Raymond Carver's Inheritance from Ernest Hemingway's Literary Technique

Abstract

Ernest Hemingway's domestic stories provided models for and a significant influence on Raymond Carver, one of America's most important short story writers during the second half of the 20th century. Drawing most of its evidence from Carver's "Will You Please Be Quiet, Please?" and the Hemingway classic echoed by Carver's title, "Hills Like White Elephants," as well as from "Cat in the Rain," this article illustrates how the authors use indeterminate pronouns, open endings, traditional and mimetic symbolism, nonmimetic techniques including the symbolic resonance in numbers and the omission of key details to create meaning in subtle, complex ways.