Ernest Hemingway Authority Quotes

Hemingway establishes first-person authority in a variety of ways: Harry assumes that readers share an intelligence or worldliness with him, and addresses us directly with ‘you’ more than once. Seemingly unintended flattery creates authorial acceptance. Harry also establishes authority by easy display of his knowledge about the water and fishing-- and in contrast to other characters, like Johnson, the client who assumes intelligence clearly unearned, ‘the fish would’ve gotten away anyway’. The same method for re-establishing authority with an implied contrast is against Eddy, Harry’s original first mate, when he questions if having ‘a rummy on board makes a difference’. Importantly, it’s also in this quote about crossing 90 miles with a drunk that the promise of the story lies: Can Harry survive the sea crossing between Havana and Key West alone? Attempts to cross between form the
Perhaps this foreshadows the apex of story arc or a meaningful transition/denoument. The second of these “thoughts” may offers a clue, “Be a pretty night,” Harry thought. “Be a nice night to cross.” And indeed Albert dies soon after and Harry sustains wounds that kill him. (In parallel, Marie’s thoughts about Harry’s face also get quotes in the first full physical description of him that comes midpoint in the novel.) By novel’s end, third person point-of-view widens its scope to include never before or barely seen characters, mostly rich and temporary residents of Key West, as the Coast Guard drags a boat with Harry’s dying body inland beyond winter yachts. Hemingway takes us from the opening of the novel where we are deeply engaged with Harry’s psyche to a view beyond him, where community members like Albert’s wife are devastated by his actions, or by rich people that are untouched by him. But all characters share the same motivations to have money and all characters fear not having