Directions: Consider the style of Faulkner and Hemingway. State a brief initial impression of each author's writing and then compare word choice, sentence structure, sentence length of each excerpt. What do you think that the different styles suggest about the writers and the stories they are likely to tell? For the Hemingway story, come to your own conclusions, in addition to or in spite of what the book says. Keep your argument to 200 words or less.
Due before class on October 1.
Reply to classmate: Find a classmate whose response lacks details that you find important or information that you found was necessary in determining the different styles of the author. Ask your classmate a question that will provoke a detailed response.
Reply due by 5pm on October 3rd.
Extra credit: Again, you can get up to five points of extra credit by responding to more than one blog (one point each) and/or answering the question posed by one of your classmates to clarify your style/tone analysis.
I appreciated Faulkner’s style of writing because it was more like bullet points. It was easier to skim because you would only have to read a little bit of the bullets. Hemingway on the other hand had a lot more speaking so it was a bit harder to skim. Faulkner also has much longer sentences and paragraphs. This makes Hemingway to me more of a story teller. Jumping from small point to small point. I don’t think a conclusion is needed to end Hemingway’s small story. It has a good ending except it could keep going into what game the little girl is playing exactly. If anything it could talk more about why he didn’t even want to see his father at his work and why he had really lied to his mom.
ReplyDeleteI think Ms. Taylor meant when she asked us to come up with our own conclusions to the Hemingway story she was asking us to come up with our own gist about what the story was about. What do you think the main idea of his story was and what was he trying to convey through the story?
Delete“A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner used older words and was written as more of a narration than a story. Ernest Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” was written as a story from an outsiders perspective but not like Faulkner’s poem. The story includes inside details that only the protagonist would know, which is how it is different from the Faulkner poem. As for sentence length Faulkner uses longer sentences, and Hemingway’s sentences aren’t really short but they stay about the average length. “A Rose for Emily” focuses on what people are thinking and what they see to be true about Miss Emily. “Soldier’s Home” focuses on how the man that left his home town, Kreb, has changed after the war. Faulkner probably wanted to get a strange story that was showed his strange mind. And honestly I don’t have any idea on why he would write that story. Hemingway, since he was a soldier, most likely wanted to show people how soldiers coming home acted and how things had changed for them.
ReplyDeleteI think that word and phrase choice are also an integral part of tone, in addition to sentence length and point of view. In “A Rose for Emily”, the narrator consistently refers to Emily as an aristocrat, but never in a pleasant light, giving us a tone of distrust and resentment. He also repeats the phrase “We (verb)” throughout the story, showing that he wasn’t alone in his ideas; the whole town felt much the same way as he did. “Soldier’s Home” mainly uses action word, and repeats the word “He” in times of confusion. These words show how Krebs reacts to his surroundings; trying to read into the cause and effect of the world, but always retreating whenever it became uncomfortable.
DeleteFaulkner and Hemingway have borderline outlooks on life. They each hold a dark perspective, but they go their separate paths from there. Faulkner has this strange way of turning something sour into something sweet. Opposed to Hemingway, who only comes out depressing and keeps progressing that feeling. In Faulkner's title "A Rose for Emily" is ironic since a rose is something compassionate and loving, but his story goes on with the townspeople saying terrible things about Emily. His sentence structure made it clear and simple to understand. Hemingway's title "Soldier's home" sounds happy and wonderful, but it pushes the depressing reality of war. His character Kerbs kept digging into his messed up reality. The structure is complex for continuing with this character mind set while being the observer. It's all so depressing because you see his disorder and that it's his new life being home.
ReplyDeleteTo compare the story-line of these two pieces is laborious. My first impression of “Soldier’s home” was suspicion, but in a mysterious way. “A Rose For Emily” was confusing, most likely because of the choppy structure. Hemingway’s structure allowed me to wonder about the conclusion. The structure for Hemingway’s prose was consistent, unlike Faulkner’s, whose scenes and years changed quite often. The sentence length in both stories was average, however both of them used run on sentences in some areas. Hemingway’s story-line flowed better than Faulkner’s did. The different writing styles I feel can vary depending on the writer’s mood and inspiration. Hemingway was a soldier, so I can imagine how he may have felt inspired to write such a story. Faulkner wrote this piece because of young girls who wanted to love and to be loved. The tone in “Soldiers Home” was calm, though a bit ragged in some areas because of the usage of repetition. “A Rose For Emily” also had this choppy sentence structure/length because of repetition as well. Both stories had a graceful word choice, which gave them both a tone of calmness. In Faulkner's prose, the calm and graceful context shifted into a macabre feeling in the last paragraph.
ReplyDeleteMy conclusion of “Soldier’s Home” was the effect of PTSD. With Hemingway volunteering in WWI when he was younger, I think that he carried the thought of what it may have been like for him when he got back from the war. Therefore, the story-line inside the prose and background of Hemingway lead to my conclusion of PTSD.
I love that Faulkner writes “A Rose for Emily” from the perspective of the community. Small towns tend to have that collective perspective that Faulkner captures perfectly. Hemingway, on the other hand, is a very introspective writer, which is what I love about him. His thoughts flow unembellished onto the page. Faulkner is more descriptive of details, while Hemingway seems to pay little attention to them. Where Faulkner writes “It was a big, squarish frame house that had once been white, decorated with cupolas and spires and scrolled balconies,” Hemingway writes “Nothing was changed in the town.” This also exemplifies the difference in sentence length between the authors. Hemingway is terse and fairly plain of language and sentence structure. Faulkner uses a much more varied vocabulary, sentence length and structure. These differences imply that Faulkner is more likely to tell a sensational story while Hemingway is going to write about a more lifelike and perhaps more somber experience. In “Soldier’s Home”, Hemingway reveals the mind of a man returned from war. The title is a bit ironic because Krebs does not feel at home in Oklahoma anymore. His family’s lack of comprehension of his experience and the fact that he feels like he has to lie to them makes him sick.
ReplyDelete“A Rose for Emily” uses an unbiased style to cover the events, using little slang or emotive words. Instead, it chooses to rely on concrete facts, images, and dates for its word choice, such as “Emily Grierson died,” “a week later, the mayor wrote her,” and the description of Emily Grierson in the first part. The sentences themselves are succinct: fairly long, but not to the point of overwhelming the reader with information. From the excerpt here, it seems to me that Faulkner was a man of an older time (post-Civil War) who wrote works that explored the oft-ignored struggles of the rich.
ReplyDelete“Soldier’s Home,” on the other hand, relies almost exclusively on soliloquy, only resorting to dialogue when absolutely necessary. The sentences here are all simple and short, and none have a single semicolon or colon. The word choice here is mainly imagery (“Most of [the girls] had their hair cut short”) with a mix of emotional terms (“He did not want any consequences”). The style here leads me to believe that Hemmingway was a broken and distressed man who wrote thoughtful stories that explored the human mind.
“A Rose for Emily” and “Solider Home” includes some similarities and differences. In the short story “A Rose for Emily”, by William Faulkner, he creates the story using scenes from different parts throughout Emily’s life span from Emily’s point of view and also the town’s people as well. I’ve always loved two sides to every story. Faulkner also applies old fashion language, bringing out the story with heavy descriptions of the scenes, for example, “Miss Emily’s house was left, lifting its stubborn and coquettish decay above the cotton wagons and gasoline pumps-any eyesore among eyesore.” In “Solider Home”, Hemingway writes straight to the point. He doesn’t linger on the descriptions and writes only from the main character, Krebs, point of view. In both stories, I noticed both Emily and Krebs felt trapped. Emily felt trapped by her home and by her father, Krebs by the memories of war. In the end both wanted more and desired for someone to love them.
ReplyDeleteIntriguing connection between Emily and Krebs. Though both authors have very different writing styles, do you feel they were both trying to evoke sympathy for their main characters, or other emotions?
DeleteI like your connection between Emily and Krebs. They both had the pity of the people around them, even though those people didn't quite understand their situation. What parts of "A Rose for Emily" do you feel are from Emily's point of view?
DeleteFaulkner’s story was an interesting read and made me want to keep reading to know why the town cared so much about Emily and her life, and how the story ended. Hemingway’s story was very choppy, but through that I really felt raw emotion come through. Faulkner chose a lot more elaborate and older words than Hemingway did. Hemingway used short, choppy sentences while Faulkner used longer sentences that flowed better. Hemingway’s story is about a soldier trying to readjust to civilian life where no one understands the struggles he is going through. The fact that he couldn’t find love in his heart for even his mother showed what a rough time he was having. The short sentences and the way the sentence ideas jumped around imitated the thoughts banging around in the veteran’s head.
ReplyDeleteI think we had a very simmilar response to both of the stories, I was drawn into Faulkner's way of storytelling, and a bit turned off by Hemmingway's. Which story could you identify with more? Did you have a sense of empathy for either character, and why?
DeleteI found Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” to be light-hearted and even humorous and Hemingway’s “Soldier’s Home” to be dry and depressing. Faulkner keeps the reader in suspense by only providing enough detail and information to keep reading, while Hemingway is straight forward with his descriptions and information. Both stories are written in second person, but “A Rose for Emily” has more character behind it as the entire community is involved in the narration compared to “Soldier’s Home”, which is contained in the character’s mind. Based on the two stories I would think Faulkner writes suspense stories and Hemingway writes historical fiction.
ReplyDeleteDo you think that the "Soldiers Home" was just contained within his mind or was it actually a reality to him?
DeleteI think the story was a reality, one that Krebs was trying to escape by internalizing a lot since he had no one else who would listen to him.
DeleteI enjoyed reading both "A Rose for Emily" and "Soldier's Home". "A Rose for Emily" because it kept me wanting to read the story to know why Emily was such a talk of the town and others were so interested in her life and gossiping as well as of course how it ended. The story reminded me almost of flashbacks because it would talk about different parts in her life from the view of the people in the town. Faulkner likes to write with detail in his stories while Hemingway gets straight to the point and overlooks going into smaller details that give us a better way to imagine what is going on. I enjoyed a "Soldier's Home" because it did hit home for me and I could relate in some aspects. When I returned from Afghanistan a lot of Krebs feelings and thoughts were my own. The story shows the struggles returning from war that Soldier's face and a Soldier with PTSD. The story was from the characters point of view and felt almost like he was just writing in a journal, it was calm but it had spots of repetition so it felt like he wanted to emphasize on those words sort of giving the feeling of being upset. Faulkner likes to write with detail in his stories while Hemingway gets straight to the point and overlooks going into smaller details that give us a better way to imagine what is going on.
ReplyDeleteFaulkner and Hemmingway both give snapshots into a community. Faulkner tells his story from the perspective of the village people, and over a lifetime. His way of story telling is interesting and engaging, he gives clues, but didn’t give anything away. This type of storytelling is clever and in my opinion hard to achieve. In “A Rose for Emily” the sentences vary in length, and include many details. Hemingway on the other hand gave a moment-by-moment narrative, from the one persons perspective. I found it difficult to fallow as the character was continually contradicting himself. The sentence structure was short and to the point, at times a little choppy, which adds to the feelings the character was experiencing. Faulkner probably wrote suspenseful stories that might be harder to relate to in this time period. Hemmingway stories are likely darker, using his experiences and are more relevant for today’s reader.
ReplyDeleteI like that you looked at their points of view as from community. I didn't see it that way. (: Love it. Do you think that Hemingway's approach to portraying Kreb's attitude made you feel more empathetic or frustrated/annoyed? I felt I was hard to feel sorry for him because the tone was more flat. Where, if the tone were more emotional/distraught, I would have felt more empathetic.
DeleteWell, I was wrong about it being from the community's perspective. There were a few small clues that I overlooked. It was determined a young boy was the narrator, but it did have a town gossip sort of feel. I was annoyed reading about Kreb for a lot of reasons, mostly I don't particularly enjoy that type of storytelling. I could identify with his feelings and his family's disfunction, but I didn't like the way the story was told.
DeleteI made the mistake of reading Beowulf before the texts, and was severely disappointed in the lack of rhyme and strong meter within Faulkner and Hemingway. No matter.
ReplyDeleteFaulkner writes thought out, longer sentences. He makes use of a larger vocabulary and thought provoking syntax. "A Rose for Emily" take place over a longer span of time; starting with a sudden announcement of death, then going back to the previous year's to explain the events leading up to the funeral.
Hemingway relays his story I short sporadic, almost confusing, thought-like sentences. Making his story difficult to get in to at first. He use simple, basic words. Hemingway also uses extended dialogue, contrary to the short instances of conversation Faulkner relates.
Hemingway is reminiscent of modern writing, where as I got a classical, refined story from Faulkner.
On the conclusion of Hemingway: Krebs is jaded by war. Note the story never talks about the events of war he observed, the could have been horrific or passive. But war is war. It changes a person. I have grandfathers who say things off the cuff, and odd. One has PTSD the other does not, but they were both changed by the war.
Faulkner's story seemed to confuse me a few times, I didn't understand how taxes could be important inside the story. However, the entire prose made me suspicious, but in a good way. I liked the inconsistent suspense throughout the prose. For example, the scene where Emily bought the poison. Faulkner only gave you a split second to wonder "what is going to happen?" before the scene quickly changed with little mentioning of the outcome. Since you feel that Hemingway's piece was confusing, do you feel that Faulkner's prose was easier to comprehend? If so why? Faulkner seemed to have jump scenes quite often. Which occasionally brought the change of Emily's age. How do you feel about that?
DeleteFaulkner is much more descriptive and eerie, while Hemingway is more direct and immediately puts an answer into your head. Faulkner used tone to tell a story, a story to guide you along a path in search of a conclusion. Hemingway hands you the story to do what you will with it. "A Rose for Emily" evoked emotion and you felt sorry for the character, you wanted to find out the mystery. In "A Soldier's Home" we are aware of the dilemma from the beginning and can take what we want from it. We feel sorry for Krebs but don't know what to do with his problem because the tone is so flat. Faulkner has a way of romanticizing even a creepy story. I assume he writes stories that are mysteries with a romantic twist. I feel that Hemingway spills his emotions into a story and tells it like it is.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your response. I actually found Hemingways style of writing helpful to easily see the story plot, however, Do you think if Hemingway added more detail to his choppy sentences and more details to the characters that you'd be able to connect more with Krebs or would you look at him the same?
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