In his story, "Good Old Neon", David Foster Wallace says, “What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected for words to do more than barely sketch the outlines of at most one tiny little part of it at any given instant.” Jane Austen, author of Pride and Prejudice supports this statement through her writing style while the Essays of Michel De Montaigne by Michel De Montaigne somewhat contradicts them. Even though Pride and Prejudice and Essays of Michel De Montaigne both have some things in common, both of them do not support Wallace’s saying.
In his quote, Wallace is saying that the thoughts and opinions of someone are not represented in any of their works because their minds are too complex to be put down into writing. In Essays of Michel De Montaigne, the reader can read exactly what Montaigne thinks about a subject, like thumbs, liars, memorization, sorrow, fear, and cowardice because his writing is done through a first person point of view. Even though Montaigne’s thoughts are not organized in a way that is easily followed, the reader can pinpoint his ideas on a given subject.
In Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen, the reader can only speculate what Austen thinks about a subject. Even though her novel has an organized structure, her thoughts are implied through the third person narration of the novel. Since Pride and Prejudice is a work of fiction, Jane Austin has the ability to presents themes that the reader can have an opinion on without stating her views directly. By writing this way, Austen supports Wallace’s saying.
Even though both works do not support Wallace’s statement, Austen and Montaigne have some similarities. The biggest similarity between them is that they show similar messages. A message that both of them portray is that “the profit of one man is the damage of another.” (Montaigne Ch. XXI) In Pride and Prejudice this is shown when Mr. Collins entailment leaves the Bennet women financially unprotected once Mr. Bennet dies. Another common massage is that “our mind hinders itself.” (Montaigne Ch. XIV) This is showed in Pride and Prejudice when Darcy’s “mind” (prejudice) prevents Elizabeth to accept his proposal.
In the story “Good Old Neon”, David Foster Wallace says that people cannot write down their thoughts and opinions because their minds are too complex. However, The Essays of Michel De Montaigne contradicts this because in his writing, Montaigne states his opinions on diverse topics such as cowardice, thumbs, liars, memorization, sorrow, and fear. On the other hand, Pride and Prejudice supports this because the author does not state her opinion directly through the novel.
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