Comparison Of Jake In As I Lay Dying And The Sun Also Rises

While Faulkner writes with complex, disorganized sentences, and Hemingway writes more simply, both authors have distinctive styles that capture the feeling of discontentment in their fictional characters, such as Jake in The Sun Also Rises and Darl in As I Lay Dying, by supplying insight on their daily life and the environment surrounding them. While Jake’s discontentment is created by a war injury and Darl’s sadness is caused by his mother’s death, Jake tries to conceal his emotions while Darl chooses to confront his issues directly.

In The Sun Also Rises Jake Barnes is described as being both physically and emotionally damaged because of a war wound that impaired him during WWI. This is the cause for Jake’s discontentment. After his injury

a colonel mentions to Jake, “You, a foreigner, an Englishman, have given more than your life” (Hemingway 39). With the use of the term “given,” it is implied that Jake had some form of an amputation. The wound had left him impotent, making him incapable to have any future, sexual relations. His inability to perform intercourse prevents and restricts his relationships with women, especially Lady Brett Ashely, who desires sensuality. Jake is left at a point in his life that is completely unsatisfactory. Because of the wound he is unable to be with the woman that he loves. Instead of confronting Brett about his problems, Jake chooses to conceal them, leaving his issues secrete from all his friends. When Robert Cohn talks to him about traveling, Jake says, “I’ve tried all that. You can’t get away from yourself by moving from one place to another” (19). By saying this, Jake admits to Cohn that in the past he has tried traveling in the attempt to eliminate his unhappiness. With no luck Jake is left continuously roaming the streets of Paris each day unsuccessful in his effort to rid himself of the hidden discontentment. This discontentment is illustrated perfectly through the use of Hemingway’s style.
With the use of Hemingway’s simple narration and uncomplicated, straightforward sentences, he captures the feeling of discontentment in which Jake chooses to avoid throughout the novel.

When Jake talks to Brett about his wound for a short moment, he says, “Besides, what happened to me is supposed to be funny. I never think about it” (34). Jake tries to ignore his emotions as well as the discomforting awareness he has of the injury. After he says that he doesn’t think about his wound, Hemingway doesn’t supply additional information on Jake’s feelings to show that the character doesn’t want to continue revealing his hidden thoughts to Brett. At the end of the novel she says, “Oh Jake, we could have had such a damned good time together.” And Jake replies, “Yes, isn’t it pretty to think so” (251). Hemingway perfectly captures Jake’s feeling of discontentment as well as the concealment of his emotions. Jake is troubled by the thoughts of his impotency and by keeping his response short and precise, the quotation highlights Jake choice to ignore his feelings. “Typical of Hemingway’s dialogue style, the brief, seemingly empty exchanges between characters express the depths of their disillusionment” (Ostman). With the use of this quotation from a secondary source, it is evident that Hemingway uses an uncomplicated dialogue to show the discontentment that Jake continuously lives through each day. While Hemingway uses a simplistic style to demonstrate Jake’s discontentment, William Faulkner writes with more intricate and elaborate

sentences.
Although Jake’s discomfort is caused by his physical injury, the discontentment that Darl experiences is brought onto him by his mother’s death. After she passes, Darl and his family go through a tremendous amount of stress and discomfort on their journey to Jefferson, the town where they bury Addie. While each family member has different ways of expressing their sadness, Darl chooses to blatantly confront his emotional issues instead of ignoring them. Before Addie’s death, as Darl realizes his mother is dying, he confronts Dewey Dell saying, “You want her to die so you can get to town: is that it?” (Faulkner 25). He believes she only wants to visit Jefferson to have an abortion, instead of going to honor their mother and mourn her death. In Daniel Burt’s article, he states, “The visionary, intuitive Darl, the Hamlet-like figure in this domestic drama, is jealous of his mother’s favorite, self-centered, cruel Jewel, who refuses to let his mother go and blames everyone else for her death” (Burt). Similar to how Jewel blames others for his mother’s death, Darl confronts his problems directly. He may not blame his family members for her death, but he still has trouble accepting the idea that the majority of them are selfish and inconsiderate of Addie’s passing.
Contrary to Hemingway’s particular style, Faulkner uses complex and cluttered sentences to depict Darl’s feeling of discontentment. When Darl addresses Dewey Dell about her mission to go to Jefferson, he says, “‘You want her to die so you can get to town: is that it?’ She wouldn't say what we both knew. ‘The reason you will not say it is, when you say it, even to yourself, you will know it is true: is that it? But you know it is true now. I can almost tell you the day when you knew it is true. Why won’t you say it, even to yourself?”(25). Faulkner applies many intricate sentences when showing Darl’s feeling of discontentment. He uses long, complicated statements to portray the complexity of Darl’s thoughts and to show exactly how Darl is confronting his issues instead of simply concealing them. Later in the novel Darl burns down a barn that his mother’s coffin was lying in because he wanted to end the stressful torment that he had endured on the long trip to Jefferson. He wanted Addie to finally rest in peace and he was also tired of traveling with his selfish family members, like the father Anse, whose main reason for the trip was just to get new teeth. Although he tried his best to end his internal, emotional suffering by burning down the barn, he failed because Jewel saved the coffin from the flames. After being arrested for the act he says, “Darl has gone to Jackson. They put him on the train, laughing, down the long car laughing, the heads turning like the heads of owls when he passed” (176). Because Darl is narrating his own actions, which is unlike all the other narrations throughout the novel, there is a complexity in that alone. Faulkner choice to do this shows that traumatized, desperate Darl goes somewhat psychotic over the course of the trip because of the emotional torment that he experienced along the journey.
Although Hemingway and Faulkner have opposing styles, both are able to effectively illustrate their fictional characters’ feeling of discontentment. With Hemingway’s simplistic, straightforward narrative, Jake’s feelings of dissatisfaction are captured easily, and with Faulkner’s complex, evolved sentences, Darl’s emotions are also expressed but in a more elaborate form. Both authors have completely opposing styles, differentiating from each other in almost every possible way. Hemingway’s style works perfectly in representing Jake’s discontentment because his short, tightly constructed sentences are able to demonstrate Jake’s thoughts through his words and actions. Faulkner’s style fits appropriately in representing Darl’s feeling of discontentment because Darl’s thoughts are more complex than Jakes. Darl also chooses to confront his issues instead of concealing his problems which is why Faulkner’s elaborate style is ideal for revealing Darl’s emotions. Hemingway and Faulkner may be writers with completely different styles, but both authors express the discontentment that their fictional character’s possess, in their own unique way.