The Objective Style in Fiction: A Linguistic Study of Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea

Abstract

An objective style in fiction is characterised by the author's detached attitude towards character and action. In terms of language, this authorial detachment is essentially realised by avoidance of any expression that would testify to the author's presence. At the beginning of the twentieth century, objectivity in all forms of literary writing was greatly exercised particularly in American literature. In America the tendency toward objectivity was mainly the result of the spiritual disillusionment in abstract concepts such as morality, patriotism, and religion which was caused by the American participation in World War I. The new cycle of the American literary tradition was initiated by writers such as Hemingway, Faulkner, Fitzgerald, Eliot and Stein. The style of these writers was distinguished by a rejection of the literary rhetoric of the past and a complete objectivity of expression. Hemingway's fame was established as an extreme practitioner of the objective style.

Hemingway's earlier style which appeared in works such as In Our Time, The Sun Also Rises, and A Farewell to Arms, underwent different changes. In his later works, Hemingway's objective style developed in a way which allowed a degree of overt sentimentality but retained the basic principles of objectivity. By the time Hemingway wrote The Old Man and the Sea, this stylistic development had come full flower. Presenting a highly philosophic message, The Old Man and the Sea has been considered Hemingway's masterpiece. Hemingway's achievement in this novella is primarily in its style which presented a well-balanced blend of objectivity and romanticism.