Austen/ Montaigne Essay

        "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." This excerpt from David Foster Wallace's story "Good Old Neon", contradicts "The Complete Essays of Michel De Montaigne" in more ways than one.

        Montaigne has a certain way with words that make it so easy to relate your own life with his. He is able to give you a window into his thinking in just a couple sentences by his style of writing. In one chapter of his book, he explains how his memory is grotesquely faulty that no one could have a worse one than his. Most works of literature will try to describe exactly what they are experiencing on the inside, but rarely are they able to convey it as Michel De Montaigne has accomplished to. The way Montaigne writes "where memory is concerned, I am most singular and rare.." shows you just a hint of how intelligent his ways of thinking are and how great his essays speak his inner thoughts.

        Although Foster's notion doesn't emulate Montaigne's' style of writing, he make a point for those of us who can't express our inner thoughts into words. It all comes down to your art of writing and Montaigne was able to find a way to open our hearts and minds to connect with his. Montaigne's use of vocabulary and order of words exceed many of those who can but try to do the same or even half that in their works. Maybe you are born with that ability of such writing, or it is rare to those who come across it in life.

        As Michel De Montaigne has this gift of thinking through writing, so does Jane Austen in "Pride and Prejudice". Austen is able to convey her feelings and inner workings just as well as Montaigne, if not better in your opinion. They way Austen tells her stories, you would think she was talking them through in her head while living them. She uses her words very choicely and so delicate that you feel as though you are her saying them while reading them. Only a true accomplished writer is capable of making their works come to life with full meaning, such as Austen does.

          Both Jane Austen and Michel De Montaigne contradict David Foster Wallace's statement for many reasons. They both are very well thought out books that leave you with a great image to behold. Only certain authors have the talent of showing their inner thoughts on paper and Austen and Montaigne are two who have done just that.