Hemingway's In Our Time and Faulkner's Light in August are two literary works that revolve around violence. However, the authors' treatments of violence contrast sharply. Hemingway focuses on culturally sanctioned forms of violence, while Faulkner focuses on more illicit violence. While Faulkner lays a comprehensive basis for every violent act in his novel, Hemingway is more subtle, preferring to simply narrate and avoid directly explaining emotions. Faulkner emphasizes the influence of society on acts of violence while Hemingway focuses on the inherent nature of violence in society. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Hemingway's life and literature are full of violence. He enthusiastically enlisted in the First World War, loved sports, hunting, fishing and often fought. In Our Time largely reflects this interest in culturally sanctioned violence. The vignettes between each story are, for the most part, graphically violent scenes of war or bullfighting. Many stories themselves involve acts of violence (Indian Camp, The Battler) while others, while not explicitly calling out violence, involve the aftermath of war (Soldier's Home, Big Two-Hearted River). It should be noted that among all the cases of violence in In Our Time, only one comes to mind that does not fall into the category of war, sport or good old fist fights: the suicide of the Indian father at Indian Camp. in August is an equally violent novel, but in a remarkably different way. Most of the violence that occurs is particularly unsanctioned by culture. There are references to war, such as in Reverend Hightower's grandfather as well as Percy Grimm's desire to become a soldier. However, the majority of violence, particularly that perpetrated by and against Joe Christmas, is not of the type generally accepted by society. His adoptive father, whom Joe eventually kills, beats him throughout his childhood. At several points in his life, he beats the women he is involved with and kills Joanna Burden. There is, of course, his ultimate lynching. The narrative styles of Hemingway and Faulkner produce markedly different contexts of violence. Light in August is a saga that spans generations. Although Hemingway often gives background information about his characters, his descriptions are short and sweet and serve primarily to provide context for the story. It leaves it up to the reader to interpret the meaning of the information. Faulkner, on the other hand, methodically traces each character's story, clearly unsatisfied until each character's particular actions and feelings are fully explained. It is not enough for Faulkner to make passing references to the stories of Joanna Burden and Gail Hightower. It includes lengthy sections detailing both their family history and their life stories. What's really remarkable isn't the amount of basic information. Not only does Faulkner reveal the basic facts, but he offers analytical explanations of behavior, something Hemingway generally refrains from doing. In particular, Joe's violent behavior is not autonomous =96 It is important to Faulkner that the reader knows Joe's past and the reasons why he acts the way he does. Faulkner traces Joe's childhood, a story of abandonment and abuse. Faulkner's extensive use of contextual information and analytical commentary emphasizes the social causes of.