Support your views with three critical sources (these are referred to as secondary sources) outside the primary works (the stories) in your Hemingway text. You may not use a dictionary, the Bible, or other fiction as a source. What you must use are good scholarly articles about Hemingway's fiction. Document those sources according to the MLA format found in your Diana Hacker text or on my web site. When you quote material, be sure to use in-text citations. For the stories, those citations will simply state in parenthesis the author's last name, the story, and the page reference. For instance, a reference to a story might appear in your in-text citation as follows:
Reflecting his desire to lead a simple life, Harold Krebs observes the young women of the town and thinks that he wants no part of them, that "they were too complicated" (Hemingway, "Soldier's Home" 147).
If you mention the author's name before the citation, then there's no need to repeat "Hemingway" in the parenthesis. For example --
Reflecting Hemingway's theme of the alienation a soldier experiences after a war, Harold Krebs observes the young women of the town and thinks "they were too complicated" ("Soldier's Home" 147).
Likewise, if you mention the title of the story in your lead-in to the quotation, there is no need to repeat the title of the story in the parenthesis.
In Heminway's story "Soldier's Home," Harold Krebs says that the young women in town "were too complicated" (147).
If you quote up to four lines in your paper, run them into the normal paragraph of your text. If you quote five or more lines in your paper, then indent the quotation ten spaces from the left margin of your paper. Unless there is dialogue within the quotation, an indented quotation requires no quotation marks. The indentation alone tells the reader that the passage is a quotation. One important caveat: Please do not devote your essay to Hemingway's personal life. There have been enough biographies written about him for us to read more than we want to know about him. Focus on the stories as fiction, and analyze them as such.
Some Suggested Topics
1. Hemingway has said that his writing is like an iceberg; that is, one-eighth of the story lies above the surface of the sea (what's written), and seven-eighths lies beneath the surface (what's implied). Choose a story in which you argue that Hemingway's presentation of his material adheres to this metaphor, and then analyze for us the meaning of what occurs in the piece and then what is implied by it.
2. Gertrude Stein has referred to Hemingway as a writer of the "lost generation." Define what Stein may have meant by this phrase, and then use one of the stories from our text to support her view of Hemingway's work and characters.
3. Many critics see Hemingway as an existentialist. Briefly discuss the principal points of existentialism, and then choose one story to support the view that Hemingway is an existentialist. Remember to focus on the story, not on an explanation of existentialism, although you must provide an adequate definition of it before you can discuss the philosophy as it appears in the story. This definition should not come from a standard dictionary, though a dictionary of literature would be appropriate.
4. Carlos Baker has called Hemingway's "The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber" an almost perfect piece of short fiction. Analyze this story in terms of its aesthetics--that is, its plot, character, setting, tone, mood, and style, and argue that it is or isn't a well-made story. Pay particular attention to the end of the piece and its implications.
6. Much has been written about what Phillip Young calls the Hemingway code hero, that is the man who stands bravely alone, faces death with dignity, disregards middle class values, and creates his own moral code. However, in many instances, Hemingway's central character seems to defy this code-like figure. Carefully choosing a story, create an analysis of what you believe are the qualities of the central character of Hemingway's fiction.
7. If none of the above topics appeals to you, create your own topic, but be sure to run it by me before you write your paper. Check your syllabus for the due date for this essay.