William Faulkner Essays (Examples)

Faulkner and Joyce

illiam Faulkner famously said that "The human heart in conflict with itself" is the only topic worth writing about. Several short stories have proven this quote to be true. The narrators of both illiam Faulkner's "Barn Burning" and James Joyce's "Araby" are young men who are facing their first moments where childhood innocence and the adult world are coming into conflict. Both boys, for the text makes it evident that both narrators are indeed male, tell of moments in their youth when they first came to realize that childhood would not be eternal. Each boy believes has come to a point where he has to make a choice whether or not to follow his own convictions or to follow along with the mandates of the adults around him. The stories each have a young male presence narrator, an experience with the adult world that forces growth and…

illiam Faulkner

Call it charisma, call it verve, call it a self-contained personality with a zest for life; any of the aforesaid descriptions seem to fit the bill in describing Caddy, the only member of the Compson family in Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury to escape the almost self-fulfilling tragic prophecy of a family clearly obsessed with the seemingly more romantic past of its ancestors. ith such a personality, it is inevitable that Caddy is the one with the deepest impact on all the Compson family members, albeit in different ways. If two of her brothers, Quentin and Benjy share a deep abiding love with Caddy, her other sibling Jason has a deep resentment and hatred for his sister.

Quentin's love for Caddy is as complex and obsessive as his own personality. In fact, the root cause of Quentin's suicide is not his love for Caddy or his devastation…

William Faulkner

A renowned novelist, William Cuthbert Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi in 1897 (The Columbia Encyclopedia). Eight years prior to his birth, his grandfather was killed by an ex-partner in business. William Faulkner was the eldest of the siblings. During his school life, William loved sports and was a quarterback in the football team and his passion for writing poetry existed since he was only 13 years old. However he lost interest in school and before he could graduate, he dropped out. Faulkner tried to get enlisted in the army but due to his short height, he was refused and thus enlisted himself with the Canadian Air Force after lying about facts and figures and convincing them that he was British. Although Faulkner did serve with the Canadian Air Force in World War I, the war was over before he could experience any action. However he still…

Furthermore, Emily's inability to have a romantic relationship with Homer once again calls attention to the disconnect between Emily's south and Homer's. Instead of becoming one with Homer's new south, Emily kills him and keeps him in her own personal sanctuary in an attempt to preserve not only him, but also life as she thought it should be. Thus, neither as an institution nor as a personal refuge can old South miss Emily and new South society be reconciled.

Just as Faulkner's portrayal of Miss Emily's relationship with society suggested an attempt to cling to the death of traditional Southern culture in the midst of modernization, so to does her relationship with herfather echo this sentiment. In much the same way that Emily clung to Homer's body in an attempt to hang on to the decaying traditional southern culture, so to does her attitude toward her father's act as a…

Faulkner Stories

William Faulkner's short stories were told by an omniscient narrator who probably represented the author, and in plot, characters and symbolism have often been classified of Southern Gothic horror. Certainly his characters were horrors, and often satirical, humorous and bizarre caricatures of the different social classes on the South from the time of slavery to the New (Capitalist) South of the 20th Century. They are often violent, deranged, frustrated, and also physically and psychologically isolated. In "A Rose for Emily," the reader knows very little about the thoughts or inner emotional state of Miss Emily, only that she was a recluse her whole life and completely isolated from human contact. Her father was a stern patriarch who controlled her life completely and probably continues to do so even after his death, which opens the story to all many possible feminist readings. She is a prisoner in everything but…

illiam Faulkner uses opposition and tension to great effect within his story, "Barn Burning." He explores oppositions like Sarty's blood ties to his father vs. The pull of moral imperative, and decent behaviour to society in general. These oppositions help to create the tension and mood in the story, and serve as a literary device to illustrate his themes of the initiation of the adolescent into adult life, and the triumph of the personal conscience over family loyalty.

Sarty's blood tie to his father vs. The pull of moral imperative to society in general is likely the major opposition within "Barn Burning."

As the story begins, Sartoris Snopes is in court, hoping that he does not have to testify in the arson case against his father, Mr. Snopes. Sarty knows that his father is guilty, but is willing to lie in court because he feels that his blood tie, to…

Her persona and life have become dependent on what other people said about her, and she was not given the chance in the story to assert her true self. Thus, through the third-person voice, Faulkner showed how Emily had been and continued to be suppressed by her society, being a deviant single woman who kept to herself rather than mingle with her neighbors. Despite Emily's defiance to the community's norms, she was still victimized by the people's intolerance to her being different. Even after her death, the image of her as a scorned woman-turned-murderer remained, all on the basis of a member of the community's narrative (the third-person voice/narrator).

"Metamorphosis," meanwhile, presented the depiction of the individual who wanted to assert himself/herself in a society governed by fixed norms and rules throughout many centuries. Gregor Samsa, who had shown exhaustion from working and supporting his family, was able to assert…

illiam Faulkner, riting Techniques

A great deal of readers fails to understand why illiam Faulkner is one of the greatest writers who have ever lived. This is primarily due to the fact that his style makes it difficult for some people to gain a more complex understanding of the messages that he wants to put across. Maybe this is actually what the writer wanted: to have a select group of readers while other people are unable to understand his writings. Even if this can be considered boring for some, Faulkner did not hesitate to write long sentences in an attempt to engulf a series of his ideas within a single continuous phrase.

Faulkner also uses many complex words as he tries to provide readers with a vivid account regarding the concepts that he is interested in putting across. One is probable to feel that he or she is provided with…

William Faulkner

One of the most dominant themes that emerge in the story is the conflict between the traditional and modern society, with Miss Emily representing the traditional society and her community as the modern one. Faulkner uses Emily's ancestral home in order to depict the old and fading memory of the traditional society in the eyes of the members of the modern society. In this example, the house becomes a metaphor synonymous to "old," "traditional," and fading memory of Emily's time.

Faulkner gives his readers a new twist to the meaning of "love," "honor," and "respectability" in the story. Honor and respectability given to Emily based on traditions and not due to the community's real respect for the woman. Love is given a grotesque meaning in the story, where Emily's love for Homer Barron led to his eventual death when it became apparent that the woman's feeling was left…

hen she passes away, the neighbors unbolt the door to an upstairs bedroom, where they find the rotted corpse of Barron in bed, with a head print in the pillow next to him.

Faulkner's story is meant to expose the great lengths that people will go to in order to hold on to love. Emily has never experienced love from a man - she has only gotten a small taste from an ultimately insincere, disinterested party. Still, the prospect of going without love, which she figures will be her destiny if Barron leaves her, frightens her to such an extent that she is ultimately driven to the extremes of madness.

orks Cited

Faulkner, illiam. "A Rose for Emily." Retrieved 30 January 2008 at http://www.ariyam.com/docs/lit/wf_rose.html.

Kurtz, Elizabeth Carney. "Faulkner's a Rose for Emily." Explicator. inter 1986: 40.

Academic Search Premier. EBSCOhost. St. Lucie County Library, Ft. Pierce, Fl.

ut the word haunted is the key word here, for his stories are never happy ones. They have authenticity, however, despite the sometimes bizarre happenings and sinister events. His characters think and talk like real people and experience the impact of poverty, racism, class divisions, and family as both a life force and a curse. Faulkner wrote in the oral tradition. His "writing shows a keen awareness of the regional sounds of language and speech" (McDonald 46).

An example is "arn urning," a short story about a boy whose angry and abusive father is mentally ill and burns down the barns of people he envies and hates. The family is dirt poor and constantly has to move. The farmers his father works for own property so there is constant tension between rich and poor. Unlike Hightower, the male character in Light in August, an impotent man who seeks to restore…

" (the Kenyon eview, pp. 285)

Faulkner uses some common themes in most of his works including the aforementioned conflict. He frequently employed the literary devices of symbolism, foreshadowing, anti-narrative etc. To create desired atmosphere and to achieve maximum desired results. His style appears complex to many as Clifton Fadiman writes, "[Faulkner's method is] Anti-Narrative, a set of complex devices used to keep the story from being told... As if a child were to go to work on it with a pair of shears" but there is something truly intriguing about the way Faulkner's stories unfold. Nothing is given away too soon and while the atmosphere is conducive to unique possibilities, the very nature of those possibilities is never made obvious to keep the readers guessing till the very last line. The power of his narrative is hidden in its apparent incoherency as Kazin writes, "Perhaps the most elaborate, intermittently…

Together, the chapters present a beautiful glimpse into the minds' of Faulkner's characters, as well as a peek at the author's own stream of consciousness, his process of getting a fully formed story from his mind to the paper.

Other than as I Lay Dying, Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning," contains elements of stream of consciousness. This can be best realized through segments of the story in which the narrator allows the reader into the mind of young Colonel Sartoris Snopes (Sarty), a young boy named for an important military man. For instance, as the judge prepares to call the boy to testify for his father, the boy's internal though process is depicted by the following stream of consciousness:

Enemy! Enemy! he thought; for a moment he could not even see, could not see that the justice's face was kindly nor discern that his voice was troubled when he spoke…

William Faulkner's short story, "Rose for Emily" offers two radical different depictions of the South. On the one hand, the South is depicted as a place that is steeped in tradition and traditional approaches to things and to virtue. Indeed, this sort of traditional aspect is embodied by such characters as Emily, herself, and Colonel Sartoris, who represent an older and more traditional order. Secondly, Faulkner depicts a new and developing group of Southerners that re more interested in modernization. In the final twist of his story, Faulkner parodies the tendency of the older generation of Southerners to keep latching on to outmoded values that are "dead" or decaying.

One of the ways that Faulkner depicts the South is as a place that is very much married to tradition and he uses Emily herself as an example of Southern tradition. As an institution of sorts in this small town she…

illiam 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. riters are often influenced by their predecessors, and Toni Morrison is no different. The type of work first immortalized by illiam 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…

Moreover, according to illiam T. Going "The treatment of the surface chronology of a Rose for Emily is not mere perversity or purposeful blurring; it points up the elusive, illusive quality of time that lies at the heart of the story; it is at once the simplest and subtlest of Faulkner's achievements in one of his best stories" (53).

Other critics have observed that several times in the narrative, time appears to be flowing in a linear fashion, only to have Faulkner later reveal that the reader was actually experiencing a flashback or a dream that in actuality, is entirely non-linear. For example, FDAS reflects, "Even though the last three parts assume a more or less forward chronological movement, they are presented in the stream of consciousness. They record the random flow of memories through the narrator's mind. Since there is no objective chronometry, it is the subjectively experienced mind…

These wounds impact Jake dramatically, as, rett drags an entourage full of men with whom she has slept in front of him nearly every day, including her fiance, Mike, Jake's own friend, Robert Cohn, and a handsome young bullfighter that the group meets in Spain, Pedro Romero. In fact, rett eventually ends up leaving her fiance to run away with Romero. After deciding to leave the young bullfighter, rett sends an urgent telegram to Jake at the hotel where he has gone to rest, urging him to come and find her. At a moment's notice, Jake leaves the hotel and is united with rett in a bar. Though he came rushing to her fearing some emergency, she simply wants to lament with him, and comments that "we could have had such a damned good time together." Thus, rett and Jake's thwarted relationship is the best example of an ex-soldier's delusions…

A race doomed and cursed to be forever and ever a part of the white race's doom and curse for its sins. Remember that. His doom and his curse. Forever and ever. Mine. Your mother's. Yours, even though you are a child.

Being brought up this way taught Joanna to see blacks as objects. "I had seen and known negroes since I could remember. I just looked at them as I did at rain, or furniture, or food or sleep." With time, race and sex interrelated. Joanna during one of her "wild throes of nymphomania" would call "Negro!" "Negro!" "Negro!"

Likewise in the community sexism and racism go together. Woman and "Negro" are seen as one. The worst thing is the "womanshenegro." Joanna is just as bad. She fights her feminine identity in the sex scenes, guilty with the taboo of both lust and race.

Added to this is the…

Frida Kahlo illiam Faulkner

Frida Kahlo and illiam Faulkner were both recognized for the contribution that they brought to their field of work, especially considering that their works are presently appreciated for their quality. Both of them were artists and both of them lived to see some of the most important events of the twentieth century. Their artistic abilities influenced them in adopting unique styles in their line of work as they were both considered to be very different from other individuals who worked with abstract art, and, respectively, with literature. One cannot simply go through a Frida Kahlo painting or through a illiam Faulkner writing without employing a lot of concentration in the process, as their works are complex and require a lot of expertise in order to be properly understood.

hen thinking about Kahlo or Faulkner most people are likely to relate to the unstable condition that these…

In the opening paragraph, his detailed physical description of Jewel and him walking on the path exhibits what we soon see is a strong faith that language makes memory, perception, and action real. (Lockyer 74)

She also notes that Darl is the character who speaks the most in the novel, thus showing his adherence to the value of language in his actions as well as his words. In doing so, she says, "he displays the omniscience, verbal range, and responsibility for interpretation that we associate with a narrator" (Lockyer 74). hat Darl says also solidifies the view that Addie has been isolated and has also been deceived by her former faith in words. Faulkner develops a range of views of language and its use and of the degree to which different characters express their own relationship with language.

Lockyer discusses this further and cites Mikhail Bakhtin on the novel to…

Delta Autumn," William Faulkner tries to show us southern racism through the eyes of a septuagenarian white man from Mississippi. He also introduces some perspectives on the erosion of nature and the annual tradition of hunting. Delta Autumn is one of the short stories in Faulkner's "Go Down Moses" collection, which explores the relationship between black and white cultures in Mississippi.

Alfred Kazin says of this piece, "The whole book recounts in the most passionate detail life as phenomenon, a descent into breakdown. In the end we are saved and exhilarated by Faulkner's reconstituting all this in the speed and heat of his art." It is set in the Mississippi of the early 1940's, long before civil rights initiatives were to prevail in the state due to federal party. Our first impression of blacks in the story is of a couple of 'steppin-fetchit' servants that accompany the four whites on…

Faulkner and Hemingway: Comparison

William Faulkner (1897-1962) and Ernest Hemingway (1898-1961) were contemporaries who chose to adopt writing style that was highly unique and totally different from many of other writers of their time. Both reached great heights of success and were awarded Nobel Prize for literature. Both Faulkner and Ernest were similar in many ways but there was something essentially different about their narration styles and the psychological influences, which their writings reflect. For example while Faulkner was totally obsessed with dark mysteries such as death and murder, Ernest created stories, which were closer to reality. That is the reason why latter received more appreciation for his work than Faulkner who was highly popular among those who enjoyed thrilling mysteries and dark adventures. But they were both totally original in their writing style and they are responsible for introducing unique powerful devices in literature. Ernest Hemingway enjoyed concealing important…

Unvanquished: The silences and gaps

The Unvanquished is believed to be one of the lesser works of William Faulkner on the grounds of its failure to internalize emotions or offer rhetorical descriptions of war. While there are many ways to study this novel and many reasons can be presented for its inferior status among other Faulkner's writings, I feel that The Unvanquished is a typical Faulkner story presented in a more stoic manner keeping with the character of the protagonist Bayard. The fact that Bayard believes actions are superior to words may not have done well with the readers, but it actually offer a more in depth study of war than in other works by the author.

In the days when The Unvanquished was written, there was a whole section of literature especially fiction devoted to the Civil War. Some of the writings were highly acclaimed for their vivid descriptions,…

But since their sense of righteousness is flawed, their plans fall apart and the ending is quite disastrous as owe explains: "When they reach town, the putrescent corpse is buried, the daughter fails in her effort to get an abortion, one son is badly injured, another has gone mad, and at the very end, in a stroke of harsh comedy, the father suddenly remarries" (138).

Addie and Cora represent two different versions of right. For Cora faith is on lips all the time and she expresses righteousness through words, for Addie, actions are more important and thus she appears vain compared to Cora but has a deeper and more accurate sense of right and wrong. While Cora appears with utterances such as "I trust in my God and my reward" (70) and "Riches is nothing in the face of the Lord, for e can see into the heart." (7) Addie…

The juxtaposition of these two leadership types in this story shows how by taking risks and dealing with the problem head-on, Weddell is able to achieve an outcome he desires. We can see this clearly in the beginning of the story, when the two Chickasaw are talking outside the President's house. They are essentially treating the President like a child, manipulating him to achieve their desired outcomes. The President, on the other hand, is a weak leader. He is unwilling to take significant risks, such as condemning the nephew to death in front of the entire Chickasaw nation. He is also unwilling to learn about his opponent in the matter, and never truly sees the Chickasaw as anything other than an agglomeration of people he wants nothing to do with. The contrast between the strong leadership of Weddell and the weak leadership of the President is evidenced in Weddell achieving…

characters in a story by William Faulkner. The story That Evening Sun provides an interesting study in characters because it places children with an adult but the adult is not considered equal. There were two sources used to complete this paper.

Throughout history many authors have developed their characters to interact with each other so that the reader can come to know them as well as the author does. In one story by William Faulkner called That Evening Sun the character Nancy and the children are a main focus of the story at hand.)One of the most interesting points of the story is the fact that the children are actually portrayed as equal to Nancy. It is a commentary on the era as well as the attitudes of the era.

Nancy

Nancy is a Negro who lives in the era in which blacks were treated like second class citizens. It…

Cultues in Conflict & Change

William Faulkne leaves us in suspense at the end of a tubulent sequence of events titled "Ban Buning." Who killed whom? We could speculate fom othe books pehaps but those wods ae outside this stoy. Given that stict constaint, we don't eally know. Saty watches De Spain and his hose vanish in the distance and heas thee shots, which he assumes kill his fathe at least, and pehaps olde bothe. This is the widest possible assumption but a fulle analysis would have to exploe othe possibilities. The esult fo Saty is the same: He uns away fom fathe, bothe and the women's cultue egadless who pulled which tigge(s) at the De Spain ban. Abne Snopes will appea hee as 'AS,' De Spain as 'DS' and 'Saty' as 'CSS' fo bevity, but also abstaction, because Faulkne ('WF') sets up abstactions, though symbolic equations that pemeate the…

Hightower dubs Byron Bunch as "the guardian of public weal and morality. The gainer, the inheritor of rewards

...(ibid. 147)." He is religious and keeps a low profile in his Christian humility.

Byron Bunch is portrayed in stark contrast to Mr. And Mrs. Hines, our old racists, This is in contrast to religious hypocrites like Mr. Hines that use religion to demean and downgrade from humanity another group of people so that the religious fanatic can feel superior. These airs of superiority are seen again as Hines couple is shown to be prejudiced not just against Blacks, but also against Mexicans as well (ibid., 151-152). Truly, he is an equal opportunity hater that does not discriminate in his distribution of racist zealotry and vitriol.

Joe Christmas as a Jesus Christ Type of Figure

In the book, Faulkner portrays Joe Christmas in the mode of Jesus Christ type of figure (ibid.,…

But the friction between her and her mother translated also to the society, to the 'good country people.' The good country people, represented by Manley Pointer, turned against her, victimizing her by using her own ideals and beliefs. Manley took advantage of her 'weakness,' being able to see through her tough self, knowing that within her, there is a part of her that wanted attention and love without pity. O'Connor may have portrayed Manley to be truly taken by Joy/Hulga's sulkiness and believed her to be like him, the kind of 'good country person' who knew and experienced the harshness of life. This can be verified in his remark after he 'revealed' himself to Joy/Hulga, exclaiming to her, "[w]hat's the matter with you all of a sudden? You just a while ago said you didn't believe in nothing. I thought you was some girl!" (par. 139).

Though Emily and Joy/Hulga…

Faulkner and Olsen Analysis

Characters in Faulkner and Olsen

Complex characters tend to be challenging to write, especially in the case of those whose circumstances and actions make them slightly unappealing. William Faulkner and Tillie Olsen, however, show that with brief stories about their characters' pasts, endearment is not so difficult to elicit after all. In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily," Emily Grierson's character is shown through the eyes of a collective narrator. In Olsen's "I Stand Here Ironing," the narrator looks back on the rearing of a troubled child (also the name of Emily). Both authors retell the stories that bring a sort of reader empathy toward the characters, especially after looking back on the past lifestyles both characters faced.

Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily"

"A Rose for Emily" is a short story told in five different sections, each reverting to a particular time period as narrated by a…

Reading The Sound and the Fury can be frustrating for the reader, particularly the reader who is used to the linear march of time and the orderly unfolding of the events. Classic chronology provides a sense of order and a sense of time for the reader. They can easily relate to their own experience and concept of the passage of time. Faulkner steps into an uncomfortable area for many readers, making his work difficult to follow in terms of linearity. It appears as if he is randomly leaping off in different directions with no sense of purpose or direction at time. However, if we look at the way in which time acts as a character one can glean a different perspective of time and gain a glimpse into the eternal nature of time. Jean-Paul Sartre explains that, "A fictional technique always relates back to the novelist's metaphysics" (Sartre). Such is…

In 21 Grams, the narrative darkens and is localized. Inarritu deepens his exploration of class differences, but this time on the U.S. side of the New orld Order that has been brought about by the North American Free Trade Agreement. According to Ohchi, 21 Grams consists of three narratives whose protagonists differ from each other, but are interconnected (ibid. 3-4)

Babel is just really Amores Perros and 21 Grams written on an international canvas and echoes much of the social commentary in Inarritu's 2000 maiden film. According to Soelistyo and Setiawan, another term for this type of film is hyperlink cinema. hile in many films, this methodology can result in a film where the interlocking stories spin out of control, in Babel Inarritu is fully in command and retains full control of the stories and plot lines (Soelistyo and Setiawan 176). As the name implies, seemingly disparate story lines are…

Rose for Emily

In William Faulkner's short story "A Rose for Emily," the noted author doesn't give very strong evidence that Emily Grierson actually killed Homer Barron, and worse yet, that she slept with his corpse for years. Faulkner teases the reader into believing that Emily did indeed commit these horrific acts. In the process of teasing the reader, Faulkner succeeds in producing what amounts to a satire of sensationalized, hackneyed reporting, Thesis: Despite Faulkner's attention to detail in portraying Emily as possibly the murderer, a sharp attorney could counter the circumstantial evidence in a court of law and Emily would be exonerated.

Why does Emily probably kill Homer?

One of the strengths of this story is how brilliantly Faulkner drops hints -- without having to provide any proof -- that Emily either was likely or not likely the perpetrator of this heinous crime. For example a hint that she…

The fact that he is black in no way detracts from Faulkner's message about racism and social control. For example, Faulkner hints that Nancy may have been raped by a white man; her skin color renders her subhuman in the eyes of many white southerners. To Jubah, his masculinity is called into question on two accounts: he must assert himself not only as a man, but as a black man whose wife had been violated by whites. Jubah's violent and aggressive persona corresponds with Dave's. Dave, like Jubah, are powerhouses of male potency, pushed to the boiling point out of a sense of powerlessness and anger. right directly alludes to the potential of male aggression because the mule Dave shoots is named Jenny. hen Jenny bleeds from the gunshot wound, right describes the "hole" and the "blood" using overtly female symbols. Dave never alludes to having sex with women, however.…

The whole poison-purchasing scene is very interesting and adds to the impact of her action. Emily is determined to buy poison and let the pharmacist assume it is to kill rats. While he is adamant about knowing the truth, Emily is not interested in sharing the details of her plans with him.

I want some poison," she said to the druggist. She was over thirty then, still a slight woman, though thinner than usual, with cold, haughty black eyes in a face the flesh of which was strained across the temples and about the eyesockets as you imagine a lighthouse-keeper's face ought to look. "I want some poison," she said.

Yes, Miss Emily. What kind? For rats and such? I'd recom -- " want the best you have. I don't care what kind."

The druggist named several. "They'll kill anything up to an elephant. But what you want is --…

She is good, and in contrast, Joe surrounds himself with bad and self-destruction. Lena shows the opposite side of humankind, the good and decent kind that can cause people to change their minds and their lives.

Hightower on the other hand, represents all that is wrong with the human condition and its reliance on religion. A pious man, he is still a violent and confused man who lives in isolation because of his scandalous past. He too has chosen revolt and solitude, rather than responsibility. However, he takes responsibility for his wife's death near the end of the book, and leaves the reader feeling that he is redeemed, and will die at peace with himself, and with his God. Hightower illustrates there is hope for just about everyone, while Christmas, who never really seems to recant his life, shows that in some, a life of violence and revolt is the…

Poe and Faulkner

Despite the gap in a century or more between the periods when both Edgar Allan Poe and illiam Faulker were writing, both Poe and Faulkner have been loosely considered representatives of the "Southern Gothic" style of fiction in America. Indeed, pioneering Faulkner critic Cleanth Brooks of Yale University has noted that the connections with Poe's style would limit the way in which Faulkner has been received critically: Brooks is at pains to demonstrate that Faulkner's stories represent "more than an attempt to outdo Edgar Allan Poe, more than the prime example of what has come to be called modern Southern Gothic" (Brooks 15). ith an emphasis on grotesquerie and on the spiritual journey of its characters -- often a dark spiritual journey into consciousness of damnation, as in the heavily religious Gothic fiction of the late eighteenth century, or else some form of the supernatural -- "Southern…

Homer "liked men" (456) and this must have hurt Emily terribly but she does not respond the way we would expect. Circumstances with Homer are different because Emily is in love with Homer and she sees this as her last chance for sharing her life with someone. This is more than a simple affair for her. hen Homer rejects her, he puts an end to the love story that Emily desires. Because her father has "driven away" (455) all of Emily's previous prospects, Emily refuses to believe Homer cannot love her. She denies this fact, buries it, and begins working on a situation with which she can live. She surmises that living with a dead Homer would mean that she would never have to be alone again and never have to put up with the troubles that having a living boyfriend or husband brings. Homer is better dead than alive…

Both short stories also contain an estrangement of place -- neither young man can seem to find a home in either the North or South. At the beginning Faulkner's tale, Samuel is utterly lost to the South. He does not sound like a Southerner to the census taker at the beginning of the tale, and his clothing suggests a Northern dandy. (Faulkner 351) Later, Samuel's grandmother Mollie's insists that her grandson has been sold into Egypt, like a Israelite slave from the Old Testament, as if the North were more of a place of bondage than the divided South. At "The Man ho as Almost a Man" the end of the sorry tale may seem to give the reader some higher hope, as it ends on a theme of flight from the South. The protagonist makes a decision to flee the area he has been bound to, as a result…

Honor is frequently mentioned in Ernest Hemingway's short story entitled "The Happy Life of Francis Macomber." Clearly the characters and Hemingway tie strong meaning to honor. Francis Macomber has a strong desire for honor and courage, especially after seeing his wife sneak into another man's tent. Francis and Wilson go hunting two times in this story. On the first excursion, Wilson the "professional hunter" (p. 4) is brave, and defeats the lion before it can injure the terrified Macomber. According to Hemingway, Macomber "…had just shown himself, very publicly, to be a coward" (Hemingway, p. 2). Margot Macomber aids in demonstrating the importance of honor when she not only makes fun of her husband for being afraid, but beds with the much more "honorable" Wilson after the first hunting trip. On the second hunting trip Macomber and Wilson encounter a wounded buffalo and end up in almost the same situation…

Faulkner's attitude on race relations at the outset of the civil rights movement in the south is best expressed in one of his lesser works, Intruder in the Dust. The main theme in this book is a simple one: an old black man, Lucas Beauchamp, known for his temper is accused of murdering a white man by the name of Vinson Gowrie in the outh, and his friends must prove his innocence against the backdrop of a society who sees his race as proof of his guilt. Moreover, it is the story of a white teenager, Chick Mallison, who must come to terms with the absurdity of racism in the context of a racist society that has taught him to embrace it. Chick is saved from drowning by Lucas, who pulls him out of an icy stream and refuses to take money from Chick as repayment for his heroic deed.…

During this expose into Stupen's relationship with Miss Coldfield's past, is where the heavy introduction of the "stream of consciousness" tactic comes forth.

This model permeates the entire Faulkner work, however it is extremely prevalent within the first several chapters. Indeed, Faulkner sets up the integration of this model by the use of Quentin's "consciousness" throughout the description of Miss Coldfield's past. Quentin, incorporates Miss Coldfield's "historic narrative" with his own perceived notions of Southern culture and relates, the presentation of Thomas Stupen's interaction with individuals as an explanation for the entire culture of the South and more importantly, Quentin's "conscious" thoughts express a linkage that the South lost the war because of men like Stupen, men who had shrewd and calculating natures but lacked compassion and therefore drew the ire and wrath of God, therein preventing the South from attaining victory (Burton, 2006).

As the novel progresses through the…

There is no hope of resurrection in the death of the soldier in his poem. Compared to the image of the soldier who joins the army to help protecting his country against the evil, acclaimed after his death, brought out of anonymity, honored by his country and admired internationally, when chosen as a hero of a story by a Nobel and Pulitzer Prize winner, the soldier in the poem dies alone and calls for no parade. His death has no significance and it does not contribute to anything. No one benefits from it, no one cares. War is thus seen as a useless action causing losses like this that serve for nothing.

Wallace Stevens did not write about the glory of the past and the courage, the way Faulkner did. William Faulkner felt that the problems of the human heart, the capabilities of the human spirit were the only thing…

Toward the end of the novel, Caroline even remarks, with stark irony and insensitivity, to Dilsey: " 'You're not the one who has to bear it... It's not your responsibility... You don't have to bear the brunt of it day in and day out..." (p. 272).

hile Caroline is unable (and/or unwilling), to cope with, or even cease denying to herself, the realities of present life for the Compsons, a family in decline in the post-bellum South,

Dilsey, offers stability and reliability. Since both Caroline and Jason III are emotionally bereft, Dilsey substitutes as a parent for both of them. However, since Dilsey is not really a Compson family member, it is Dilsey who remains objective enough to state, near the end of The Sound and the Fury: " 'I've seed de first en de last... I seed de beginnin, en now I sees de endin' " (p. 297), in…

It is thus that he helps to establish the truly tragic abstractions that characterize the family's individual experiences. here a broad, unilateral overview of the story might direct the reader's focus to the burial plot, an objective set of narratives articulated by the character's themselves suggests that Faulkner intends the story more as a lamentation for the living.

In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner delivers a treatise on the American condition too often unconsidered in either the literary or the public forums. The Bundrens can be considered less a family comprised of actual individuals as a unit of caricatures. The characters are altogether conflicted by selfishness and emotional ambivalence, divided by an unrefined sense of loyalty and an incapacity to truly experience mourning and relentlessly driven to their goal even as they are guided by cloudy ambitions. In this regard, it is difficult to even determine that Faulkner finds redemption…

Gender Identity/Male-Female Roles and Power Relationship. In a discussionof characters from "The Awakening" by Despite the fact that there are numerous differences existent in the novels The Awakening by Kate Chopin, Light in August by illiam Faulkner, and Their Eyes ere atching God by Zora Neale Hurston, there are some poignant similarities between these three works of literature. They were all written in the years directly preceding or occurring subsequent to the arrival of the 20th century, and they all deal with issues related to race (albeit extremely indirectly in Chopin's book). Moreover, all of these pieces chronicle definite challenges presented to women due to notions of gender and society that were pressing during this historical epoch. Some of the more salient issues affecting women during this time period, such as marriage and motherhood and the degree of autonomy (or dearth thereof) women had in living their lives is explored…

Her need for love makes her kill Homer. He was her last chance for love and her only chance to avoid being alone every night for the rest of her life. Dead in her bed was one way she knew she could have him forever. Death keeps Emily's dream alive.

Emily's life is one of loss. From the beginning of the story, we know Emily is protected and sheltered by her father. He was doing his best to keep her from getting hurt but all he did was make her life after his death more difficult. He had " driven away" (455) all of Emily's suitors in her younger days. Her father keeps Emily from partaking in some basic aspects of life so that when he dies, she is lost. She misses out on opportunities and friendships because he father is in the way.

"A Rose for Emily" is a…

Faulkner masterfully weaves lives in and out of this fabric, demonstrating the importance of self-identity as well as social acceptance. Light in August, however, draws more attention to how the conflicts and differences between race, gender, and social constraints are destructive forces.

The birth of Lena's child "holds out the promise of a new age that transcends the social contradictions that Joe's violent tale bears witness to" (Lutz), according to Lutz. Furthermore, Faulkner looks toward the future with the birth of this child to this meek woman. Lena is comfortable with herself and she copes well hen others choose to judge her by her unwed status. This is a striking contrast to how Joe chooses to deal with how others perceive him. Lena may not be able to see the future but she is confident she can unearth some hope in it somewhere. Mrs. Hines response to the child suggests…

This feeling of anger and resentment is effectively illustrated through the conflict between Abner and the Negro, De Spain's helper.

In this conflict, Abner is seen resisting the Negro's attempt to stop him from trespassing De Spain's home. Evidently, the Negro's status in life is much better than Abner, who has to toil very hard in order for him and his family to survive everyday. This fact infuriates Abner, and his resentment against the Negro's condition in life is reflected in his hateful statement about his poverty and De Spain's seemingly unfair status as a wealthy man: "Pretty and white, ain't it?...That's sweat. Nigger sweat. Maybe it ain't white enough yet to suit him. Maybe he wants to mix some white sweat in it" (175). This statement is Abner's own way of protesting against his condition in life, a bitterness that reflects not only class conflict between the wealthy and…

maturation process, but it comes easily only to a few. Of course there are choices that usually generate little anguish such as what to have for breakfast or which route to take when going home, but when a person is a diabetic or inclement weather makes every road hazardous, even these choices become difficult. This paper discusses a poem and a short story by two of the greatest American authors of the twentieth century. Both Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" and illiam Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning" are about the difficult choices people are often confronted with. The stories reflect both real and intangible choices that the protagonists had to make (in Frosts poem the main character is assumed to be the author himself) and what the outcome of the choices were. This paper will begin with a literal summary of the two works, the real choices that…

roots of Southern literature and how the authors view moral freedom in their works. It has 5 sources.

When the Puritans of Europe left their homeland for the vast and wild continent of America they envisioned social and religious freedom. For them American had been a deserted place and the only enemy they have had been the Natives. However, they did not envision the fact that they would undergo severe battle of the inner self as well as the harsh external environment. As they spend more of their time on the continent they realized that the promise of a free new land has been a dream and that in order to survive they have abandon their old ways to become more focused and adapt to the environment. The pervasive and massiveness of the diversified American culture at the time posed a mixture of excitement as well as danger for them.…

ROSE FOR EMILY'-William Faulkner

William Faulkner's short story "A rose to Emily" is one of the best short stories of 20th century American literature because it contains all the mystery, drama, conflict and intensity that mark a good piece of literature. Emily the female lead of the story is an intriguing character who refuses to mingle with townspeople which gives rise to many vicious rumors about her. This story has been very popular among the readers especially those who are Faulkner's loyal fans as a story involving mystery and dark secrets of a woman who is a total recluse. Townspeople never get to see her or talk to her therefore hewn her father dies, they get a chance to meet this woman who had hitherto remained confined within the four walls of her house. Notice how Faulkner has carefully created the background of this woman; she is not a person…

shaped character Miss Emily "A ose Emily." What forces work creates a character Miss Emily? Something made Emily character meet story. • Locate (2) scholarly resources include a minimum quotes (2) source.

"A ose for Emily:"

A false, fragile, and wilting image of perfect southern womanhood

William Faulkner's short story "A ose for Emily" chronicles the life of an aristocratic southern woman who is unable to accept the realities of the changing world around her. Two primary factors shape Emily's existence. The first is that of her father, Colonel Sartoris, who believes that no man can ever be good enough for his daughter. The Colonel is so rigid in his worldview, he chases all young men from his door, effectively condemning Emily to spinsterhood. The other shaping force is the mores of the town in which Emily lives. When Emily does not pay her taxes or when her yard smells,…

Discrimination and Madness: Examining Motifs in the Short Stories of Faulkner and Gillman

"The Yellow Wallpaper," by Charlotte Perkins Gillman and "A ose for Emily," by William Faulkner, though remarkably different in style and voice, feature stories where women are the main characters. Both of these stories take the reader through a raucous trip through time and sanity leaving the reader constantly guessing. In the midst of these vivid journeys through the narrative, both short stories showcase their female protagonists in fictional worlds where various pertinent social issues fester in the background.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" tells a story written in the first person of a vivacious, imaginative woman who explains that she suffers from a temporary nervous depression colored by a bit of hysteria. Her husband, a doctor, who the narrator tells us is extremely practical, believes she is not sick and rents a colonial mansion for the summer so…

The image of the fog is significant because the protagonist is comparing himself to the fog in that he skirts along the outside of what is happening. If he is like fog, moving slowly and quietly, he does not have to become involved but can still see what is going on. hen he writes that there will be time to "prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet" (27), he is simply avoiding the issue by putting off the inevitable. The protagonist convinces himself that there will be time to do all that he wants to do, such as "murder and create" (28), and "drop a question on your plate" (30). Allan Burns suggests that the images are important to the reader in that they "underscore Prufrock's low self-esteem: he identifies with the lonely working class men" (Burns 47) and the image of his dead being chopped off…

' But now he said nothing" (Faulkner). In contrast, the Younger family members also grow and change. Most notably, Walter Lee takes on the role of leader in the family, and makes the right decision for the rest of his family members. Critic Domina notes, "He must become the acknowledged head of his family, and he must also interact with other adult males as an equal" (Domina 113). These two characters gain personal growth and awareness, and the two stories' conclusions depend on this growth and awareness. The young boy will probably never see his dysfunctional family again, while the Youngers will probably face more discrimination and hatred. However, they have both attained their own measure of happiness, and both stories end on a somewhat hopeful note. Critic Ford continues, "Sarty will survive 'the terrible handicap of being young,' will surpass his beleaguered childhood and mature into a worthy human…

Money:

The adolescent perspective as depicted in the short stories of Joyce, Faulkner, and Cather

The search for higher social status as a form of personal fulfillment and self-definition all mark the coming-of-age stories of James Joyce, illiam, Faulkner, and illa Cather, despite the distinct differences between the three male protagonists created by the authors in their seminal short stories "Araby," "Barn Burning," and "Paul's Case." All three short stories feature a young protagonist whose illusions of finery and higher class status are shattered. Because these aspirations are also often connected to sexual desires, this fall from grace is particularly difficult for the young men to tolerate.

In "Araby," the young male protagonist becomes enamored with a young woman who seems innocent, above his own class, and charming. hen she professes to wish to go to the Araby bazaar but cannot because she must go on a retreat with her…

Then after Homer disappeared, she gave china painting lessons until a new generation lost interest, and then "The front door closed...remained closed for good" (Faulkner pp). Emily's depression caused her to become a recluse.

All three female protagonists are so dominated by male authority figures that their loneliness leads to severe depression, which in turn leads to madness, then eventually acts of violence. None of the women have active control of their lives, however, each in their own way makes a desperate attempt to take action, to seek a type of redemption for the misery and humiliation they have endured by the male figures in their lives.

orks Cited

Curry, Renee R. "Gender and authorial limitation in Faulkner's 'A Rose for Emily.'" The Mississippi Quarterly. June 22, 1994. Retrieved July 28, 2005 from HighBeam Research Library eb site.

Faulkner, illiam. "A Rose for Emily." Retrieved July 28, 2005 at http://xroads.virginia.edu/~drbr/wf_rose.html…

American Lit

Definition of Modernism and Three Examples

Indeed, creating a true and solid definition of modernism is exceptionally difficult, and even most of the more scholarly critical accounts of the so-called modernist movement tend to divide the category into more or less two different movements, being what is known as "high modernism," which reflected the erudition and scholarly experimentalism of Eliot, Joyce, and Pound, and the so-called "low modernism" of later American practitioners, such as William Carlos Williams. Nonetheless, despite the problems of reification involved with such a task, I will attempt to invoke a definitions of at least some traits of modernism, as culled from the Princeton Encyclopedia of Poetry and Poetics:

First, [in modernism] "realization" had to replace description, so that instead of copying the external world the work could render it in an image insisting on its own forms of reality... [and] Second, the poets develop…

Thus, we can see that the perils of man seem meaningless in the overall scheme of the world, "hen the wind stops, and, over the heavens / The clouds go, nevertheless, / In their direction," (Stevens 1923). Nature, and the rest of the world will always go on. Death, as well as life itself then seem meaningless.

Faulkner too paints a much more inglorious image of death, especially death on the proving grounds of battle to protect and serve one's country. In "Two Soldiers," a young rural southern Pete Grier leaves his family in the South to join the war, inspired by the patriotism which swept over much of the country at the time. Even the young eight-year-old narrator can see Pete's noble ignorance, yet is caught up in the image of glory it would bring to him and his family. It is within this fantasy the boy tries to…