Style used by Hemingway in A Moveable Feast- Alfie Tutt reaction post

In Hemingway’s book A Moveable Feast, He uses rhetorical devices and flash forwards to show that his writing style as informative and reflective on his life.

Hemingway talks as if he is retelling his life giving an informative feel to the book, while presenting the reader with an understanding of Hemingway’s subconscious feelings at the same time. For example, Hemingway flashes forward in the book while talking about his trip to the Alps, to when he lost his first wife Hadley, stating that he believed “Hadley, who had no possible blame, ever, came well out of it finally and married a much finer man than I ever was or could hope to be” (Hemingway 123). Hemingway uses the flash forward while talking about how his and Hadley’s relationship became careless after their time in the Alps, creating a connection between the reader’s viewpoint 50 years after the event had occurred.  Hemingway’s subsequent flash forwards are also to used to connect Hemingway’s feeling of where events were misleading or played a significant role in the remainder of his life. Hemingway also uses rhetoric devices such as polysyndetons as well as symbolism. Symbolism is used in the title of the book; the moveable feast Hemingway says was Paris, where most of Hemingway’s happier moments occurred. Hemingway uses an informative style to convey to the reader his experience with different writers such as Fitzgerald, giving the reader added information on the writers true personality to reveal problems within Fitzgerald’s life, and reasons for his death (mainly being associated with Fitzgerald’s wife). Hemingway also used a change to second person constantly throughout the book which added to the book by making the reader think and putting them in Hemingway’s position while getting the reader involved in the story.

We read Hemingway’s book because it demonstrates a different style of writing (especially since Hemingway is looking back on these events) that have to be taken into account when accurately analyzing a piece of writing. We also read A Moveable Feast because it displays one of the countries most renowned writers, Ernest Hemingway, and his recollection of his flamboyant life in Paris, which would appear to be one spark of brightness in an otherwise dull life. The text shifts between present and past, creating a problematic situation for the reader. The genre of Hemingway’s book has to be a fictional journal, because whilst Hemingway is retelling moments about his time in Paris, due to the time difference between living in Paris and writing the book, he could not have recalled such intricate details. These examples include the detailed description of the food he ate every day. Furthermore the book is fictional because it reads as more of a story, and is written very much in the form of a journal or diary.

Work Cited: 

Hemingway, Ernest, Seán A. Hemingway, and Patrick Hemingway. A Moveable Feast: The Restored Edition. New York, NY: Scribner, 2009. Print.