VIII- Drunks, Dogs, and Diction

I don't know what it was about this chapter that made me think a lot about the diction in the novel, but I have a feeling it was the word "tight" and how Bill Gorton went on about stuffed dogs. It literally took me probably four times reading this chapter and a couple of Google searches that finally told me that 'tight" meant drunk, which makes no sense to me. I always think of uptight or something that is tight and doesn't let loose when I hear the word. My understanding couldn't be farther from the truth. They definitely let loose when they got drunk. I guess it was just the word that was used int he 1920's. Hemingway is quite masterful in his diction. I feel as if I am getting a glimpse of the culture and the people when reading the novel and mostly it is from he conversations not the details. And the dog... Bill was quite set on getting the stuffed dog, but it wasn't the fact that he wanted a stuffed dog that got me, but how he said it. It is hard to explain how different it is from now, but it is. Hemingway wanted to portray his characters to a T and the diction used is more descriptive than background or personalities. I wouldn't be surprised if Hemingway modeled some of his characters off real people he knew because he seems to know his characters so well.