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”.