Student Nu
English A HL
Mr. Wu
Hidden Identities and Interesting Personalities
Authors like Virginia Woolf and Hemmingway do not go into detail on their characters thoughts, if not at all, what occurs most of the time is that character’s emotions and thoughts are only investigated through their actions. Despite this, Sartre and Hemmingway are still able to create interesting characters. The character’s in Woolfs short stories are not given much background information, although their thoughts are spoken by Woolf they are not fully explained. Woolf describes their personalities through the character’s action and interactions with other characters in the stories. Hemingway is able to create interesting characters through conveying their facial expressions, dialogues and actions. For example: Indian Camp.
The first story “Indian Camp” by Hemingway introduces two characters Nick and the Father, the interesting and a little antipathy character being Nick. Although Hemingway does not describe his character through his actions we can see that the father is proud, and antipathetic towards the woman. “Listen to me, what she is going through is called being in labor. The baby wants to be born and she wants it to be born” (2) it is not appropriate for a child to witness a birth as it can be disturbing. The Father is a doctor, and still decides to show Nick his work and even explains it to him. Showing that he takes pride in his work and wants to show his knowledge in his field by sharing it with his son. “But her screams are not important. I don’t hear them because they are not important” (68) one may interpret this man as being focused in his works or one may interpret him as being not empathetic. “His father picked the baby up and slapped it to make it breathe and handed it to the old woman” (2) This also shows the father’s pride and antipathy as he just simply slaps the baby in the back to allow it to breathe.
“Kew Gardens” by Virginia Woolf mentions many different characters, however none of them are described in clear detail. She introduces a man walking with his wife in the Gardens. Not very much is known about the man, whom now background information, however she intrigues the reader by allowing us to go into the man’s thoughts. “Fifteen years ago I came here with Lily… we sat somewhere over there by a lake and I begged her to marry me” (1). Woolf does not tell us the man’s personality but because she described his thoughts we can guess he has a quite romantic personality. “Tell me Eleanor. Do you ever think of the past” (1) this also shows his romantic personality as he seems to reminiscence on his early relationship with Eleanor. When he asks this question it is also clear that he has a quite fickle personality suggested to us before “But the dragonfly went round and round: it never settled” (1). Woolf uses the dragonfly to show the man’s confusion, as he cannot decide if he loves this woman or not. There is also another side to the man “The man kept his distance from the woman purposely” (1) while the woman and man are walking together the man seems to leading the stroll as he stands in front of the woman. This conveys the personality of the man also being commanding or dominant. All of the aspects of the different aspects of the man help create an interesting aspect to the man, as the reader is able to see the contrast of the man’s thoughts and emotions even though they are not explicitly explained.
Woolf can also maintain the anonymity of many characters in Kew Gardens while still conveying their personalities, one example being: Trissie. When Trissie was with the man it is easily shown that Trissie is a very excitable person through the contrast between her and her partner. “She asked with the oddest thrill of excitement in her voice” (3) here it is clearly shown that Trissie is excitable just by asking a simple question with thrill in her voice. The man further shows her excitable character as simply having tea with her causes he to become bored.
Like Woolf, Hemingway is particular effective at maintaining a certain anonymity to a character but still able to convey their personality. In the short story “A clean well-lighted place” there is a drunken old man sitting in the corner past the restaurant’s closing time, causing both waiters to have to wait late. As the man drinks he still manages to be neat, as he does not spill alcohol onto the table. This could suggest that the man could be considerate towards the waiters or that he is somewhat of a prideful man. Although he is drunk not spilling his drink could cause him to dry to maintain his dignity. The alcohol could also represent his last ounce of happiest and dignity as he carefully handles it and refuses it to go to waste. The anonymity of the man is also maintained, as Woolf does not describe the man’s history except for his attempted suicide.
In conclusion Woolf and Hemingway are both able to create very interesting characters without displaying the characters thoughts frequently. Their interesting personalities are shown through their own actions and their communication and interaction with other characters and objects at times shown in Hemingway’s “A clean well lighted place” this is when the man does not spill his drink even though he is drunk. Their personalities are also conveyed through the actions of other background characters for example the dragonfly and the man’s fickleness. Contrasts in characters are also able to create their interesting characteristics this being with Trissie and the boring, simple man with her.
English A HL
Mr. Wu
Hidden Identities and Interesting Personalities
Authors like Virginia Woolf and Hemmingway do not go into detail on their characters thoughts, if not at all, what occurs most of the time is that character’s emotions and thoughts are only investigated through their actions. Despite this, Sartre and Hemmingway are still able to create interesting characters. The character’s in Woolfs short stories are not given much background information, although their thoughts are spoken by Woolf they are not fully explained. Woolf describes their personalities through the character’s action and interactions with other characters in the stories. Hemingway is able to create interesting characters through conveying their facial expressions, dialogues and actions. For example: Indian Camp.
The first story “Indian Camp” by Hemingway introduces two characters Nick and the Father, the interesting and a little antipathy character being Nick. Although Hemingway does not describe his character through his actions we can see that the father is proud, and antipathetic towards the woman. “Listen to me, what she is going through is called being in labor. The baby wants to be born and she wants it to be born” (2) it is not appropriate for a child to witness a birth as it can be disturbing. The Father is a doctor, and still decides to show Nick his work and even explains it to him. Showing that he takes pride in his work and wants to show his knowledge in his field by sharing it with his son. “But her screams are not important. I don’t hear them because they are not important” (68) one may interpret this man as being focused in his works or one may interpret him as being not empathetic. “His father picked the baby up and slapped it to make it breathe and handed it to the old woman” (2) This also shows the father’s pride and antipathy as he just simply slaps the baby in the back to allow it to breathe.
“Kew Gardens” by Virginia Woolf mentions many different characters, however none of them are described in clear detail. She introduces a man walking with his wife in the Gardens. Not very much is known about the man, whom now background information, however she intrigues the reader by allowing us to go into the man’s thoughts. “Fifteen years ago I came here with Lily… we sat somewhere over there by a lake and I begged her to marry me” (1). Woolf does not tell us the man’s personality but because she described his thoughts we can guess he has a quite romantic personality. “Tell me Eleanor. Do you ever think of the past” (1) this also shows his romantic personality as he seems to reminiscence on his early relationship with Eleanor. When he asks this question it is also clear that he has a quite fickle personality suggested to us before “But the dragonfly went round and round: it never settled” (1). Woolf uses the dragonfly to show the man’s confusion, as he cannot decide if he loves this woman or not. There is also another side to the man “The man kept his distance from the woman purposely” (1) while the woman and man are walking together the man seems to leading the stroll as he stands in front of the woman. This conveys the personality of the man also being commanding or dominant. All of the aspects of the different aspects of the man help create an interesting aspect to the man, as the reader is able to see the contrast of the man’s thoughts and emotions even though they are not explicitly explained.
Woolf can also maintain the anonymity of many characters in Kew Gardens while still conveying their personalities, one example being: Trissie. When Trissie was with the man it is easily shown that Trissie is a very excitable person through the contrast between her and her partner. “She asked with the oddest thrill of excitement in her voice” (3) here it is clearly shown that Trissie is excitable just by asking a simple question with thrill in her voice. The man further shows her excitable character as simply having tea with her causes he to become bored.
Like Woolf, Hemingway is particular effective at maintaining a certain anonymity to a character but still able to convey their personality. In the short story “A clean well-lighted place” there is a drunken old man sitting in the corner past the restaurant’s closing time, causing both waiters to have to wait late. As the man drinks he still manages to be neat, as he does not spill alcohol onto the table. This could suggest that the man could be considerate towards the waiters or that he is somewhat of a prideful man. Although he is drunk not spilling his drink could cause him to dry to maintain his dignity. The alcohol could also represent his last ounce of happiest and dignity as he carefully handles it and refuses it to go to waste. The anonymity of the man is also maintained, as Woolf does not describe the man’s history except for his attempted suicide.
In conclusion Woolf and Hemingway are both able to create very interesting characters without displaying the characters thoughts frequently. Their interesting personalities are shown through their own actions and their communication and interaction with other characters and objects at times shown in Hemingway’s “A clean well lighted place” this is when the man does not spill his drink even though he is drunk. Their personalities are also conveyed through the actions of other background characters for example the dragonfly and the man’s fickleness. Contrasts in characters are also able to create their interesting characteristics this being with Trissie and the boring, simple man with her.