In a nutshell, I was pretty taken aback by Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning." The title was already making me squirm a little and I didn't know if the story would be just as cryptic as As I Lay Dying was. Thankfully it wasn't too convoluted. However, it was one of the saddest stories I had read in a long time. Imagine being the son of a man who has been charged with arson multiple times. The ethical dilemma is just screaming out to the reader, and this is what Faulkner was trying to show through the protagonist Colonel Sartoris Snopes. Snopes and his family live in Faulkner's made-up Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi (no surprise) just like the Bundrens from As I Lay Dying (it will all make sense once you start reading the novel). This makes no difference, but it begs the question of whether Faulkner's some of the stories take place simultaneously in Yoknapatawpha County or are they all set in different time periods. No matter, the Snopes' are your average poor rural family with one little glitch: a disfigured father named Abner Snopes. A red flag should be going off immediately when one finds out a character is deformed (think Flannery O'Connor). Abner Snopes's issue is a limp in his leg from being shot in the Civil War. Besides that, he is described as stiff-bodied and even worse he speaks in a harsh emotionless voice. I really want to meet this guy (sarcasm ensues). Thus far there is no evidence that he is very likable, so he is a good candidate to be a criminal. For Sartoris Snopes, it means having to submit without fail to an angry father who loves to show his superiority as patriarch. The situation is almost as bad for Abner Snopes's wife (how could she have married this guy). She is scared into submission by her husband's violent nature.
With so many problems, Abner Snopes looks like he has a lot to answer to. He seems to lack a conscience and a sense of decency. Whatever happens, he will eventually have to confess any wrongdoings he may have done to either his family or the judge, who will be so happy to see him (not really). All of this and more made me sad and also glad to have read William Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning." I would highly recommend it because if one wishes to understand an author, it never hurts to read more than one of his or her works. Another one of Faulkner's short stories that is just as gut-wrenching is "A Rose for Emily."
Big Brother is Watching!!!!!!!!!!!!
Friday, January 4, 2013
Hemingway Vs. Faulkner: The Most Epic Battle of the Lost Generation
Finally, the moment I have been waiting for this entire year! I can now delve into the quandary that is who won: Hemingway or Faulkner? A.P. Hamlit reads As I lay Dying, while Creative and Critical Writing classes study Hemingway. Mr. Frankum's classes have had The Sun Also Rises as summer reading and I have heard that Mr. Fiorelli had his students read "Hills Like White Elephants" at some point in the year. In my post of Orwell Vs. Huxley, I discussed common concepts in their masterpieces 1984 and Brave New World respectively and voiced my opinion of who won on each battleground. Here I will strictly discuss the two authors' differing styles and the cultural aspects of their works. About half of A.P. Hamlit should have opinions on the dispute since those taking both senior English courses will have been exposed to both authors. For the rest, I would recommend reading Hemingway after finishing As I Lay Dying or while reading it.
Let's start with Faulkner because A.P. Hamlit will study him (no offense to Hemingway). One should be surprised that he was able to write short stories (it will all make sense after reading or attempting to read As I lay Dying). His sentences vary in structure, but tend to be longer and much more substantive. I believe that since he was trying to paint vivid mental pictures in the minds of his readers while also conveying deep concepts in an understandable manner, his sentences turned out to be many individual parts connected with conjunctions. Another intriguing aspect of the depth of Faulkner's sentences is that one can understand how introspective certain characters are. As I Lay Dying is a patchwork of thoughts by the characters involved in the events the story discusses. The obvious reason for this setup is to show differing viewpoints for major plot points. However, the difference in how characters express themselves in dialogue and in thoughts shows readers that Faulkner is not writing a tale about a bunch of uneducated Southern farmers. They do not seem intelligent only because their manner of speaking is so far from the rules of the English language. Their narrations reveal characters that are at different levels of "supposing." The stream of consciousness setup facilitates a reader response about the mental state of each major character. It also for me aided in eliciting sympathy for a few characters. Long story short, Faulkner was a master of portraying the complexity of the mind and the thoughts it concocts in a manner readers can grasp (or hopefully grasp more often than not).
Now for the great Ernest Hemingway. His style is almost a paradox in that he made his prose as minimalist as possible, but his sentences turned out to be long and you guessed it extended using conjunctions, namely "and". In his pursuit of simplicity in language, he broke a few rules of grammar in his narrations. This mostly consisted of leaving out certain words, which sometimes leads to sentences sounding awkward when read aloud. No matter what issues may have arisen from boiling down his writing to the bare minimum, Hemingway clearly achieved a more conversational and informal tone, which was needed due to the material he wrote about. Being from the Lost Generation, he lived in an era that was trying to make sense out of the senseless Great War. Consequently, his stories are about the daily lives of people who were changed drastically by the war. The Sun Also Rises is essentially the antics of a group of expatriates, those that renounce their country's citizenship. Hemingway in this novel meant to capture the manner in which people of that time period "drained their sorrows" in a manner of speaking. This implies excessive drinking and excessive partying. The female lead character Lady Brett Ashley is depicted as a tomboyish character in order to fulfill this requirement (and because Hemingway did not know how to correctly portray women). In a Hemingway story, the closest thing to a central meaning is the realization of how the post-Great War era was marked by an aspect of debauchery. Unlike Faulkner, Hemingway seemed as if he was writing for himself in a sense. This is motivated by how close his stories are to things he himself experienced. All in all, works by Ernest Hemingway are considered classics because of how down to earth and relatively informal they are. It didn't hurt that it takes literary genius to be a minimalist writer. In my opinion, Hemingway is a guy's author, but that is only because he portrays women characters as having traditionally masculine qualities.
Who Won? It's all a matter of opinion like anything else. Faulkner and Hemingway were both great authors and deserve to be studied in English courses.
Let's start with Faulkner because A.P. Hamlit will study him (no offense to Hemingway). One should be surprised that he was able to write short stories (it will all make sense after reading or attempting to read As I lay Dying). His sentences vary in structure, but tend to be longer and much more substantive. I believe that since he was trying to paint vivid mental pictures in the minds of his readers while also conveying deep concepts in an understandable manner, his sentences turned out to be many individual parts connected with conjunctions. Another intriguing aspect of the depth of Faulkner's sentences is that one can understand how introspective certain characters are. As I Lay Dying is a patchwork of thoughts by the characters involved in the events the story discusses. The obvious reason for this setup is to show differing viewpoints for major plot points. However, the difference in how characters express themselves in dialogue and in thoughts shows readers that Faulkner is not writing a tale about a bunch of uneducated Southern farmers. They do not seem intelligent only because their manner of speaking is so far from the rules of the English language. Their narrations reveal characters that are at different levels of "supposing." The stream of consciousness setup facilitates a reader response about the mental state of each major character. It also for me aided in eliciting sympathy for a few characters. Long story short, Faulkner was a master of portraying the complexity of the mind and the thoughts it concocts in a manner readers can grasp (or hopefully grasp more often than not).
Now for the great Ernest Hemingway. His style is almost a paradox in that he made his prose as minimalist as possible, but his sentences turned out to be long and you guessed it extended using conjunctions, namely "and". In his pursuit of simplicity in language, he broke a few rules of grammar in his narrations. This mostly consisted of leaving out certain words, which sometimes leads to sentences sounding awkward when read aloud. No matter what issues may have arisen from boiling down his writing to the bare minimum, Hemingway clearly achieved a more conversational and informal tone, which was needed due to the material he wrote about. Being from the Lost Generation, he lived in an era that was trying to make sense out of the senseless Great War. Consequently, his stories are about the daily lives of people who were changed drastically by the war. The Sun Also Rises is essentially the antics of a group of expatriates, those that renounce their country's citizenship. Hemingway in this novel meant to capture the manner in which people of that time period "drained their sorrows" in a manner of speaking. This implies excessive drinking and excessive partying. The female lead character Lady Brett Ashley is depicted as a tomboyish character in order to fulfill this requirement (and because Hemingway did not know how to correctly portray women). In a Hemingway story, the closest thing to a central meaning is the realization of how the post-Great War era was marked by an aspect of debauchery. Unlike Faulkner, Hemingway seemed as if he was writing for himself in a sense. This is motivated by how close his stories are to things he himself experienced. All in all, works by Ernest Hemingway are considered classics because of how down to earth and relatively informal they are. It didn't hurt that it takes literary genius to be a minimalist writer. In my opinion, Hemingway is a guy's author, but that is only because he portrays women characters as having traditionally masculine qualities.
Who Won? It's all a matter of opinion like anything else. Faulkner and Hemingway were both great authors and deserve to be studied in English courses.
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