The first time I read
something by Hemingway, I found it difficult because of his writing style. Now
that I am older and have more experience with reading and writing, I have come
to appreciate his incredible writing style. This appreciation came shortly
after when my creative writing class attempted to mimic his writing style and
not use adjectives in describing things. I was only able to write one sentence
in the five minutes I was given to do the exercise.
I enjoyed Hemingway’s subtle culture
infusions in his writing. He does not state that the story takes place in a
Spanish speaking country, but rather reveals it towards the end when the
waiters speak party in Spanish, and call each other hombre. I could use these
subtle clues in my writing when creating a setting. Instead of stating where
the characters are, I could develop clues about where they are, known as
showing the readers instead of telling them.
I enjoyed this reading because I was
able to follow the story quite easily but it was still interesting to read. The
characters were mysterious and well developed in the short span of the story.
However, I was left questioning who the characters were out of context of the café,
but maybe Hemingway wanted readers to determine that for themselves.
This
story convinced me to start trying to read more of Hemingway’s works, because I
have a lot to learn from him.
