Earnest Hemingway's Use of Outer Limited Point of View

In my last blog post, I discussed the use of the outer limited point of view by French novelist Alain Robbe-Grillet. I gave examples from his famous novel Jealousy as well as another one of his works. But America has its own master of the outer limited point of view too—Ernest Hemingway. He also used outer limited point of view, also called dramatic or objective point of view by some, in many of his short stories and novels, although he often combined it with other points of view such as the unlimited point of view or first person.  Here is an excerpt from his short story “Hills Like White Elephants”: 

The hills across the Valley of the Ebro were long and white. On this side there was no shade and no trees and the station was between two lines of rails in the sun. Close against the side of the station there was the warm shade of the building and a curtain, made of strings of bamboo beads, hung across the open door into the bar, to keep out flies. The American and the girl with him sat at a table in the shade, outside the building.

In this passage, Hemingway is showing what can only be seen. We can only observe the American and the girl. He does not allow us into their heads. And so it goes with the outer limited point of view. We can only observe actions, listen to the dialogue and interpret the author's description of the scene.

Hemingway was particularly skilled at writing dialogue in the outer limited point of view. Take, for instance, this scene from his short story “A Clean, Well-Lighted Place”:

The waiter took the brandy bottle and another saucer from the counter inside the café and marched out to the old man’s table. He put down the saucer and poured the glass of brandy.

“You should have killed yourself last week,” he said to the deaf man. The old man motioned with his finger. “A little more,” he said. The waiter poured on into the glass so that the brandy slopped over and ran down the stem into the top saucer of the pile. “Thank you,” the old man said. The waiter took the bottle back inside the café. He sat down at the table with his colleague again.

“He’s drunk now,” he said.

“He’s drunk every night.”

“What did he want to kill himself for?”

“How should I know?”

“How did he do it?”

“He hung himself with a rope.”

“Who cut him down?”

“His niece.”

“Why did they do it?”

“Fear for his soul.”

“How much money has he got?”

“He’s got plenty.”

“He must be eighty years old.”

“Anyway I should say he was eighty.”

“I wish he would go home. I never get to bed before three o’clock. What kind of hour is that to go to bed?”

 *   *   *   *   *   *   *   *

“Another,” said the old man.

“No. Finished.” The waiter wiped the edge of the table with a towel and shook his head.

The old man stood up, slowly counted the saucers, took a leather coin purse from his pocket and paid for the drinks, leaving half a peseta tip.

Although Hemingway never tells us directly how these waiters feel about the old man, we have a good idea based on their conversation. Here the dialogue tells the story. We also get a clue about how one of the waiters feels or what he must be thinking when he shakes his head while wiping the table and trying to tell the old man that he will serve him no more drinks. 

Dialogue, action and scene description all work together to convey the story written in the outer limited point of view.