ESSAY # 2

David Foster Wallace’s notion “What goes on inside is just too fast and huge and all interconnected,” views life and human emotions as a web of confusion which words cannot do more “than barely sketch the outlines…” It captures the reality of an individual trying to converse “what goes on inside” but unable to find the right words or enough words to convey it effectively and correctly; unable to describe the diminutive details – which is what makes the emotions “fast and huge and all interconnected.” Michel de Montaigne also struggled with an analogous intricacy as Wallace’s perspective depicted in his story “Good Old Neon,” and so the essays written by Montaigne is completely compatible with Wallace’s notion. The Essays of Michel de Montaigne by Montaigne and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen comprise a similarity in style, where both the authors use words to represent a character’s thoughts, not necessarily speech. Austen uses a technique known as free indirect speech and Montaigne uses a technique known as stream–of–consciousness – both to end up on the same page of the book – allowing readers to have an insight into a character’s thoughts.

Readers admire a piece of literature when they can foreshadow as to what might or could happen in the near future. Readers also appreciate having enough judgment for the characters and/or authors that they could understand them as an acquaintance. Montaigne gives the readers this opportunity to understand him through his style and content of the essays. He involves the readers into his essays through his movement from stream of consciousness and rhetorically crafted work. With his honesty and also the use of historical quotes, such as those from Ancient Greek, Italian, and Latin texts, he gains credibility and trust from the readers. Through his use of stream of consciousness, jumping from one topic of discussion to another as his mind wavers from one thought to another, he basically allows the readers to peek into his mind and his inner character and personality. He essentially exposes himself to the world as an open window, where anyone can peep in and out as they wish.

Just as Montaigne let the readers “peep into his window,” similarly, Austen let the readers “walk through her door.” Austen has an identical style in writing most of her works. She uses her particular character’s vocabulary and tone, which lets the readers walk through the character’s door of life. The readers, unintentionally, become biased towards the character’s opinion, emotions, and actions. Austen uses the character’s thoughts and puts them into words rather than having dialogues – an extremely parallel case with Montaigne. Austen and Montaigne both discussed social issues of the time, using realism and commenting on the topics, encouraging readers to agree with them and take action.

The fickle heart of a human being vacillates from one thought to another, almost too suddenly to capture each thought and develop it. Human nature is to ignore most of them until there is a necessity to think deeper. The thought of fighting against bullying; the thought of speaking one’s mind; the thought of helping the needy – no matter how important these are for the sake of humanity, humans have a tendency to ignore it until the time comes. A quote by Kabir, an Indian poet, captures the entire idea of Wallace, Montaigne, and Austen: “Tomorrow’s work do today, today’s work now. If the moment is lost, the work be done how?” Wallace, Montaigne, and Austen decided to capture the moment by at least sketching “the outlines” of the thought process. When will be your moment?