Ernest Hemingway is one of those artists, who like to expose themselves any way they like. Hemingway often used irony in his writings when depicting characters, which had life stories full of muddle and difficulties. Not many writers can boast of such an innovation brought to literature, but William Dean Howells can. He began as a critic, and later became a novelist – he is considered the champion of literary realism, who depicted each aspect of society without any embellishment. He sought to pass his own impressions to readers, to arouse their imagination and feelings – the same ones as Howells felt while writing his novels (qtd. in “William Dean Howells”).
Ernest Hemingway wrote “The Sun Also Rises” in 1926 and indicated it as a “tragedy with the earth abiding forever as the hero” (Baker 81). He portrayed some very interesting and different characters, such as a girl named Brett – she cannot be alone, she has to be with someone who is watching after her and not leaving. This girl symbolizes the changeable society of the lost generation – young people who survived during the World War I really suffered after the war and had nothing to do except waste their lives. Larzer Ziff mentioned in his “Life and Times of a Lost Generation” that the youth was hopeless; people had no leader and guardians to save them and indicate the right road to follow (qtd. in Ziff). Youth had simply given up. Hemingway noticed every constituent of the matter and disdained such people. He considered that they could rearrange the post-war society, but they had no strength to do it, as they were weak and did not even want to change it. With the coming of freedom to journalism, it rapidly came to industrialization stage. People were able to write anything they wanted without fear to be punished, as there was nobody who ruled the crowd of displeased citizens.
At that period of time writers got used to include much irony in their artworks, but the catchiest critics could be met while reading the works by William Dean Howells, who touched the side of aimlessness and morality of representatives of the lost generation. Women in his stories are naïve and moony, they seek to find love without considering if it is true wish or just delusion. They do their best to catch men`s fancy and erase their old lives. The writer, who used to be a critic earlier, used sharp language and described each detail in his stories, which could be noticed in his “Editha”: the girl sincerely believed in the beauty of war, heroism and romanticism of the whole period of time. She did not see the true position of things – her mind ignored it in order to make her life easier (qtd. in Howells). William Howells used irony in his artwork for depicting truth and nature of war. In addition, irony helped him highlight the results of war successfully. The man had strong potential in writing about imagination and its effects on different people and at different time using his own kind of irony that led him through complicated and lamentable social state.
Hemingway is known as a master of irony – everyone can track the sense of it in each story he wrote. In “The Sun Also Rises” he presented irony as the alternative to idealism: the writer characterized political and social sides of postwar state. It appeared in the story that characters were able to manage their lives though they suffered of incertitude and postwar pain domineering them. Jake was able to deal with his thoughts and reconcile himself with changes he went through all his life. Hemingway`s satire is that youth of the lost generation are not able to examine themselves properly – they pity each other and demand little from people and life itself – they take care of nothing except themselves, yearn a lot about happy time they had when they were children. Ernest Hemingway portrays such bright personalities in his artworks for others to be notified in the real state of environment. He seeks to improve this situation by introducing different methods, the most effective of which is irony – it reveals all the hidden features and tricks used by people to attract others` attention. He also shows the dangers, which are associated with self-exposure and determination as insiders. Such characteristics were not common for people: many were afraid to meet difficulties on their way to successful and happy lives. Hemingway ridicules in his writings the dependence between position and reputation taken by a person in a community.
William Dean Howells is a fearless man expressing his true thoughts about political or economic situations. He opposed the Spanish American War and was not afraid to tell about it in bright words in his literature works. Being a critic strengthened his mind and allowed forgetting the fears towards authorities and their attitude to the kind of art he was engaged in. Howells blamed ignorance and egoism in his “Editha”. He showed the unavailability of taking important decisions using the character of the girl, who was too dreamy to realize all the horror of such attitude to life and its consequences. Through her image, the writer passed his own thoughts: the girl considered the war to be “sacred and glorious” as well as William Howells did (Howells 376). With portraying such an ordinary girl he showed the symbol of people`s innocence in every action done by officials. The irony is that it was easier for a girl to dive into feelings than to try to solve or even understand the whole menace with the coming of war. Editha`s wishes could become true, but what if it ruined the lives of others? She did not care about it because of her egoism as well as it was not done by officials.
One of the strongest ironies used by Ernest Hemingway in “The Sun Also Rises” is the similar fact - even true wishes sometimes cannot be satisfied because of reasons, which seem to be of secondary importance. This way, Jack will never perform his sexual feelings fully because of childish injury (qtd. in Hemingway). The dialogs in the novel reveal this problem, and even characters created by Hemingway are impregnated with irony and satire – they are not shy to put somebody down by pressing on their fears or prejudices. It seems that Bill was aware more of others in irony and pity: in Chapter XII he was noticed singing and speaking about the madness, which occurred in New York and was tightened with these two feelings. Bill was amazed with the power of knowledge how to apply these words properly in order to look like famous and successful people, who ruled the city or even the country.
Another sense of irony is in Hemingway`s book “The Old Man and the Sea”. The book is very enjoyable because of the combination of different techniques, the brightest of which is irony. It lies in the fisherman`s image. It should have been an authoritative man, who is known for his splendid skills in fishing, but Hemingway introduced him as an ordinary person with notorious problems. The old man lived in a hut and was poor, but he had a dream. When this dream came true, he lost the sense of life, as during the fishing for his favored big fish he encountered threat to lose his life. During the fishing he got the big fish, but lost it because of sharks, who sought to eat it. Santiago`s haul as a skeleton of the fish is another demonstration of irony used in the book. This skeleton is the memento to the old man about the dream that followed him for all his life and lost its significance after one failed day. The important detail is that Santiago did not even know whose skeleton it was – shark`s or marlin`s one: “I didn't know sharks had such handsome, beautifully formed tails” (Hemingway, 127). This novel is not a satiric one, but it requires lots of irony and pity from readers, who want to be engaged into the trials the characters overcome.
Works Cited
Baker. C. “Hemingway, the Writer as Artist”. 1952. 4th ed. Princeton University Press, 1972. Print.
Hemingway, E. “The Old Man and the Sea”. New York: Scribner, 1952. Print.
Hemingway, E. “The Sun Also Rises”. 1926. New York: Scribner, 1996. Print.
Howells, W.D. “Editha”. 1905. Jimcin Recordings, 1984. Audio.
“William Dean Howells”. Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopedia Britannica Online. Encyclopedia Britannica Inc., 2016. Web. 12 April 2016
Ziff, Larzer. “The American 1890's: Life and Times of a Lost Generation”. New York: Viking Press, 1966.
