Compare and Contrast

[PabloQ]

I've been reading the works of American novelists from the late 19th and early 20th century -- James, Twain, Wharton, Howells, Sinclair, Dreisser, Crane. You get the idea. As I've proceeded, I'm struck at the similarity between works and it has provoked thoughts of how two novels can be similar and yet unique.
This is not a call for term papers, but I got to thinking. Can you come up with two works that compare and contrast with each other? Like I said, I can think of several, but here's an example of one:
The Magnificent Ambersons vs. The House of Mirth -- both novels are about how having money (or not having money) affects characters in society. Lily Bart flits about society because she's a delightful entertainment, but she needs acceptance by society people to maintain her position because she has no real money. She eventually makes some bad choices and loses that acceptance. Her life becomes a struggle to get that acceptance back, but tragically she fails.
George Amberson on the other hand has real money and station in society based on that money. He makes the mistake of assuming the supply of money is endless and makes a series of harsh, arrogant mistakes based on that assumption. He drives his family and his friends away from him and eventually finds himself broke and humbled. Lily's tragedy is more severe.
Anyway, what are two books that you would recommend to be read in contrast with one another? I think there are some gimmes here, but I'm looking forward to some of the uber-eggheads to blow my socks off with some out-of-sight perspectives.
Last word, try to defend the choice with some good points. Have fun!!

[Dark Muse]

I wrote a paper for school comparing and contrasting The House of Mirth and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. About how both Maggie and Lilly become victims of their society, and the gossip and disapproval of their so called friends and family. And how they have some similar experiences even though they are on opposite ends of the spectrum. Lilly being from upper class New York, at least traveling in those circles to start with, and Maggie being of poor working class New York.

[Veva]

Once I had to compare J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury for the literature course project... quite challenging... I presume that they are good for comparing but you might have some problems with contrast, besides with the ethical issues and composition they are both quite revolutionary... good luck :thumbs_up

[PabloQ]

Once I had to compare J.D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury for the literature course project... quite challenging... I presume that they are good for comparing but you might have some problems with contrast, besides with the ethical issues and composition they are both quite revolutionary... good luck :thumbs_up

I'm not on a mission here. Just looking for some conversation. Your example, V, is exactly what I'm looking for. I haven't read the S & F and Catcher in the Rye was eons ago. I'll have to give them a try.

[PabloQ]

I'm still interested in some lively discussion on this idea. Two novels you would recommend to be read together and why. I'll give you another example.
The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and The Octopus by Frank Norris. Both are books about the struggle between the industrial giant and the little man. But they are very different and if you read them both you have to wonder why The Jungle is more famous. The answer is that Sinclair's description of the unsanitary conditions in the meat packing industry led to the Clean Food Acts sponsored by Teddy Roosevelt.
But the meat packing industry is only the backdrop for the story of how one particluar Lithuanian immigrant stakes his American dream on a job in that industry. Everything looks great. He innocently believes he has that dream. A house, furniture, food to eat. But eventually he discovers the meat packers own everything he thinks is his. He gets hurt and can't afford it. He loses his job and his family and wanders about looking for work, never straying too far away from the hope of reclaiming his share of that dream. He doesn't. And it's depressing. Sinclair tops it off by striking up the band for socialism, not just labor reform. It's heavy handed and preachy and even in the end does nothing to save this poor Lithuanian. I didn't like it. And I was never sure how the imagery of the jungle came into play.
On the other hand, The Octopus is a better story and better written. Whereas Sinclair seems like he's newspaper reporting, Norris tells a story of wheat ranchers in the San Jouquin valley of California. They are successful wheat growers, but they struggle with two things. The railroad owns the land that they have leased to grow the wheat. The ranchers believe they have options to purchase the land at a reasonable price, which they eventually find out is false. The second concern is they are totally dependent on the railroad to get their crops to market. The railroad sets their rates to pretty much deny the farmers their due profits. The characters are developed and they become real and as a reader you grow sympathetic to their cause. You root for them to win and when their fight eventually becomes a violent one, they lose. And you feel sorry for them. The imagery of the octopus is apparent throughout the description of their struggle to be free of the arms of the railroad. The more they struggle, the more angry the railroad becomes and the tighter the squeeze.
So that's what I'm looking for, fans. Two novels, that you would recommend, to be read together because they conflict with each other or complement each other in dramatic ways.

[Black Flag]

Jane Eyre by C. Bronte and Pride and Prejudice by J. Austen. Or anything, for that matter, from those two ladies at the same time.

Or, to mix it up, Under the Greenwood Tree by T. Hardy in place of Jane Eyre.

It's interesting to view courtship from different stations in life. All three stories take place in England in the same century but Austen's is taken from the rich upper crust angle, Bronte's from the in-house working woman's and Hardy's from the country farmers.

[mayneverhave]

T.S. Eliot's The Waste Land and Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.

Ulysses has often been called The Waste Land in novel form, but this works more on a purely technical level. Oddly enough, I feel it is Hemingway's novel that has more of a thematic relationship with the Waste Land, and that Hemingway as writer, borrowed a great deal from Eliot that he, I believe, never admitted to.

Both The Waste Land and The Sun Also Rises deal with a central figure that is castrated and inept. Both works describe a post World War I society in which meaningful action and desire is lost (something which a novel set in 1904 cannot).

Also, as I'm sure this has been noted, there is Hemingway's blantant plagerism of Eliot's use of Marvell:

"But at my back I always hear
Time's winged chariot hurrying near;"

Eliot referenced these lines in the Waste Land:

"But at my back from time to time I hear
The sound of horns and motors, which shall bring"

Hemingway, in A Farewell to Arms (1929) has characters speak the exact same Marvell lines when they hear car horns outside their window.

And Hemingway never listed Eliot as an influence?

[Dark Muse]

After re-reading the Great Gatsby, I think that Nick could be compared to Seldon from the House of Mirth. I found that they have similar roles. Both of them live on the fringe of the High Society and yet both run in the same circles as the Upper Class, even though they do not completely "fit in" they do not have the same amass of wealth as those who they attach themselves too.

They are also both somewhat judges of the society, sense they are just upon the edge, they are not truly outside of it, nor are they completely inside either, and so they watch those around them and pass their own judgements men, and while on the one end they both express feelings of disapproval, they also both are somewhat hypocritical.

[kelby_lake]

I can think of two plays:'Long Day's Journey into Night' and 'Death of a Salesman'.
Both sons are a bit tearaway, in DOAS Willy has the illness, in LDJIN Mary does. Both elder sons scorn the ill parent, the younger ones are more sympathetic.
I'm sure there's inspiration.