HEMINGWAY TOLD ME THINGS
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Article in The New Yorker magazine, May, 1999.... by
Lillian Ross
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Q. What is a
caricature?
A caricature is an exaggerated sketch or drawing
highlighting particular features of a person or thing. In
this caricature Hemingway is depicted as a larger than life,
warm and comforting person. He obviously likes drinking and
telling stories. The camera reflection in the mirror
suggests that he is an important person. His face however,
especially his eyes are kind of sad.
Giulio C.
A caricature is a drawing that exaggerates many of the
person's features. A good one can normally show what the
person is like or was like.
I think that this caricature shows that Hemingway has
lived an interesting life thanks to his urge to be manly. It
also shows that he has a kind and generous nature. Even
though he is smiling you can see a kind of sadness in his
eyes. The caricature also shows that he must have a big
heart and that he is larger than life.
Sam W.
A caricature is an exaggerated sketch, highlighting
significant features. In this caricaure Hemingway is with
Lillian Ross demonstrating his love for the social life, for
telling stories and drinking. You can see clearly the
weather-beaten face of Hemingway.
Giulio T.
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Q1. From your reading of the
New Yorker article, what would you say are Lillian Ross' feelings
about Hemingway? (Tone of the article)
Q2. What are the qualities
which she valued in him?
Giulio T / Sam W. /
Arianna S. / Jonathan
J.
1. Lillian Ross considers Hemingway to be a
great author and she considers him to be a close friend. They wrote
letters to each other, keeping their friendhip alive and using their
own form of humour. For example,
'In his letters to me, Hemingway often used the joke
'Indian' talk he had invented, dropping his articles and being
intentionally ungrammatical.'
2. Lillian Ross loves most of Hemingway's qualities. She likes his
way of being a good friend towards her, and towards others. She
admires his honesty about being a writer and writing with complete
sincerity, saying things as they actually are, even if it means using
foul language and upsetting the critics. He always showed love for
his wives because although at a certain point he would leave his wife
to go with someone else he always felt some affection and a sense of
sorrow. She also admired his sense of adventure and the way he spent
time with his sons as they were growing up. Other qualities she
admired were his courage, his sense of humour, his vitality, his fun
loaded conversation, his desire to help others in trouble and his
generosity.
'I wanted to give a picture of this special man as he
was, how he looked and sounded, with his vitality, his unique and
fun-loaded converssation and his enormous spirit of truthfulness
intact. He had the nerve to be like nobody else on earth,
stripping himself - like his writing - of all camouflage and
ornament. To my surprise, the piece was extremely
controversial.'
Giulio T.
1. I think that Lillian Ross liked Hemingway a lot.
Things she said in he article like, 'I wanted to give a picture of
this special man...' made it clear that she admired him. Throughout
the article there are only words of praise and hardly any criticism.
She described their relationship as an 'unshakable friendship'. She
also told of her delight when she received his letters, 'I felt the
thrill of knowing that it was from Hemingway.'
2. Lillian Ross valued a number of traits in Hemingway. One was
the way he always taked highly of all his wives and even when he had
left them he carried on supporting them financially. One of his main
attributes was that he always said what he meant and took no round
about ways to say something. Another quality Ross loved about
Hemingway was the way he wrote.
Sam W.
1. Lillian Ross' feelings about Hemingway are
good feelings. They are something between friendship and love. By
reading this article you find many examples of her positive
sentiments for him. You can even see that she uses a type of writing
that is very sweet, the same as a mother uses while talking about her
grown-up children. There are many examples in the article which tell
us that Lillian Ross and Hemingway considered each other to be close
friends. He signed a few of his letters 'Papa', but mostly he signed
them 'Ernest' or 'Honest Ernie' or 'Huck von Hemingstein, or
'Mountain Boy Huck', or 'Love and good luck, Ernest.'
'Our correspondence established an unshakable friendship.'
2. The qualities that Lillian valued are many. She writes of
Hemingway as if he were a God, with little or no bad qualities and
plenty of good ones. Maybe this isn't true, but still we are asked to
express her feelings and not ours. I would say that these are the
main attributes she admires:
* He was patient and generous most of the time
* He had a vast sense of humour that helped him write entertaining
letters
* He could strip himself of all extra things and make people love
him in all
his simplicity
* He was very truthful, had much vitality and turned normal,
everyday
conversations into something very special
* He wrote fascinating letters, full of facts 'In addition to
being marvellously
eclectic, the letters were full of facts. Hemingway told me
things.'
Arianna S.
1. The tone of this article is affectionate.
Lillian Ross and Hemingway are great frieds as she demonstrates in
the article. The fact that they wrote to each other for more than ten
years, developed a very deep and intimate bond between them. She
respects his generous spirit and great patience and feels that they
are admirable qualities in a man. He was a very special and unique
man according to Ross.
2. Lillian Ross admired his courage and his bravery. A man that
went to three wars was very brave, especially when he didn't have to
go! He was very generous and this she greatly admired. She loved the
way that he wrote and the uniqueness of his letters.
'Every letter contained electric echoes of the writer I discovered
at the age
of eleven.'
She also loves how much he took care of his wives and
children.
Jonathan J.