Spring in Paris and John Dos Passos

I believe that it could be argued that the writing styles of Hemingway and John Dos Passos are relatable. One can relate to them by the way they both attempt to depict the world. For me, Hemingway in particular touches a place where it is simpler to see eye to eye, mostly because I too, am living in Paris as a wandering artist. However, a theme that is present within the work of the two authors, to me at least is loss.

            In A Moveable Feast, Hemingway is as much of a wanderer as anyone who has moved to a new place. Visiting places such as cafes, bookstores and the Seine river, he seems to always find himself having interaction’s with people who engage in different, but working lifestyles and some ingest the idea of loss into his mind. However, having such a simplistic, though ambiguous literary style, this could be hard to tell, or might not be seen to others in this interpretation at all. In the chapter, People of the Seine, there is a theme of gambling that is brought up; gambling of books. There is a sense of lost here such as the woman who is selling him books infers how books in English are worthless. While Hemingway being a writer himself, it is felt that there might a loss of hope within him, as he continuously recites throughout the novel how money for him and his wife is tough, especially while trying to base his career as a writer. After this interaction, the next scene he decides to place for us is of him interacting with The Fishermen of the Seine. He states, “Most of the Fishermen were men who had small pensions, which they did not know then would become worthless with inflation, or keen fishermen who worked on their days or half days off from work”. It is questionable why Hemingway decided to include this part of the chapter. Continuing with the theme of loss, it is interesting how he decides to socialize with retired people who do not have much left of their lives. Hemingway then attempts to progress into a happier subject of the spring but does so in a way that loss is present. He speaks enlightened thoughts of spring being such a happy time, but sadness overflows it by how sometimes it is thought spring will never come because of the cold winds. He states, “This was the only truly sad time in Paris because it was unnatural. You expected to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold wintry light…. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person had died for no reason”.

            Unlike Hemingway, John Dos Passos records in a way that the reader can see, feel, smell exactly how he wants it to be. In the excerpt of his novel, Three Soldiers, Passos is documenting social inequity and hardships of World War I through one of the main character’s, Andrews. Passos portrays the character of Andrews with emotions full of loss and anxiety. When I say loss, one-way to look at is could be a loss of emotional feeling. There is a sense of him wanting a way out, out of the war, and out of his old life. Passos states, “What a wonderful life that would be to live up here in a small room that would overlook the great rosy grey expanse of the city, to have some absurd work like that to live on, and to spend all your spare time working and going to concerts…A quiet mellow existence…Think of my life beside it. Slaving in that iron, metallic, brazen New York to write ineptitudes about music in the Sunday paper. God! And this”. If erasing the idea of war, Passos uses a realistic literary style to place the reader in the eyes of the character. “I want to wander about alone, not that I scorn Berthe’s friends, but I am so greedy for solitude.” Hemingway and Passos both provide the reader with characters in need of searching, which I interpret as, are caused from an inner loss. Although they are placed in extremely opposite situations, both authors are giving us a chance to try and experience the ride along with them, but in very different ways. Hemingway’s style is more left for interpretation because it reads so effortless that one might just breeze right over it while Passos, although every work of art could be left to interpretation in the end, is more straight-forward in painting the picture of what he attempts to reveal.