Montaigne/Austen Essay

Micheal De Montaigne was a very bright intellectual who had a very unique style of writing with a variety of techniques. His work was often funneled from broad spectrums brought into being applied only to the individual. They were wrapped in life morals, theories, and philosophical thinkings. Similar to Montaigne, Austen’s Pride and Prejudice shows similar styles throughout the novel. David Foster Wallace once said, “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 quote contours the basic structure of Both Pride and Prejudice and Montaigne’s collection of Essays. 

Although extremely lengthy, the collection of essays covered such an assortment of topics ranging from everything to anything. He specifically touched on morality, religion, education, and self enlightenment. Wallace suggests that topics like these with so much background behind them are hard to cover completely; well he is right! Montaigne, however, did one talented of a job of hitting almost every corner of the arguments the topics discussed, which is not only difficult, but almost near impossible. But even after passing hundreds of pages elaborating on the subject, there are still sides that are left unsaid. In other words, Wallace’s quote explains the never ending galaxy of words, arguments, and situations that can relate to any given topic. Montaigne’s work, however, covered countless areas, but even then there are still areas left unspoken. 

I think the diction of the phrase “interconnected” is a very important detail of quote. I feel it more closely means connection of the body and the mind. Montaigne is also an author who combines his emotions and thoughts into his work. Montaigne was very opinionated with his topics. When discussing the ever controversial argument of religion, Montaigne gave his views countlessly explaining how his were victorious over any others. But yet, never once explained how the others were wrong. In Pride and Prejudice, Austen also analyzed the value of religion within his characters. When Nathan Price persistently threw religion amongst people who will not ever value it, it created a shift between what is considered civilization. People like Nathan who come from a very structural society with religious morality carved into them are viewed superior. But yet, natives in Africa are battle for real life survival from disease, homeless, and faced with starvation. Instead of giving them the things vital to living, we give them preachings about something they know and care nothing about. But yet, we are the civilized ones right? Like the quote stated, we have only “scratched the surface.”