William Faulkner on Toni Morrison Great Writers

¶ … William Faulkner on Toni Morrison Great writers always bring their own flair and style to their genre, but even the best in literature do not work in a vacuum. Writers are often influenced by their predecessors, and Toni Morrison is no different. The type of work first immortalized by William Faulkner is clearly evident in her novels, and she not only uses some of the same techniques but takes them to new levels.

Both Faulkner and Morrison write in a complex dialect and stylized manner that can be difficult to decipher on a superficial level. Both writers cover similar subject matter in their novels: complex familial relationships, including incest. And, Faulkner and Morrison both frequently address issues of race and identity in post-slavery America. Black characters populate the novels of both Faulkner and Morrison, and they speak in the natural rhythms of their dialect.

In Go Down, Moses, the use of dialect is apparent when a black man speaks: "Ha,' Tomey's Turl said. 'And nem you mind that neither. I got protection now. All I needs to do is to keep Old Buck from ketching me unto I gets the word'" (Moses 12). This use of dialect is also seen in Morrison's novels, including The Bluest Eye: "Dillinger wouldn't have come near you lessen he was going hunting in Africa and shoot you for a hippo'" (Bluest 54).

For both novelists, the use of dialect helps create the reality of being black. Faulkner and Morrison are well-known for their controversial approaches to depicting family relationships, and neither shies away from discussing traditionally forbidden subjects, such as incest. In The Bluest Eye, Morrison tells the story of Pecola Breedlove, an unattractive girl who is devalued by her family and eventually molested by her father.

Morrison's novel focuses on how racism shapes identity and leads to unconscionable consequences for the Breedloves: "After [Pecola's father] impregnates Pecola and she is beaten by her mother for it, Pecola (with the treachery of Soaphead Church, a "faith healer") goes mad, believing she has obtained her blue eyes" (Literature, Arts). Faulkner also writes about the family and incestuous feelings in The Sound and the Fury. While incest is not committed explicitly in the novel, much of it centers around three brothers' perceptions and awareness of their sister Caddy's sexuality.

Neither writer shies away from a frank discussion of sexuality within families, and this similarity links the two writers. Both Morrison and Faulkner often deal with the aftermath of slavery and its effect on both African-Americans and race relations. In Beloved, which is set in 1873, Morrison tells the story of Sethe, a former slave who is living in Ohio and is visited by a ghosts from her past, both real and symbolic.

Covered in whipping scars, Sethe is tortured by the memory of having the milk in her breasts stolen by the master's nephews. In Go Down, Moses, Faulkner tells the story of Lucius Quintus Carothers McCaslin and his many black and white descendants. The novel explores race and miscegenation, and concerns itself with the fate of the white patriarch as well as his.