Written assignment 1# North American Literature IV Moreno, Mario group 32

The Iceberg Theory Hemingway.

The ice-berg theory is the name given by Hemingway to the practice of
expressing much by saying little. The author explains this simile to an ice-berg in
the way that only one eighth of its mass is perceivable while the rest remains
underwater. He argues that: if the writer is writing truly enough, [the reader] will
have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them.
In his short stories, the author uses various mechanisms which help the reader
get an impression of what lies beneath the surface. In this essay, I will
comment on how Hemingway achieves the ice-berg effect in his short stories
focusing on the use of ellipsis in Hills Like White Elephants and The Killers.
It is important to understand that this principle of verbal minimalism is shared by
many authors of the period. Modernist literature offers a truly new approach to
art. Simple language, ordinary themes, verbal minimalism and a certain
detachment of the narrator, are some of the most characteristic features of
modernist literature. Therefore, it is the characters rather than the narrator who
move the story forward through the dialogue. Generally, the narrator seems to
play the role of a passer-by who reports the events he witnesses. In this sense he
does not add opinions and thus the reader constructs his own opinion mostly out
of what the characters say.
Perhaps the clearest use of ellipsis is found in Hills Like White Elephants. The
characters seem to be arguing over an important issue, an operation, but there
is no explicit mention about what operation it is. Many critics agree that there are
some hints in the dialogue which point out that the operation they are referring
to is an abortion. Phrases such as they havent taken it away or It isnt ours
anymore are examples that support this interpretation. Nevertheless, the
omission of what appears to be a key element to the story does not seem to stop
the reader from getting the essence of the scene. Similar to other modernist
artists, Hemingway does not seem particularly interested in creating closed plot
for the story; rather he focuses on the presentation of a particular scene without
needing to contextualise it very much or giving details about the characters
backgrounds.
In Hills like White Elephants the scene takes place at the bar of a train station
while the couple is presumably waiting for the train. There appears to be an
atmosphere of dispute between the man and the girl right off the beginning. This
idea comes to mind when soon into the story the man says oh cut it out which
suggests that their argument has been going on for a while. On the one hand,
the man seems to want to talk about the issue in question, while the girl tries to
avoid the subject. This can be interpreted in the way that the man insists that it
is a simple operation, while the girl asks him to stop talking. This omission of
information makes the reader wonder what is going on and in order to find out
more he will have to focus on little details. For instance, the idea that the
operation discussed is abortion is also derived from the fact that when the girl
looks out of the window she sees the two sides of the valley: one brown and dry

Written assignment 1# North American Literature IV Moreno, Mario group 32

and another one green, which could illustrate the difference between bareness
and fertility. This image can be connected to her situation given that she has to
decide whether to have the operation or not and therefore she is in-between the
two valleys or options. The use of this kind of image is what helps to portray
the feelings of the characters.
In both these two short stories Hemingway offers an almost undetectable
narrator. The narrator avoids describing the characters; he does not give the
reader any significant information about their personality nor their background.
Occasionally, the narrator throw out some details about the characters which
help the reader create his/her own picture about the scene but which do not
seem very relevant to the story. For example, in the killers the narrator mentions
twice that the two men who enter Henrys lunchroom are wearing gloves. Such
details appear to be important, particularly in a short story; in this case the
gloves could be associated to the idea that these men are professional killers
and therefore do not want to leave fingerprints.
Another way through which the author achieves this effect is by the dialogues of
the characters. The dialogue contributes almost entirely to the perception of
them. In other words, the narration is limited mostly to facts and actions, and
thus the reader has to perceive the mood of the characters through their
dialogue and the kinesis of the scene in order to create his/her interpretation. For
instance, in Hills Like White Elephants we learn that the name of the girl is Jig
because the American calls her by that name. Nonetheless, the narrative voice
does not employ her name at any time in the story. By excluding the narrators
point of view with regard to the characters and the nature of the different
scenes, he allows the reader to construct an image of the story almost entirely
out of the dialogue of the characters.
All these techniques help the narrator to be detached from the scene and give
the reader the possibility of perceiving things from different point of views that
of the characters which is a central idea of modern literature. Another
important concept is that of time also essential to this new way of presenting a
story. Time in these stories is presented as a situational or transitory. In Hills
like White Elephants, the man and the woman are in a train station, In The Killers
characters are in a lunchroom: both these settings seem to reinforce the idea of
a transitory time given that these are transitory places. Moreover, in both stories
there is explicit reference to what time it is; how long the man and the woman
wait for the train; how long the two men wait for Anderson and the way the
characters look at the clock at different occasions. This contributes to the iceberg
theory in the way that the stories only show what is going on at a particular time
without making explicit references to previous events. Everything discussed
occurs at a particular time.
In conclusion, the concept of Iceberg Theory can certainly be identified in these
two stories, as well as other typical characteristics of modern literature.
Hemingway succeeds in saying much, or rather suggesting much, by saying
little. The omission of information construct these stories in a new way, but it is

Written assignment 1# North American Literature IV Moreno, Mario group 32

important to understand that this new kind of narrator does not lead us towards
an interpretation, rather he confuses us in an effort to create different
perspectives.