Compare and Constrast Essay on Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner
Raghav Sharma
Prof. Candia
English 102
“You are all a lost
generation”, Gertrude Stein once said to Ernest Hemingway, as she characterizes
those whom had to grow up quicker than most generations because of WWI (Lost Generation). This
“Lost Generation”
is considered to be the reason for one of the golden ages of literature, in
that all the authors at the time had a unique writing style, were less
‘Amerocentric’ (overly American), and interestingly seemed to love Paris.
Ernest Hemingway was a very famous author during this time period, he was known
for his swift, brisk descriptions, and the influence of war in his writing. Another
prominent author during Hemingway’s tenure was William Faulkner, who was considered
to be the polar opposite of Hemingway. Literary, he was very descriptive and
used colorful language; figuratively, he was greatly influenced by slavery,
American south, and a pessimistic viewpoint of “what is, is”. While their
differences are obvious, Hemingway and Faulkner both show the ambiguity they
put on their characters, with the use of setting and tone, and the way their
narratives influence the reader’s opinion on characters, through perspective.
In Ernest Hemingway’s short story, “A Clean,
Well-Lighted Place”, is a prime example of Hemingway’s writing style, and his
appreciation for simplicity. The story is about a deaf, old man in a café,
being served by two waiters, one who hates the old man, and the other who can
relate to the old man. The characters aren’t given names, only described by
their age and occupation, which adds to the obscurity. The setting is also
described very minimally, only that it’s a “Clean, Well-Lighted Place”, and
that it’s late at night. The setting also tells the reader a lot about the
characters, the old man has no where to go and that’s why he’s the only one
sitting at the café late at night, but the younger waiter does have somewhere
to go, home to his wife. This contrast between the lonely old versus the
impatient youth shows the reader Hemingway’s cynical view on life, and our lack
of happiness at all ages. The most interesting character is definitely the
older waiter, who is sympathetic to the old man’s loneliness and also
understands the importance of a clean well-lighted café for those who don’t
have anywhere to go at night, especially for those who “disliked bars and
bodegas” (Hemingway 146). The tone of the story is uncertain, but meditative;
we the readers never find out what happens to the old man or young waiter, or
why Hemingway decided to use Spanish toward the end of the story, but the lack
of information isn’t confusing, in fact it’s comfortable. “Give us this nada
our daily nada and nada us our nada as we nada our nadas and nada us not into
nada but deliver us from nada; pues nada.” (Hemingway 146) This quote shows the
tone of the story with the use of “nada” which is used ten times, nada which
means nothing in Spanish, explains how life is full of nothings, and is
virtually meaningless.
Ernest Hemingway never got along with his
competitor William Faulkner, and both even had publicly insulted one another on
many occasions. Their bitterness towards each other can be explained by the
opposite styles of writing they had, but one similarity between William
Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily”, and Ernest Hemingway’s “A Clean, Well-Lighted
Place”, is narration. Both stories share a third person point of view;
Hemingway’s narration is very interesting in that its not descriptive at all in
what the characters are thinking or feeling, but can be seen as a God-like
narrative because it’s describing the characters actions. This narrative leaves
the reader to decide the character’s emotions, and the story has no bias on the
ideas the reader has on the characters. Contrary, Faulkner also uses a very
fascinating third person narrative, in that it’s a narrative of a whole town on
a singular woman, Emily Grierson. The third person omniscient gives the reader
a lot of bias, because it’s forcing the town’s opinion of Emily in the
narration of the story. It’s hard to decide what kind of person Emily is, if
the town that’s telling the story isn’t fond of her. ”She entered- a small, fat
woman in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her waist and vanishes
into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with tarnished gold head” (Faulkner 34).
This quote tells the reader a lot about the town’s morals in the way they
characterize Emily, the use of negative words like “fat” and making sure to incorporate
descriptions like her “gold chain”, and gold cane head, which indicates their
opinion on her wealth. Both Hemingway and Faulkner used unconventional
narratives to depict characterization in a way that the reader wouldn’t
initially pick up on when first reading.
The saying
“opposites attract” couldn’t have been said for the relationship between
Hemingway and Faulkner, the two openly disliked each other, but you can’t help
to feel like they had a mutual respect for one another. Characterization is an
element both Hemingway and Faulkner were experts at, and it’s what made their
writing so cherished over the years. Both had the ability to draw the reader
into the story, may it be with Hemingway’s minimalism, or Faulkner’s intricate
narratives. Both had similar life experiences in their service in WWI. Both had
mustaches. But most importantly they both had a certain negative point of view
of life, and had death as an integral part of their stories, almost as if they
were ‘lost’ from the true pleasures of life, maybe that’s why there considered
the “Lost Generation”.
