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摘 要:“冰山”理论体现了海明威艺术创作简约、凝练的风格,海面风平浪静,海面下却有着令人遐想的的蕴含和深度,让人震撼。本文以《杀人者》为例,阐明故事的题目虽为杀人者,但尼克·亚当斯确是全篇的点睛所在。尼克善良,单纯,涉世不深,故事的发展过程也正是尼克成熟的过程。他的亲身经历使他得以发现这个世界丑恶的黑暗面,即暴力与死亡。
关键词:“冰山”理论;尼克;杀人者;暴力;死亡;谋杀
1、Introduction
As we all know, Ernest Hemingway is good at narrating. He avoids gorgeous adjectives deliberately. Because his “mastery of modern narrative art”, he gained the Nobel literature Prize in 1954. [1] He was one of the most influential writers of the last century not only because of what he wrote, but also because of how he wrote.
The iceberg theory is a writing theory by American writer Ernest Hemingway, as follows:
“If a writer of a prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. The writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.”(Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon)
We can see all this technique in The Killers. The killers is one of the important short stories of his. It first appeared to the public in 1927 in Scribner's Magazine. It is a story of Men Without Woman (1927), and it is one of the “Nick Adams stories”. Hemingway 's depiction of the human experience, his use of satire, and the everlasting themes of death, friendship, and the purpose of life have contributed to make The Killers one of Hemingway's most famous and frequently anthologized short stories. [2]
Nick lives in a world of violence, disorder, and death and learning the hard way about what the world is like. There is no peace at all in his life. Each of the characters Nick met has been hurt by society and discarded as dross. None of the Nick Adam’s stories is pleasant and comfortable reading matter, including the killers. In this story, Hemingway shows Adams crossing over teenager to adult.
2、Previous Criticism on Nick Adams
In Europe, the study of the short stories of Hemingway becomes more and more important. The prominent production is A Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway of Paul Smith in 1989. He dissertated of the composition, the publication, the material, the influence, and the criticism of 55 short stories of Hemingway. The book is an encyclopedia reference in both scale and value.
In 1972, Philip Young organized the “Nick Adams stories” by the sequence of chronology. He made Nick Adams’ life corresponding with Hemingway’s by the sequence of child-callan-soldier-writer-father. Philip Young has found new things in the script of Hemingway, about the materials of Adams that never have been published “Hemingway’s Nick Adams”, and made a more elaborate study, improving Philip Young’s dissertation of Hemingway.
In China, the criticism of Hemingway has begun in 1930s. The interest was mainly about the artistic style of Hemingway’s fiction. The criticism was mainly that the language of Hemingway’s fiction was concise, vivid and implicit. Hemingway is good at presenting the story with simple sentences and dialogues and leaves a large- space for readers to explore, to reflect. For example, Ye Lingfeng found that “the more important business, the more important things, he will write less. He just writes about other trivial things and makes you feel that there is an important thing exists beyond all the trivial things. ” [4]
In fact, the “Iceberg theory” means that the works of Hemingway is like the iceberg floating on the sea. Only one-eighth was above the water and other part couldn’t be seen. Earnest Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” suggests that the writer represents in the text only a small part of what he knows, and leaves about seven-eighths of the content a mystery that grows beneath the surface of the writing.
3、Discussion
3.1The “surface” of the character Nick Adams
The Killers begins with two men walking into Henry's lunchroom and discussing what they want to eat. Max and Al bicker over what menu items are available with George, the counterman who had been talking with Nick Adams, the only other customer. Some confusion occurs over the correct time. Al and Max order George to tell the cook, Sam, to come out of the kitchen, and then Al takes Nick and Sam back into the kitchen. [5]
The hired men, Max, announces that they are at the lunchroom to kill Ole Andreson, a Swede who usually eats dinner there at six o'clock. George watches the men leave. Nick and Sam come out from the kitchen, and Nick removes the towel that had been stuffed in his mouth. George tells Nick that he better go tell Ole Andreson that the two men are looking for him, but Sam warns him to "stay out of it." After Nick says he is going to tell Ole, Sam remarks, "Little boys always know what they want to do." This remark underscores Nick's youth and his innocence. In this section, it becomes clear that Nick has become the protagonist of the story. [5]
Then, Nick visits Hirsch's rooming house, where Ole lives. Mrs. Bell, the rooming house manager, lets Nick in. Ole is lying on the bed, dressed, staring at the wall. Nick tells Ole about the two men, but Ole says, "There isn't anything I can do about it." He refuses Nick's offer to tell the police, remarking, "I'm through with all that running around." Ole speaks with a "flat" voice, meaning that he shows no emotion. Ole thanks Nick for coming. [5]
The story features Nick Adams vainly tried to save the boxer, who is the intended target of the two killers. Although Nick warms the boxer, he can not persuade him to escape. His indifference and passivity hurt Nick, and Nick decides to get out of the town. But he does not know that word is the same with here.
3.2 The Other Seven-eighths of Nick Adams
In The Killers, the meanings which can be easily found and notices is the 1/8 of an iceberg. And regard the meanings which can not be easily found or need to analyze as the other 7/8 under the surface which is the base of an iceberg. So, generally speaking, what can not be seen is the most important.
So as Nick, he is in the process of growing up in The Killers. In this short story, Nick, for the first time, is pushed so near to death, and this event influences his view of life greatly. The Killers tersely and implicitly represents the process of Nick’s recognition of social evils and the change of his view of life and death. The settings of the story are the first at Henry’s lunchroom, then at Hirsch’s rooming house, and at Henry’s lunchroom again in the end.
First, at Henry’s Lunchroom, not like the traditional novel, there wasn’t any description about the setting at the beginning, two men came in and ordered food at five o’clock. Afterwards, the writer provided something about their appearance. Al “wore a derby hat and a black overcoat buttoned across the chest. His face was small and white and he had tight lips. He wore a silk muffle and gloves”. Some critics regard that the “gloves” here gave the reader some implication about he was a killer. Because he wears the gloves even in the room, we presume that the two people don’t want to leave their finger marks. [6] The other man “was about the same size as Al. their faces were different, but they were dressed like twins. Both wore overcoats too tight for them.”
“This is a hot town,” which implies this town is full of illegal activities. When we read the latter part, we got they were killer, and they want to kill someone who lives in this town. “What do you do here nights?” Al asked. “They eat dinner”, his friend said. “They all come here and eat the big dinner”. This explains why the two persons came to the Henry’s lunch-room at an early time for supper. They came there to waiting for the man they wanted to kill.
Then the next section contains the conversation after the two men’s eating and during their waiting for Anderson, whom they want to kill. In this section, the two men present themselves as the cruel persons by ordering Nick and Sam to stay in kitchen, bodies bound together and mouths stuffed with towels and keeping George at the counter. The two men turn out to be professional killers, hired by someone to kill a stranger Ole Anderson, who often comes to Henry’s eating-house at six. Here, Hemingway did not give the exact reason why the killers would like to kill Ole Anderson. The embodiment in the story is that even the killers themselves didn’t know why.
When George asks Nick to tell Ole what have happened, Nick shows his willingness at once. By here, we can see, undoubtedly, Nick is younger than George, and not as mature as him. This can be proved from the killers’ attitude to George and Nick. Nick only has two sentences to the killers. “Among Nick, George and Sam, Nick has the least social experience, he still use a young boy’s innocent eyes to view the world” [9]
Face to the evil of society, his response is more intense than the other two men. As for saving Anderson, he is very active. Even when Sam tries to advise him not to do so, and Georges change his mind and says “Don’t go if you don’t want to”, Nick still presents his courage by agreeing to go without hesitation. We can see Nick is an innocent, brave and warmhearted boy by that time.
Maybe one day, when Nick lives in this town for enough time, he will like George, seeing the crimes and violent things everyday, feel that is normal and accepts it calmly, even one day like Sam, becoming indifferent to the world.
Nick goes to tell the murder thing to Ole. At this section, Ole’s indifferent response and the attitude waiting for death shocks Nick. The conversation between Nick and Ole indicated this point:
In this section, Ole repeat many times the words “There ain't anything to do”, “There isn't anything I can do about it,” we can see in that society, the people cannot escape their destiny, they have no place to run. But Nick still wants to save him, he wants to tell him the killers’ appearance, and ask him “get out of town”, or “fix it up some way”. He still wants to persuade Anderson into doing something to avoid death. But Nick only gets another disappointed response, a rejection to his commitment. Anderson gives him refusal again and again. Nick’s shock and frustration are clearly and strongly presented.
When Nick returns to Henry’s eating-house, Sam shuts the door and refuses to participate in all these things. Nick is also confused. He can not figure out the reason because his lace of experience. And he didn’t know what he could do to change the situation. To him, it’s “damned awful”. He simply had such feelings and couldn’t see too much into the affair. The last sentences need us pay more attention.
Finally,Nick had two choices: “get out of this town” or accept it with “not think about it”. “I’m going to get out of this town” displays Nick’s decision to escape the cruel reality and the hope to find a fair society outside. [13] “I can’t stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he's going to get it. It's too damned awful." shows that Nick still can not accept the unbearable reality. Nick first experience evil deed directly, and then encounters Anderson’s incredible attitude and behavior toward the coming of killing. He gets to know that something death is inevitable, although it is too cruel to recognize this fact. In the end, he chooses to escape from the awful and cruel fact despite he tries to behave courageously to face fear and evil. But actually, the fear, evil and the sense of death accompany Nick’s growing maturity. Nick is courageous but his courage still can not help him out of the fear caused by his recognition of the inevitability of death.
4、Conclusion
Nick will soon say goodbye to his young age, and coming into the adult society. Nick will gradually to be George, the shock and paining at the first time will pass by, then, he will ignore that and then continue his life. One day, he even will become the kind of person like Sam, indifference and anesthesia, only thinking of protecting himself. Nick let reader know how the violent society and life turn people into selfish and indifferent. No person can escape their destiny; there is no peaceful place let people to run. And Nick will choose the “not think about it” to suit to the society in the end.
References:
[1]何昌邑,“冰山原则”,曲尽其妙——评海明威所著《一个干净明亮的地方》,云南教育学院学报.1995年8月. P.47-51.
[2]Tyler,Lisa. Student Companion to Ernest Hemingway. New York: Greenwood P, 2001. p.78.
[3]虞建华,20部美国小说名著评析[M],上海外语教育出版社,1989.
[4]张薇,海明威小说的叙事艺术,上海社会科学学院出版社,2005年版,p.15.
[5]于涛,简约的文风,深刻的主题-海明威《杀人者》赏析,人文社科,p.479.
关键词:“冰山”理论;尼克;杀人者;暴力;死亡;谋杀
1、Introduction
As we all know, Ernest Hemingway is good at narrating. He avoids gorgeous adjectives deliberately. Because his “mastery of modern narrative art”, he gained the Nobel literature Prize in 1954. [1] He was one of the most influential writers of the last century not only because of what he wrote, but also because of how he wrote.
The iceberg theory is a writing theory by American writer Ernest Hemingway, as follows:
“If a writer of a prose knows enough about what he is writing about he may omit things that he knows and the reader, if the writer is writing truly enough, will have a feeling of those things as strongly as though the writer had stated them. The dignity of movement of the iceberg is due to only one-eighth of it being above water. The writer who omits things because he does not know them only makes hollow places in his writing.”(Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon)
We can see all this technique in The Killers. The killers is one of the important short stories of his. It first appeared to the public in 1927 in Scribner's Magazine. It is a story of Men Without Woman (1927), and it is one of the “Nick Adams stories”. Hemingway 's depiction of the human experience, his use of satire, and the everlasting themes of death, friendship, and the purpose of life have contributed to make The Killers one of Hemingway's most famous and frequently anthologized short stories. [2]
Nick lives in a world of violence, disorder, and death and learning the hard way about what the world is like. There is no peace at all in his life. Each of the characters Nick met has been hurt by society and discarded as dross. None of the Nick Adam’s stories is pleasant and comfortable reading matter, including the killers. In this story, Hemingway shows Adams crossing over teenager to adult.
2、Previous Criticism on Nick Adams
In Europe, the study of the short stories of Hemingway becomes more and more important. The prominent production is A Reader’s Guide to the Short Stories of Ernest Hemingway of Paul Smith in 1989. He dissertated of the composition, the publication, the material, the influence, and the criticism of 55 short stories of Hemingway. The book is an encyclopedia reference in both scale and value.
In 1972, Philip Young organized the “Nick Adams stories” by the sequence of chronology. He made Nick Adams’ life corresponding with Hemingway’s by the sequence of child-callan-soldier-writer-father. Philip Young has found new things in the script of Hemingway, about the materials of Adams that never have been published “Hemingway’s Nick Adams”, and made a more elaborate study, improving Philip Young’s dissertation of Hemingway.
In China, the criticism of Hemingway has begun in 1930s. The interest was mainly about the artistic style of Hemingway’s fiction. The criticism was mainly that the language of Hemingway’s fiction was concise, vivid and implicit. Hemingway is good at presenting the story with simple sentences and dialogues and leaves a large- space for readers to explore, to reflect. For example, Ye Lingfeng found that “the more important business, the more important things, he will write less. He just writes about other trivial things and makes you feel that there is an important thing exists beyond all the trivial things. ” [4]
In fact, the “Iceberg theory” means that the works of Hemingway is like the iceberg floating on the sea. Only one-eighth was above the water and other part couldn’t be seen. Earnest Hemingway’s “iceberg theory” suggests that the writer represents in the text only a small part of what he knows, and leaves about seven-eighths of the content a mystery that grows beneath the surface of the writing.
3、Discussion
3.1The “surface” of the character Nick Adams
The Killers begins with two men walking into Henry's lunchroom and discussing what they want to eat. Max and Al bicker over what menu items are available with George, the counterman who had been talking with Nick Adams, the only other customer. Some confusion occurs over the correct time. Al and Max order George to tell the cook, Sam, to come out of the kitchen, and then Al takes Nick and Sam back into the kitchen. [5]
The hired men, Max, announces that they are at the lunchroom to kill Ole Andreson, a Swede who usually eats dinner there at six o'clock. George watches the men leave. Nick and Sam come out from the kitchen, and Nick removes the towel that had been stuffed in his mouth. George tells Nick that he better go tell Ole Andreson that the two men are looking for him, but Sam warns him to "stay out of it." After Nick says he is going to tell Ole, Sam remarks, "Little boys always know what they want to do." This remark underscores Nick's youth and his innocence. In this section, it becomes clear that Nick has become the protagonist of the story. [5]
Then, Nick visits Hirsch's rooming house, where Ole lives. Mrs. Bell, the rooming house manager, lets Nick in. Ole is lying on the bed, dressed, staring at the wall. Nick tells Ole about the two men, but Ole says, "There isn't anything I can do about it." He refuses Nick's offer to tell the police, remarking, "I'm through with all that running around." Ole speaks with a "flat" voice, meaning that he shows no emotion. Ole thanks Nick for coming. [5]
The story features Nick Adams vainly tried to save the boxer, who is the intended target of the two killers. Although Nick warms the boxer, he can not persuade him to escape. His indifference and passivity hurt Nick, and Nick decides to get out of the town. But he does not know that word is the same with here.
3.2 The Other Seven-eighths of Nick Adams
In The Killers, the meanings which can be easily found and notices is the 1/8 of an iceberg. And regard the meanings which can not be easily found or need to analyze as the other 7/8 under the surface which is the base of an iceberg. So, generally speaking, what can not be seen is the most important.
So as Nick, he is in the process of growing up in The Killers. In this short story, Nick, for the first time, is pushed so near to death, and this event influences his view of life greatly. The Killers tersely and implicitly represents the process of Nick’s recognition of social evils and the change of his view of life and death. The settings of the story are the first at Henry’s lunchroom, then at Hirsch’s rooming house, and at Henry’s lunchroom again in the end.
First, at Henry’s Lunchroom, not like the traditional novel, there wasn’t any description about the setting at the beginning, two men came in and ordered food at five o’clock. Afterwards, the writer provided something about their appearance. Al “wore a derby hat and a black overcoat buttoned across the chest. His face was small and white and he had tight lips. He wore a silk muffle and gloves”. Some critics regard that the “gloves” here gave the reader some implication about he was a killer. Because he wears the gloves even in the room, we presume that the two people don’t want to leave their finger marks. [6] The other man “was about the same size as Al. their faces were different, but they were dressed like twins. Both wore overcoats too tight for them.”
“This is a hot town,” which implies this town is full of illegal activities. When we read the latter part, we got they were killer, and they want to kill someone who lives in this town. “What do you do here nights?” Al asked. “They eat dinner”, his friend said. “They all come here and eat the big dinner”. This explains why the two persons came to the Henry’s lunch-room at an early time for supper. They came there to waiting for the man they wanted to kill.
Then the next section contains the conversation after the two men’s eating and during their waiting for Anderson, whom they want to kill. In this section, the two men present themselves as the cruel persons by ordering Nick and Sam to stay in kitchen, bodies bound together and mouths stuffed with towels and keeping George at the counter. The two men turn out to be professional killers, hired by someone to kill a stranger Ole Anderson, who often comes to Henry’s eating-house at six. Here, Hemingway did not give the exact reason why the killers would like to kill Ole Anderson. The embodiment in the story is that even the killers themselves didn’t know why.
When George asks Nick to tell Ole what have happened, Nick shows his willingness at once. By here, we can see, undoubtedly, Nick is younger than George, and not as mature as him. This can be proved from the killers’ attitude to George and Nick. Nick only has two sentences to the killers. “Among Nick, George and Sam, Nick has the least social experience, he still use a young boy’s innocent eyes to view the world” [9]
Face to the evil of society, his response is more intense than the other two men. As for saving Anderson, he is very active. Even when Sam tries to advise him not to do so, and Georges change his mind and says “Don’t go if you don’t want to”, Nick still presents his courage by agreeing to go without hesitation. We can see Nick is an innocent, brave and warmhearted boy by that time.
Maybe one day, when Nick lives in this town for enough time, he will like George, seeing the crimes and violent things everyday, feel that is normal and accepts it calmly, even one day like Sam, becoming indifferent to the world.
Nick goes to tell the murder thing to Ole. At this section, Ole’s indifferent response and the attitude waiting for death shocks Nick. The conversation between Nick and Ole indicated this point:
In this section, Ole repeat many times the words “There ain't anything to do”, “There isn't anything I can do about it,” we can see in that society, the people cannot escape their destiny, they have no place to run. But Nick still wants to save him, he wants to tell him the killers’ appearance, and ask him “get out of town”, or “fix it up some way”. He still wants to persuade Anderson into doing something to avoid death. But Nick only gets another disappointed response, a rejection to his commitment. Anderson gives him refusal again and again. Nick’s shock and frustration are clearly and strongly presented.
When Nick returns to Henry’s eating-house, Sam shuts the door and refuses to participate in all these things. Nick is also confused. He can not figure out the reason because his lace of experience. And he didn’t know what he could do to change the situation. To him, it’s “damned awful”. He simply had such feelings and couldn’t see too much into the affair. The last sentences need us pay more attention.
Finally,Nick had two choices: “get out of this town” or accept it with “not think about it”. “I’m going to get out of this town” displays Nick’s decision to escape the cruel reality and the hope to find a fair society outside. [13] “I can’t stand to think about him waiting in the room and knowing he's going to get it. It's too damned awful." shows that Nick still can not accept the unbearable reality. Nick first experience evil deed directly, and then encounters Anderson’s incredible attitude and behavior toward the coming of killing. He gets to know that something death is inevitable, although it is too cruel to recognize this fact. In the end, he chooses to escape from the awful and cruel fact despite he tries to behave courageously to face fear and evil. But actually, the fear, evil and the sense of death accompany Nick’s growing maturity. Nick is courageous but his courage still can not help him out of the fear caused by his recognition of the inevitability of death.
4、Conclusion
Nick will soon say goodbye to his young age, and coming into the adult society. Nick will gradually to be George, the shock and paining at the first time will pass by, then, he will ignore that and then continue his life. One day, he even will become the kind of person like Sam, indifference and anesthesia, only thinking of protecting himself. Nick let reader know how the violent society and life turn people into selfish and indifferent. No person can escape their destiny; there is no peaceful place let people to run. And Nick will choose the “not think about it” to suit to the society in the end.
References:
[1]何昌邑,“冰山原则”,曲尽其妙——评海明威所著《一个干净明亮的地方》,云南教育学院学报.1995年8月. P.47-51.
[2]Tyler,Lisa. Student Companion to Ernest Hemingway. New York: Greenwood P, 2001. p.78.
[3]虞建华,20部美国小说名著评析[M],上海外语教育出版社,1989.
[4]张薇,海明威小说的叙事艺术,上海社会科学学院出版社,2005年版,p.15.
[5]于涛,简约的文风,深刻的主题-海明威《杀人者》赏析,人文社科,p.479.