“There was a great shouting going on in the grandstand overhead. Maera wanted to say something and found he could not talk. Maera felt everything getting larger and larger and then smaller and smaller. Then it got larger and larger and larger and then smaller and smaller. Then everything commenced to run faster and faster as when they speed up a cinematograph film. Then he was dead.”
— “chapter 16” by Ernest Hemingway
Technique
In the “chapter 16” vignette of in our time, Ernest Hemingway uses a mimesis technique to imitate the character’s experience and perspective in his writing style.
The above sentences are all nearly the same length, matching Maera’s heartbeat, until the last sentence when his heart stops. This effect is accentuated by the “larger and larger and then smaller and smaller” in the balanced third and fourth sentences. But the fifth sentence is unbalanced relative to the previous; it only has “faster and faster” because Maera’s on the verge of death.
Hemingway also uses the word “then” in the final three sentences to emphasize the order of moments. They’re happening one after another. We are seeing the final moments of Maera’s life in chronological order from his perspective.
Use
- Imagine you are the character in the scene that you’re writing and explore the scene only through your senses. Transcribe in details what you’re experiencing and then adjust the pace to match the experience.
The Periplous 