Specifically, words and images are the so-called "eighths", while emotions and thoughts are the so-called "seven-eighths". The first two are concretely visible, while the latter two are embedded in the first two. Words shape images, images contain emotions, and emotions contain thoughts. It is true that these four elements are essential for general literary works, but they are particularly prominent in Hemingway's works because he emphasizes the implicitness of emotions and thoughts.

To study Hemingway's "Iceberg Principle", we must first understand the "seven-eighths" underwater, because this part is the foundation of the iceberg. If according to Adel's point of view, the substantive content of Hemingway's works has been avoided by the author "in an obvious pursuit of superficial effects," then it raises a sharp and unavoidable question, that is, is Hemingway a great thinker with a certain depth of thought? A writer, or a shallow literati who only plays with writing skills? Obviously, the substantive content of Hemingway's works was not avoided, but Adel did not see it.

Hemingway and his "Iceberg Principle" (2)

2002-05-24 10:21:47 NetEase reported on Kelseytu

I think, first of all , "Seven-eighths" under the water contains Hemingway's profound thoughts, which are based on years of accumulated life experience and his understanding of life.

In Hemingway's works, omission is not an arbitrary matter. He once emphasized: "If a writer omits a part because you don't know it, there will be a flaw in the novel." It is clear that what the writer omits must be familiar to him and understandable to the reader. In this way, the words that are not omitted will have typical meanings. As long as readers see these words, they will think of the omitted content. This is like the cornerstone of a high-rise building. Although the building is majestic, it cannot stand without the cornerstone.

Hemingway's "cornerstone" is buried deeply and firmly, which is inseparable from his life experience. His first step in the world was to personally participate in the First World War. As a Red Cross ambulance volunteer, Hemingway had illusions about the war. Like many naive young people, Hemingway went to the battlefield with the grand ambition of "saving world democracy." In the Italian-Austrian battlefield in northern Italy, Hemingway used his brave actions to practice his ideals. He was a non-combatant, but he was running around on the battlefield and even getting wounded. The cruelty of the war, the hypocrisy of the rulers and the senseless bloodshed were all revealed immediately after the war. Hemingway discovered that the warriors back then were just deceived people. Not only were they injured, but they were also mentally traumatized and became confused and depressed. It was in this context that Hemingway's creation began. In his early masterpiece "A Farewell to Arms", the tragedy of the protagonists Henry and Barclay is a concentrated reflection of this thought. Interestingly, the protagonist in his novel has almost walked the same path as him. The memory of this war became the most painful thing for Hemingway. In "Hemingway, The Life and Death of a Giant", there is a passage that he said shortly before his death: "I still remember that I was so terrible about the First World War that I was so scared that I couldn't write it for ten years. . The wounds caused by war heal very slowly." Hemingway's early works contained strong anti-war sentiments. His brilliance is that he links anti-war with dissatisfaction with social reality. Starting from his opposition to war and suspicion of society, he established an attitude towards life that has no credibility except personal courage and self-feeling. This was typical at the time. Hemingway's works of this period express his resistance to capitalist civilization. Although the United States made a fortune during the war and became increasingly powerful, in Hemingway's view, the war brought unprecedented disasters to people's lives and society, and was followed by social unrest.

World War I shaped Hemingway’s fundamental views on human society, and also laid a gloomy and depressing tone for Hemingway’s early works. In his eyes, the world is full of violence and evil, and death is inevitable waiting for everyone. If people survive in such a society, they must establish a set of survival rules, which is: in life, even if you can't win, you don't have to admit defeat; you can try your best to survive in silence; in the outdoors Seek joy in sports and regard "tough guy character" as the pillar of life.

Hemingway has a famous saying: "Man is not born to be defeated. A man can be destroyed, but he cannot be defeated." This reflects the basic attitude of Hemingway's protagonists towards human society. Therefore, the "tough guy character" displayed by these people appears deep, powerful and real.

Reading Hemingway's short story "The Big Two-Hearted River" can illustrate the above problem very well. The first part of the novel describes the return of the protagonist Nick Adams to his hometown after many years of absence. This is a remote and quiet countryside that was burned down by a fire a year ago. But the protagonist is still very excited about this trip, because after all, he has not seen the familiar creek and the fish in it for a long time. On the surface, Nick's purpose of returning to his hometown this time is just to fish, but when we see Nick's various behaviors, it seems that the author is hinting that Nick has other intentions. Nick walked toward the camp, stopping occasionally to look for bait. Then he leveled the site, laid out the carpet, and pulled up the canvas. From Nick's mechanical behavior, people can vaguely see that his character is somewhat deformed, like a fish in the stream. It was obvious that Nick was trying to escape from something through his continuous movements. He was happy by leaving everything behind. When everything was settled, I suddenly felt that "my mind was thinking again" and I suddenly became nervous again. Then Nick fell asleep.

The second part of the novel narrates that Nick was busy fishing all day long the next day. Once a big fish takes the bait, he gets excited. The whole day passed away in this constant excitement.

In the work, fishing is at best a superficial phenomenon. In fact, the novel depicts the image of a severely mentally disturbed person. It can be seen from the Nick Adams series of novels that Nick had just returned from the battlefield of World War I at this time, and the war stimulated him too much. Like the author, Nick neither dares nor wants to think about war. "Fishing activity" places Nick's thoughts on "escape".

The story of "The Big Two-Hearted River" shows that Hemingway not only has outstanding narrative talents, but also has profound thoughts. The famous critic Malcolm Cowley once made this conclusion about Hemingway: "Hemingway's best prose gives people a sense of depth." Indeed, Hemingway's works have almost no shortcomings of talking about things, and they all give people a sense of thinking. The vast world.

"Seven-eighths" contains Hemingway's rich emotions, which are often connected with the author's thoughts. Let's look at another example. "Hills Like White Elephants" is Hemingway's famous short story. The story is about a man who took a girl to Madrid to have an abortion. The man and woman were waiting at a roadside station for the express train bound for Madrid. Because of the hot weather, they kept drinking beer. They drank beer and talked, and the entire piece was made up of dialogue. As for the ins and outs of this incident and the girl's mood at the moment, they were not mentioned. Despite this, we can still feel the girl's complex emotional changes from their words. For the girl, it was obvious that something was about to be destroyed, and this was something that the girl had been looking forward to for a long time. There is a sentence in the article, the girl said: "Everything is as sweet as licorice. Especially those things that a person has been looking forward to for a long time, they are just like ale." There is no doubt that this refers to the fetus being conceived in the body. The girl originally expected to enjoy life comfortably, but now, the man has changed his attention. Once the fetus is aborted, the girl will face the risk of being abandoned. The girl was frightened. Here Hemingway never writes the girl's feelings openly.

Hemingway and his "Iceberg Principle" (3)

May 24, 2002 10:21:47 NetEase reported Kelseytu

I think Hemingway might There is such a characteristic that he seems not to want readers to understand his works at once. Because he has such a view: there should be more things for readers to feel than for readers to understand. Therefore, Hemingway never attempted to state his own tendencies in his works. Objectively speaking, the pain caused to him by the cruelty of the war has reached a level that is difficult to express in words. This pain has numbed his nerves. The only thing Hemingway can do now is to accurately convey everything he experienced to readers, allowing readers to enrich and imagine based on their own experiences.

The novel "A Farewell to Arms" is an important work written by Hemingway in the late 1920s. Through the love story of a pair of lovers on the Italian battlefield, this work shows the author's strong desire to oppose war and yearn for peace, but at the same time reveals the impermanence of life, pessimism and despair. "A Farewell to Arms" is a typical long work created by Hemingway's "iceberg principle". Especially the ending part of the work fully reflects the power of the omitted "seven-eighths". When the author describes Henry's farewell to Catherine's body, it seems that there is no emotional color, but the readers feel that there is a strong and deep emotional undercurrent, which makes people cry. The theme and thought of the work are latent, and so are the feelings. They are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. The storyline of the work comes to an abrupt end when the protagonist walks back to the hotel in the rain, and the potential emotion the author gave to the work reaches its climax. Henry said goodbye to the war and also to his feelings. Hemingway hints to the reader that Henry is lost in the drizzly darkness. He was a casualty and victim of the imperialist war. He and many of his contemporaries became the "lost generation."

What is omitted from the work can be of great use. Hemingway said in his late-life memoir A Moveable Banquet: "According to my new theory, you can omit anything, as long as you understand it. The omitted parts will enhance the power of the novel." Whether it is his novel or short story, simplicity has become an important feature and makes the entire work appear majestic.

So, in what form are the profound thoughts and rich emotions reflected in Hemingway's works? This is exactly one-eighth of his work.

First of all, the concise text highlights the characters and scenes with a strong sense of picture. In order to produce a bright and picturesque effect in the description of characters and scenes, Hemingway mainly used line drawing techniques. In his works, there is almost no overall description of the scenery. They are all very accurate observations of objects, and there is little special emphasis on the scenes described. I remember that in class, the professor once emphasized that Hemingway's description is quite similar to the function of the movie camera. Here I excerpt a description from the novel "The Sun Also Rises":

...The narrow streets downstairs were empty. But the balcony upstairs was crowded with people. Suddenly, a group of people ran down the street. They were all running, huddled together, and they were running down the street in the direction of the bullring. There are more people behind and they run faster. Then a few more people who were lagging behind ran over, and they were really running. There was a gap behind this group of people, and at this time, several bullfighting animals came flying over, shaking their heads up and down. The running people and the bullfights disappeared at the intersection. A man fell down and rolled into a ditch on the side of the road, where he lay quietly. And the bullfight ran over him, paying no attention to him.

This description is like a painting. In addition to stating that the viewpoint is upstairs, the author has no unnecessary description of the environment, and the text is directly used to describe the main things.

Hemingway and his "Iceberg Principle" (4)

2002-05-24 10:21:47 NetEase reported Kelseytu

Many people who study Hemingway The books all point out that his description of scenes and characters is not his ultimate goal. The directness of the images it shows is only a special perceptual material and means. In essence, it is In order to better transcend its own original meaning and connect with the emotional and ideological content of the work. From the above example of "The Sun Also Rises", we can see that the writer's focus on the description of the picture is not a rigid and fixed static scene, but "motion" in the "stillness". The advantage of writing this way is that the scene can provide direct services for the shaping of the character's image. Not only is the distinctiveness of the character's image guaranteed, but there are also sufficient conditions for the development of his character.

In his "Eighth", Hemingway also made bold innovations in literary language in order to achieve an accurate and vivid effect on the picture of the work.

Literature is the art of language. Without the element of language, there is no way to talk about works. Hemingway was a master of language who had a huge influence on modern literature in English and many other languages. His language is unpretentious, accurate, vivid, concise and clear. This has been recognized by most people. Specifically, Hemingway achieved success through the following points:

First, Hemingway rarely used adjectives and adverbs, and almost no various modifying clauses. He relies on the accuracy of nouns and the vividness of verbs to directly touch the true nature of things, without any sense of artificiality.

Second, Hemingway refined American spoken language and applied it to written articles, bringing life to literary works. This not only reflects the character's personality well, but also clearly reveals the character's psychology.

Thirdly, Hemingway always chooses words that have as little direct impact on readers as possible, but can make readers associate. The author does not directly judge things, everything depends on the reader. For example, if writing about cowardice, in addition to providing a supportive description of the speaking environment, ordinary writers will often write: "He said with a frightened voice and stammering" or similar sentences, while Hemingway, in addition to describing the necessary speaking environment In addition to highlighting, at most, only a simple sentence such as "he said" is used. Someone once told me that this was because Hemingway lacked the ability to express himself in literature and art. In fact, this is exactly his style. Let's look at an example:

The girl stood up and walked to the end of the station. Across from the railway, on that side, the banks of the River Albro were farmland and trees. In the distance on the other side of the river are rolling mountains. A cloud shadow passed over the grain fields; through the trees he saw the river.

In "Mountains Like White Elephants", he put aside all words that would hinder the scenery itself. There were almost no modifiers and adjectives, and he let the objects of description speak for themselves.

We have discussed the basic meanings of "seven-eighths" and "one-eighth" above, so what is the relationship between them? The "one-eighth" on the water is Based on the "seven-eighths" under the water, the latter needs to be directly reflected by the former, and the two are an interdependent unity. The "Iceberg Principle" is a complete organism. From the image created by the words, we can see the thoughts and feelings contained in the work; similarly, through understanding the thoughts and feelings of the work, we can also further understand the special features of the work's concise words and vivid images. significance.

The novella "The Old Man and the Sea" is a summary of Hemingway's life's thoughts and art. His "Iceberg Principle" developed to its zenith here. Hemingway used a lot of symbols, metaphors and other techniques to highly abstract the theme of the work, making it completely hidden in the "seven-eighths" underwater. For the old man, the sea is not a specific fishing field as it is for the young fisherman, but is considered a personality. It embodies both kindness and cruelty. Because on the one hand it has raised many fishermen like the old man who depend on the sea for a living, on the other hand it has brought disaster to them. In the depths of the sea, the old man found a big marlin that he had never heard of or seen before. The sea is wide enough for the old man to understand and experience the unknown and mysterious realm. If the profound meaning of the work is reflected in this aspect, then it is inseparable from the old man going out fishing alone. In fact, only in this way does such an idea about the sea appear particularly vivid. Perhaps it was this consideration that made Hemingway let the old man's only companion, Manolin, leave him.

The formation of the "Iceberg Principle" is not only Hemingway's own continuous exploration and summary in his long-term creative practice, but also has its historical reasons. From the perspective of the development history of English literature, by the 19th century, the language in literary works became increasingly complex, and written English became flashy and wordy. Its development trend no longer strived to express and depict a certain object, but focused on endlessly Explain and explore. Innovation in the English language is imperative. As a branch of English literature, the establishment of American national literature has gone through an arduous process. The influence of Western European literature had not completely disappeared by the mid-19th century. Even the pretentious writing style of the Victorian era was still fashionable in the American literary world. In order to change this situation, many visionary writers in the United States have made great efforts, such as Mark Twain, Stephen Crane, Sherwood Anderson, etc. Hemingway is their successor and the culmination of .

He boldly took on the important task of innovating language and gave people a brand-new look as soon as he entered the literary world.

From the French Enlightenment literature of the eighteenth century to the romantic literature of the nineteenth century. The subjectivity in literature is increasing day by day, and the self-element expressed in works has reached an overflow level. Writers endlessly dissect themselves, hoping that readers can understand every description of themselves, and even every word. In Hemingway's view, in order to gain the reader's understanding, one must first trust the reader. In other words, the work should leave room for readers to think. That kind of sweeping writing style is a product of history, which changes with the development of the times and the changes of readers' appreciation taste. Gone are the days when the author did all the thinking for the reader. The pace of life in the 20th century is much faster than that in the 19th century. The quality of a novel often depends on whether it talks about key issues that people feel are important in a short space of time. This is a characteristic of the times and is not dependent on human will. Hemingway's style made him a pioneer of this era, and he set a model for an entire generation or even two generations.

Hemingway is good at describing scenes with a sense of picture, which is inseparable from his long-term hobby of painting. Hemingway's parents were his earliest artistic teachers and hoped to cultivate him into an artist. He himself has also made a lot of efforts. Famous painters such as Picasso, Manet and Monet have as much influence on him as famous writers such as Mark Twain and Tolstoy. According to the many biographies of Hemingway I have seen, it has been written that the French post-Impressionist master Paul Cézanne had the greatest influence on Hemingway.

Cézanne is a painter with a unique artistic style. What he requires is to transform the shape of the object according to his special personal feelings, making it more simple, solid and arousing a sense of weight. On the surface, his works are simple, but in fact, it is this simple form that contains more profound ideological content. Hemingway himself admitted in his memoirs that he learned how to create a "capable" novel from Cézanne's paintings.

Hemingway attaches great importance to the description of scenes and pictures. Another important reason is that he was influenced by image poetry. In this regard, he was greatly influenced by the famous American poet Ezra Pound. Pound explored Imagism both theoretically and creatively. He believes that poetry should be concrete and avoid abstraction; the form should allow continuous lines and should not be cut into lines; it should be concise and should not waste words or embellishments, etc. Hemingway not only stated this in theory, but also practiced it in creation. The things Hemingway describes are always clearly before us. His phrasing is simple and easy to understand, even for children. The simplicity of writing does not mean the shallowness of ideological content. The key lies in whether the author's use of words is appropriate.

In fact, Hemingway absorbed the strengths of many famous writers and turned them into his own. His "Iceberg Principle" is the need of the times. The task given to Hemingway by history is to give up irrelevant materials, writing tricks, and overflowing emotions, and use concise words to reflect the style of the times. The "Iceberg Principle" had a great influence on later generations, and it created a generation of literary style. With the development of history, Hemingway's specific writing method will always be replaced by new methods by future generations, just like the writing methods of Balzac and Dickens. However, as a creative principle, the influence of the "iceberg principle" is eternal.