Algren Nelson and Honoré De Balzac may have been from different time periods but are both considered great writers. Their books share a common thread and give readers an insight into a certain time and particular place. These authors’ books allow the audience to see life in a different perspective and understand the search for a way out of poverty. Nelson and Balzac both had similar plots dealing with struggling and being trapped due to money. While their books are fiction, the stories are very realistic since Nelson and Balzac lived during the time period of their books and experienced similar struggles.
Honoré Balzac was born on May 20, 1799, in Tours, France. He was born into a bourgeois family and adopted his name from Saint Honoré’s day. Balzac went to school in Tours and loved reading. However, in 1816, he traveled to Paris to study law at Sorbonne at the age of sixteen. During this time, he worked as a clerk for an attorney’s office. It wasn’t until 1819 that Balzac chose to write for his career. He was not well-known at the beginning of his career. He used different names such as Horace de Saint Aubin and Lord R’hoone to write novels. Balzac was also notorious for staying up all night writing and drinking ample amounts of coffee.
Balzac was very poor and lived in an attic in Paris, due to his lack of success. He was a victim of bankruptcy in 1828 and acquired a debt of 60,000 francs. Balzac had given up all hope until his novel Les Chouans was published in 1829. This was his first book to publish under his birth name and led to his rising success. After his beginning success, he spent most of his time observing Parisian life, which is the inspiration for most of his novels. Balzac saw Paris as a “Parisian tragedy” (Pé...
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...ntment just like the characters in their novels. Pére Goriot and Never Come Morning are similar in a way since both describe the corruption of society due to the want for power. Both novels show “the frustrated longing for human dignity (Wright 242). The authors also depict how life is unfair and that a happy ending isn’t always the case.
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Richard Rodriguez author and journalist wrote a short piece “Scholarship Boy” to explain to his audience of underprivileged children wanting a better future, the scarifies he endured as a young child: the loss of family ties and knowing himself in order to succeed a better self. Another great author who faced huge sacrifices is known as none other than abolitionist leader Fredrick Douglass, “Learning to Read and Write” giving his found audience a look into the various dangerous tasks he took to give himself a better chance of survival. The two pieces show how one boy sacrificed so much in order to free himself and the other coming from less harsh circumstances but understand sacrifices just as well. All to be able to have a better and brighter future.
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