Hot and Cold in Ethan Frome

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I have zoomed through two short novels so far this quarter and I’ve enjoyed both very much. I have read Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemmingway, and have now finished Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton. Stylistically, the differences in Hemingway’s simple, yet effective descriptions of the sea and events contrasted strongly with Wharton’s more sophisticated and more complex sentences. However, both styles of writing served the purpose of the authors to create captivating and moving stories. I do feel that Hemingway’s simple vocabulary and direct narration would make his writing more accessible to a greater number of people at all age levels, as opposed to Ethan Frome, which would likely appeal to those who could read through a more diverse, complex vocabulary and narrative style. The dramatic change in setting from the scorching Caribbean Sea to the frozen, snow-covered hill of Starkfield created some startling revelations for me. In fact, I feel that the setting is part of what makes Ethan Frome so effective. Wharton goes to great lengths to make sure that Ethan’s love for Mattie is the only warmth in a frigid, cold, and bitter experience. The technique of setting creates a stark contrast that makes the novel a success. Whenever Wharton describes the landscape, she uses cold adjectives, but when she describes Mattie she often uses “warm” adjectives. She uses also shades of gray, white, and black when describing the land, yet uses brighter colors for descriptions of Mattie. Here are two of my favorite examples that illustrate my point. Cold images are underlined, while warm images are italicized. COLD EXAMPLE “The village lay under two feet of snow, with drifts at the windy corners. In a sky of iron points of the Dipper hung like icicles and Orion flashed his cold fires. The moon had set, but the night was so transparent that the white house fronts between the
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