Hemingway once stated his position: "The hardest job for a writer is to be true when describing characters. To do this, a writer must be very familiar with the object he wants to describe, and then he must know how to write. These two points alone are enough for you to learn for a lifetime. " In fact, this short story is really based on a real country holiday experience between him and his son. Hunting quail is also a familiar thing for him. At the same time, after reading the detailed description of quail hunting in Me (Dad), we can realize the tenacious vitality of all living things in the cold, that is, in adversity.
Hemingway tried to vividly and accurately express the profound and sharp moments and the experience of "epiphany on the true meaning of things" Some readers believe that in this novel, "the father symbolizes knowledge and strength, and the son symbolizes innocence and ignorance". It can be said that this explains the symbolic significance of the place from one angle. But I think Hemingway's pen and ink here is not focused on his son's "innocence", but on his courage to face death and his understanding of his parents. He vividly described the process of a nine-year-old child's depression. These descriptions of repressed emotions can be found everywhere in this novel. For example, when I read a story to my son, the novel describes it like this:
I sat at the foot of the bed, reading a book and waiting for another capsule. It is natural for him to go to South LEEP, but when I looked up, he was looking at the foot of the bed and looked strange (looking at the corner of the bed with strange eyes).
In addition, when the boy refused others to enter his room, "I" came back from a walk and saw that my son was still "lying in the posture when I went out, my face turned pale, my face turned red with fever, staring at the corner of the bed as before" (…… all these show that the boy tried his best to suppress his emotions and lay there quietly waiting.
In my opinion, a nine-year-old child who thinks he is "dying" because of his limited knowledge and experience shows "forbearance, strength and courage", which is exactly what Hemingway wants to show his readers. He is not a particularly ignorant child. He thought he had a cold, so he didn't want his parents to catch a cold, so "when we were still sleeping, he went in and closed the window." He was shaking and pale, and it was difficult to walk (he was shaking and pale, and walked slowly because it hurt. ), but he still thought of his parents. He endured the illness and didn't want them to worry. Look at the short conversation between father and son:
"You'd better go back to sleep."
"No, I'm fine."
"I" went downstairs to see my son really sick, and said:
You go to bed, you are sick.
But the son still said, "I'm fine."
Another place is that when I came back from a walk, my family told my son that he wouldn't let anyone into his room. Although he was scared inside and really thought he was dying, he still thought about his family and was afraid that they would catch his disease:
"You can't come in. You can't have what I have. " In a short sentence, the attitude and image of a nine-year-old boy in the face of death jumped from the page.
Hemingway's style is simple and lively, and his image is full of action. He used vision, touch and hearing to describe the image. For example, the description of boys' eyes in many places in the novel left a deep impression on me and had strong visibility. In addition, the theme and intention are indirectly implied through the dialogues and details that can be seen everywhere in Waiting Day, which enhances the implicitness and obscurity of the work. Because Hemingway once compared his works to "icebergs floating on the sea" and emphasized the inherent meaning of his works: "Only one-eighth of them are exposed to the water, and seven-eighths are hidden underwater." The following dialogue, after careful taste, can be found that the author uses pun rhetoric to hint at the theme and highlight the hero's personality:
"Why don't you try to sleep? I'll wake you up to take your medicine. "
"I'd rather stay awake" (my son's implication is that he would rather "wake up" because he thinks his time is running out).
My son also said to me, "You don't have to stay here with me, Dad, if it bothers you."
"I don't mind."
No, I mean if it bothers you, you don't have to stay here.
Because of the misunderstanding of Fahrenheit and Celsius, the boy really thought that he would not "come back to life" after taking medicine, but he comforted "me" with a calm tone and peaceful eyes. In the following conversation between a son and his father, the author uses irony and pun to enhance the dramatic effect and more profoundly depicts the boy's complex psychology of "dying":
(Eyes looking straight ahead)
From the above analysis, we can see the mental journey of a nine-year-old boy in Waiting for Death. We also have a clearer understanding of the theme Hemingway wants to show readers-"The meaning of life lies in a spirit, that is, to dare to endure pain and despise death".
After reading these concise and profound dialogues, readers can see that Hemingway moved extremely deep and warm emotions with seemingly rough and simple brushwork. In his novels, there are no flowery words to exaggerate the character; There is no necessary explanation and comment; There are no lame descriptions and flashy metaphors. He broke the stereotype of lifeless articles, cut off all colorful decorations, and returned the articles to their true colors with concise and concise writing. As the British writer O Bates said, "He used unprecedented courage to cut off the' loose hair' attached to literature in English."
Hemingway did not create a new literary genre, but he was a master of language art who created a generation of literary styles. His concise and powerful style and excellent use of various modernist techniques caused a "literary revolution" in American literature, and many European and American writers were obviously influenced by him. But what I can't understand is that what Hemingway abandoned was picked up as a treasure by many of our current literati, and they worked tirelessly to create piles of garbage. If our centenarian Hemingway were still alive, how would he feel?