A Critical Analysis of

Ruarhy Outlaw's short story "Death by Spanish Name" uses what Ernest Hemingway calls "direct and honest prose about human beings." Outlaw also uses what Hemingway calls "every sensory detail" in telling this story. The story is told in first person, and the setting appeals to the reader's sense of sight, smell, and touch. It takes place in a hospital that is not air conditioned, and the reader is aware of the terrible heat that the …

…of putting the reader into the story. The reader feels their own body sweating with the heat. Because the sensory details are so good the reader knows that this story will stick in their mind. I will think about "Death by Spanish Name" for a long time. Ernest Hemmingway says that sensory details help tell "direct honest prose about human beings." Ruarhy Outlaw does a great job using sensory details in "Death by Spanish Name."