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.

What is Outer Limited Point of View?

Unless you are a prolific reader, it is entirely likely that you have never read or have rarely read a novel written in the outer limited point of view. So, what is the outer limited point of view? The outer limited point of view is a point of view written from a completely objective standpoint. As the author, you are an outside observer. You don’t have access to the thoughts or feelings of your characters. You must determine these by observing your characters’ behavior and action and by listening to their dialogue. And if your characters don’t say it or express it in body language, you have no way of knowing what is going on inside their heads. It is this outside aspect that has given the outer limited point of view the nickname the “fly-on-the-wall” point of view. It has also been referred to as the “camera” or “videotape” point of view.  Regardless of what name it goes by, the outer limited point of view is by far the most difficult to write.

Why Outer Limited Point of View is Difficult to Write?

As previously mentioned, the outer limited point of view does not allow the writer to enter the mind or thoughts of the characters. The writer must reveal everything through dialogue, behavior and actions. So the challenge is getting your dialogue, behavior and actions to communicate exactly what you want to say or reveal about your characters. If you are used to writing your novels in first-person or inner limited point of view this is indeed challenging, and you will have to constantly fight the urge to reveal the thoughts of your characters.

The other challenge in writing in this point of view is being more careful about the words you choose, especially in revealing behaviors and actions. For instance, is something done nonhumanly or inhumanly.  The two words mean about the same thing, but their connotations are quite different. Because adjectives and adverbs can relay subjectivity, staying objective is hard at best.

Example of Outer Limited Point of View

The following is an example of the outer limited point of view:

A white Toyota Camry rounded the corner of Third and Broadway and parked in front of a sidewalk café. The woman inside the car killed the engine and pulled down her visor. She slid the cover off of the visor mirror and checked her lips and hair. As quickly as she had opened the mirror, she closed it and pushed the visor back into place. She quickly got out of the car and pressed the lock button on her remote, causing the lights of the car to blink.  After reaching the café, she was promptly seated at one of the tables beneath a dark gray umbrella.

A waiter came to her table. “Hello, my name is John. May I get you something to drink?”

She answered, “Yes, I would like an iced coffee, large. To go, please.”

“Okay, I’ll be back with that shortly,” the waiter said before he turned and walked back into the café.

After that, the woman pulled her cell phone out of her purse and began pushing buttons. 

A gentleman sitting two tables over got up from his seat and walked toward the woman’s table.  When he got close to the woman, he paused briefly, bent over and whispered something into her ear, after which he strode quickly away in the direction from which she had come.

The woman placed the cell phone back in her purse, threw a couple of bucks on the table and took the iced coffee from the waiter before setting off at a brisk pace in the same direction the gentleman had gone.

As you can see, the outer limited point of view prevents the author from being able to get into the minds of the characters. We have no idea what any of them were thinking or feeling. All we know is that a woman is now following a guy who whispered something into her ear, giving us a bit of a mystery to solve and a reason to continue reading. Although intriguing at times, the outer limited point of view can leave your readers feeling a bit removed from the story. And, preventing this from happening is the ultimate challenge for the novelist writing in the outer limited point of view.