Language

Style of writing

The language used by Ernest Hemingway in his short story “Now I Lay Me” by Ernest Hemingway is generally not very complex. However, the author uses many long sentences in the narration, which might be more difficult to follow and understand. The long sentences in the story sometimes make the narrative voice resemble a stream of consciousness:

Sometimes the stream ran through an open meadow, and in the dry grass I would catch grasshoppers and use them for bait and sometimes I would catch grasshoppers and toss them into the stream and watch them float along swimming on the stream and circling on the surface as the current took them and then disappear as a trout rose. (p. 277, ll. 10-14)

At the same time, long sentences provide readers with many details about what Nick Adams remembers and imagines, while illustrating his mental process as he tries to keep himself awake.

Short and simple sentences can usually be found in the dialogue, and we encounter contractions in their structure. Contraction...