Parallel Icebergs

JSTOR Article: “Faulkner’s Benjy, Hemingway’s Jake” by Merritt Moseley

The JSTOR article I read was “Faulkner’s Benjy, Hemingway’s Jake” by Merritt Moseley. Thumbing through articles to choose, the title of this one stuck out. Since we read Hemingway’s The Sun Also Rises in English last year, I felt I could understand the comparison between Jake and Benjy that this author makes. I usually enjoy hearing people’s opinions about how a character in one novel relates to a character in another novel, especially when I am familiar with both characters. This article was no exception.

Moseley focuses on the fact that Jake’s mental process is very similar to Benjy’s mental process. Hemingway’s “minimalism, leaving everything possible unstated,” often makes his characters appear dumb. Jake’s train of thought, for example, frequently consists of short, staccato statements that are initially unintelligible. While it is the nature of Hemingway’s style to be restrictive and use simple language, Jake’s original resemblance to Benjy can also be attributed to the fact that Jake is often drunk. The alcohol makes his thoughts and words slower and dumber. Because of this, Jake as a narrator is similar to Benjy because, although the language is simple in both cases, the reader must dig and work to connect the dots to understand what is happening.

Both Benjy and Jake serve to strengthen Hemingway’s iceberg principle. As narrators, these two characters simply state what they observe and let the readers figure out the rest. Besides their similar narrating techniques, Benjy and Jake don’t have much else in common—they have completely different personalities, desires, etc. The connection between the two in nonetheless fascinating. (265)