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Situational Irony
Style
Explanation and Analysis:
Hemingway's style is heavily informed by the imagism-inspired “Iceberg” theory of 20th-century poetry, a theory he named himself. Imagism was a poetic movement favoring sharp and precise language that clearly described the subject of a poem. Hemingway's Iceberg theory draws on imagism through the notion of an iceberg: much like an iceberg floating in the ocean, much of the story's meaning is hidden beneath the surface-level descriptions.
Consequently, Hemingway's style involves sparse, stark language and short sentences. In keeping with the Iceberg theory, he leaves many of the complex feelings and emotions at play in the story beneath the surface, but they are nevertheless present in the characters and apparent to careful readers. This style complements the repressed emotional state of Krebs, who is struggling with life after coming home from the war. Krebs's depressed and disinterested attitude towards life is highlighted by Hemingway's simplistic style of writing and stark syntax throughout the story. Likewise, the limited third person perspective from which the story is written suggests the narrator could be within Krebs's own mind. While far from definitively the case, that knowing perspective emphasizes Krebs's apathy, intertwining a third person point of view with Krebs's own sense of self.
Related Themes:
