With minimalist style and subtext, modernist stories express the unsaid, the unsayable, the unconscious — oftentimes requiring the reader to infer meaning and understanding. In “Hills Like White Elephants,” Hemingway suggests a difference between apparent reality and inner reality, often expressed through imagery and symbolism.
In your 500 word initial response, please discuss examples of minimalism from Hemingway:
•Please consider Hemingway’s use of dialogue, subtext, and imagery (look at the symbolism of the character’s actions and the symbolism of the scenery/setting).
•Discuss the value of his style in expressing theme and conflict.
Here is the instruction for the second story
“Cathedral”
According to Clayton, minimalist author Raymond Carver’s style is “flat and understated… Passions are implied, tragedies and possibilities are implied… the sensibility is deadpan (757).” With this in mind, consider the story’s narrator — the husband. Because we see the story through his point of vision, he can be considered “unreliable.” As Clayton says, “it’s not that the narrator lies; it’s that his perception, we soon learn, is skewed, even sick (769).”
In your 500 word Turnitin analysis, please discuss examples of narrator bias in Cathedral. Describe the husband’s bias and point of view (his peculiar way of “seeing.”) Try to delve into the husband’s “minimalist” psyche and perception. How is he unreliable? In regards to his perceptions and storytelling, what, if anything, can we believe? Please be specific and refer back to examples of dialogue and action in the story.
