論海明威《一天的等待》的獨特對話文體

Abstract：A Day’s Wait elects from the Hemingway short story collection Winner Take Nothing ， is one of his works. This paper， through a study of A Day’s Wait， analyzes Hemingway’s unique dialogue writing style， expounds Hemingway how to use the technique of expression of the dialogues to revealing the theme in this short story.

Key words：A Day’s Wait， Hemingway， Writing style， Unique dialogue style.

The story takes place in the course of one day and is only a few pages in length. It is narrated in first person by the father， but centers around the son. The boy just thought he couldn’t live any more， and has been waiting to die all day， just because of his misunderstanding between the Fahrenheit and the Celsius. But at last， his father told him that it was just a misunderstanding.

The Hemingway style’s typical characteristic is the simple perspicuity， particularly in dialog aspect. In fact， Hemingway is the expert who excels to write the dialog specially， and dialogue in his novels occupy a dominant position， accounting for about one-third of normal， and sometimes even up to two-thirds. Especially in the short story， a few pages are often continuous dialogue. In the A Day’s Wait， the full text of only 1，058 words， a total of 105 firms， and dialog accounted for 50 lines. The dialogue mainly between a father and his son.

1. Direct quotation figures dialogue

A direct quotation figures dialogues， can be broadly classified into two types: One is the exchange-type， that is， through chat and other ways to debate the mutual understanding between the people， and gradual awareness to the story and the world. Most of the rhetoric of such a dialogue has a clear meaning， the people reach a consensus in the dialogue. Another type is ambiguous， figures discourse contains multiple meanings or can be used for a wide range of interpretation， the character have not achieved the true exchange in the dialog. In A Day’s Wait， a lot of dialogs between the father and son’s belong to the second one. When his father took note of the son did not listen to him read pirates concentrate on the story， then kindly inquires the child the physical condition:

“How do you feel， Schatz?”

“Just the same， so far.” （Hemingway 456）

What the father asked is whether the son feel uncomfortable， and his son wrongly mistaken that his father asked him to the feelings of facing death; the reply is too ordinary， the father neglected it again.

Served medicine， the father found his son did not sleep， because it would have been natural for him to go to sleep. But when the father looked up， the son was looking at the foot of the bed， looking very strangely. And once again raise questions:

“Why don’t you try to sleep? I’ll make you up for the medicine.”

“I’d rather stay awake.” （ibid 456）

The son hope remain sober-minded and calm in the face of death， like a man so bravely face of death， rather than finished his own life muddleheaded in the sleep.

But the father actually explaned it wrongly for the medication for the next time. Once again， there is a misunderstanding.

Facing death which soon arrives， the son didn’t choice to father exchange face-to-face， pours out own doubts， the pain and the fear. On the contrary， he even requested his father to leave so as to avoid increased the trouble with him.

“You don’t have to stay in here with me， Papa， if it bothers you.”

“It doesn’t bother me.”

“No， I mean you don’t have to stay if it’s going to bother you.” （ibid 456）

In this dialogue， the pronoun it which several times appear refers to “to stay with the boy”. Because the son recognized that he was the human who soon died， and together with such person in the same place will be unpleasant things. But the father has not comprehended this meaning， thought simply that it is “accompany the disease in the care of his son around”.

The similar examples in everywhere of the article， and here not enumerated. In these dialogues， although the dialogue between father and son always has been continuing from begin to end， but the two have not achieved the true communication and the exchange throughout. Until his son take the initiative to ask questions eventually， please look at the following dialogs:

“About what time do you think I’m going to die?” he asked.

“What?”

“About how long will it be before I die?”

“You aren’t going die. What’s the matter with you? “

“Oh， yes， I am， I heard him say a hundred and two.”

“People don’t die with a fever of one hundred and two. That’s a silly way to talk.”

“I know they do. At school in France the boys told me you can’t live with forty-four degrees. I’ve got a hundred and two.” （Hemingway 458）

During this dialogue， in addition to questioning the child’s first sentence after the words of explanation， “he asked”， in other parts of the dialogue are not like “I answered” or “I said”， “He said”. Statements like that. This is because such explanations words distract the reader’s attention and undermine the continuity of reading， and the dialogue may be loose and inconsistent. Therefore， the dialog is one person of one， which one was who said that the reader was clear. Struck off “he asked”， “I replied” this kind of showing sentence， this dialogs were lifelike， thereby greatly strengthening works realistic. At the same time the entire section dialog also to form a coherent whole， clean agile， is not loathsome， happen to merges in the Hemingway succinct style， have greatly strengthened the work of the artistic effect. Between the fathers and sons the simple appropriate dialog has manifested character’s individuality characteristic well. He melts the profound thought and the fining writing in a stove， and has constructed own classical literary style in the dialog.

When problems gradually become clear， and the development of this story has been nearing completion. These seemingly agreed but actually at variance dialog initiation’s misunderstanding looked resembles accidentally， but demonstrates the difficulties of understanding and communication between people. And this gap was in a caring and considerate of each other between father and son also exist so clear. Isn’t it pitiful?

2. Indirect quotation figures dialogue

Apart from the dialogue figures discourse form， Hemingway also used the indirect quotation in the works， to strengthen the character of the “lonely” and “closed” mentality.

Compares with the direct speech， indirect speech is not easy to close figure. Looking from the narrative angle， the fundamental difference between indirect speech and direct quotation describes is the narration way different， it is to say， the speech undertaker is different. The direct speech is character in the speech， the reported speech is the relator in the speech， character’s language reported by the relator. For such a man Hemingway who likes characters their own language and actions speak for the writer， so direct quotation is obviously better than indirect quotation to maintain the objective factual tone. However， we found that in addition to dialogue， in the article also presented two reported speeches， once is rephrased in own words that doctor describes the boy’s condition to the father:

Downstairs， the doctor left three different medicines in different colored capsules with instructions for giving them...

Another one appeared in the father go hunting back home to listen to the family member to narrate that the boy refuses other people to enter time his room:

At the house， they said the boy had refused to let anyone into the room.

On the one hand， the use of indirect quotation discourse weakening the strength of a doctor， ruled out the possibility of the boys heard， for he was lying in upstairs bedroom. So the doctor said， \"It is mild flu， and no danger\" (Hemingway 458). The boy did not know the circumstances of the matter， in order to create the causes of misunderstanding of the story. Moreover， it is important that the Indirect Speech third person with the past tense have a kind of alienation effect， caused in the story appears besides father and son， other character’s existence remote fuzzy， and strengthen the character “Lonely”， “closed” status.

From the above figures discourse figures can be seen that character words not to be able to achieve the real sense in the direct dialog the exchange， and the use of indirect quotation further strengthened the sense of distance between external world and the heroine inner world.

Conclusion

Generally speaking， Hemingway’s work style characteristics is vivid succinct， contains exquisitely. His narrative art’s characteristic is objective concise， and loath to write. Hemingway is good at using documentary approach to describe the characters and the environment extremely， and always avoids some traditional novel such elaborating likely analyzes character’s behavior and the thoughts and feelings， but pays great attention to describe character’s motion and the dialog， and readers to see the incident factually record screen， with considerable authenticity. This style works for the readers to leave the interpretation of the space， but also causes the reader from on-the-spot report concentration more concentrated in the goods of meaning， from its multi-layered between the lines to see the rich meaning.

Works Cited:

[1]Pavlovski， Linda. “Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism”. London: Gale Research Inc.， 2002.

[2]董衡巽.海明威研究[M].北京：中國社會科學出版社，1980.

[3]劉海平，王守仁：美國文學簡史.上海：上海外語教育出版社，2002年.

[4]鄒溱， “《一天的等待》賞析”[J]，名作賞析，1999，（6）.

作者簡介：劉媛媛，河南農業職業學院教師，助教，自2008年9月上班以來一直擔任《商務英語》、《汽車英語》課等。