Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Abba could really bring down the house.

VERBAL IRONY


Well, it's not like Frances had any emotional baggage or anything. <---(verbal irony, points for Christian!) But, chapter 6, the "Frances blow-up chapter" as it shall now be dubbed, was an effective mix of verbal irony, straightforward, painful truth, and hysterical ranting. I feel Hemingway didn't want to utilize an all-or-nothing approach to Frances' verbal tools to belittle Robert, which allowed the freedom to sound crazy in many ways. This is a more potent combination both to evoke the reader's emotions and to diminish the validity of Robert; however, strong verbally ironic phrases (ex. "What was it? About your going to England?" "Yes, about my going to England. Oh, Jake! I forgot to tell you. I'm going to England." pg. 55) are present throughout.

ALLUSION


In addition, Frances is allusioning up a storm in her verbal beat-down. "I suppose that we that live by the sword shall perish by the sword." pg. 57 and "Look at Hardy. Look at Anatole France. He died just a little while ago." pg. 57 are both examples of literary allusions. The first references the bible, which coincides with where Hemingway got the title for this most glorious of books. The second references "great" authors whom I don't know. Frances at this time was smashing Robert's writing career, so literary allusions seemed appropriate and all that much more hurtful. You go girl!

1 comment:

  1. I still don't quite understand where Hemingway came up with that title. I didn't see that the sunrise was anymore significant in this novel than in any other novel. You sound as though you've caught on to that somehow, but I can't seem to follow your train of thought.

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