William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway contributed a great deal to American
literature with their new and unique styles of writing. They are both known for
their experimental ideas which are quite different from each other. Faulkner’s
novels contain descriptive, complicated and long sentences, while Hemingway
writes in a simple, plain, and straightforward manner. Hemingway and
Faulkner’s way of constructing a sentence are very different. Hemingway uses
language that is easy to understand and read. For example, he writes sentences
such as, “He knew what a huge fish this was” and “I wish I had the boy.”
He lets the reader know what is going on at all times and does not leave
anything p to the imagination. Also, Hemingway uses short sentence o portray his
point more easily. “Come on and kill me. I do not care who kills who.” He
writes clear, direct, simple sentences. However, on the other hand, Faulkner
uses long, descriptive sentences. His goal is to give the reader a vivid mental
picture. For example, the following sentence from “A Rose for Emily,"
creates a clear image in the reader’s mind. “They rose when she entered-a
small, fat, women in black, with a thin gold chain descending to her wait and
vanishing into her belt, leaning on an ebony cane with a tarnished gold head.”
Also, Faulkner writes long complicated sentences as opposed to Hemingway. One
sentence reads: “Alive, Miss Emily had been a tradition, a duty, and a care; a
sort of hereditary obligation upon the town, dating from that day in 1894 when
Colonel Sartoris, the mayor-he who fathered the edict that no Negro woman should
appear on the streets without an apron-remitted her taxes, the dispensation
dating from the death of her father on into perpetuity.” He includes many
ideas and images in each sentence, sometimes making it difficult to understand
and clearly read. Faulkner’s long descriptive style is much different from
Hemingway’s simple and direct language. Another difference between Faulkner
and Hemingway is their use of metaphors and imagery. Faulkner gives definite
images with a great deal of description and detail. He also compares his topic
to something similar which further emphasizes the image. For example, he writes:
“still looking like a little old rabbit, with her scared face and those big
eyes and that hair without any special name showing above the cloth” Unlike
Faulkner, Hemingway rarely uses metaphors in his writing. His straightforward
style allows him to come right out and describe an image. Instead of using
metaphors he writes sentences like the following to portray his point: “The
tuna shone silver in the sun and after he had dropped back into the water
another and another rose and they were jumping in all directions, churning he
water and leaping in log jumps after the bait. They were circling it and driving
it.” Even though he does not use metaphors, Hemingway is successfully able to
describe an image. William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway have two very different
writing styles. Hemingway is direct and simple, while Faulkner’s style is
complicated but very descriptive. Their unique styles and bold creativity helped
shape American literature and open the door for new ideas.