Help with paper!

[john_stepp]

I have to write a comparative paper on two authors that I have read in class recently. The two obvious choices are William Faulkner (We read As I Lay Dying) and Flannery O'Connor (We read Wise Blood).

However, I can write about either author (Faulkner or O'Connor), and compare him/her to any other author I've ever read.

Anyone have suggestions? Thanks!

[kelby_lake]

Look up southern gothic. presumably you'll want authors in that category.

[john_stepp]

Look up southern gothic. presumably you'll want authors in that category.

Faulkner and O'Connor are both southern writers, and both show traces of Gothic writing, with O'Connor's works being consumed by the style.

That is a link between the two.

[wateredwhisky]

I don't know how helpful this will be, but for that time period a good comparative essay might actually work with Hemmingway and Faulkner, focusing particularly on style.

Although they're frequently grouped together in fiction anthologies and whatnot, their writing styles couldn't be any more different. Hemmingway's terse, short sentences and Faulkner's long, winding, serpentine sentences definitely show some sort of rift in stylistic trends of the time.

Hope that at least helped a tad bit, I know I took your question and tweaked it a bit, but I honestly despise O'Connor so I don't really have much to say as far as she is concerned. Good luck!

[john_stepp]

I don't know how helpful this will be, but for that time period a good comparative essay might actually work with Hemmingway and Faulkner, focusing particularly on style.

Although they're frequently grouped together in fiction anthologies and whatnot, their writing styles couldn't be any more different. Hemmingway's terse, short sentences and Faulkner's long, winding, serpentine sentences definitely show some sort of rift in stylistic trends of the time.

Hope that at least helped a tad bit, I know I took your question and tweaked it a bit, but I honestly despise O'Connor so I don't really have much to say as far as she is concerned. Good luck!

I appreciate your input, and you are spot on with your analysis. However, my paper is strictly similarities, not differences.

At this point, I'm going to compare the short stories Barn Burning by William Faulkner and Walker Brothers Cowboy by Alice Munro.

Any comments about this?