The Art of Feasting

While reading A Moveable Feast, one could say that Hemingway didn’t care much for what others thought; he was straightforward and by looking at what he said about the authors when he wrote the memoir years later, one can assume that he might have taken advantage of their friendships by deliberately pointing out their faults to the reader. For example, Hemingway often described Scott Fitzgerald as a drunkard to the reader by making statements such as, “[But] when he was drunk he would usually come to find me and, drunk, he took almost as much pleasure interfering with my work as Zelda did interfering with his. This continued for years but, for years too, I had no more loyal friend than Scott when he was sober.” (Hemingway 46).  By talking negatively about those he is observing, Hemingway takes the risk to clear up any potential miscommunications with the reader and instead establishes an honest tone. According to Hemingway, “you had to be prepared to kill a man, know how to do it and really know that you would do it in order not to be interfered with.” (Hemingway 28). The ways in which Hemingway was brought up most likely had an effect on his blunt style and lack of concern for others.

Ernest Hemingway’s writing style could very well be described as untraditional, as it is laid back compared to the style of other authors. His subdued tone could be either a product of the time period in which he wrote the book, his depression, or a combination of the two. It is also possible that Hemingway's series of electroshock therapy is a contributor to the ways in which his perception of time is altered, or how he remembers information in general. “There are many sorts of hunger… Memory is hunger.” (Hemingway 57).

We study how information is communicated through language in class, and that is why I believe we read A Moveable Feast. By studying the ways in which Hemingway chose to make connections with the reader, we can attempt to make similar connections with our readers in the future.

Works Cited

Hemingway, Ernest. A Moveable Feast. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1964. Print.