Sartre and Brooks’ Literary Critiques: Analysis of Memory and Time in Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury
“History is the witness that testifies to the passing of time.” Cicero presaged the study of historical memory and conceptions of time, which assumes that what and how we remember molds our past into something more than a chronological succession of events. Ever more appreciative of the subjectivity of recollection, we grasp that without memory, time passes away as little more than sterile chronology. In literary as well as literal history, time derives its meaning from Bergson’s “duration” – time as personal consciousness (322). In Faulkner’s fiction, duration is a centerpiece, even as chronology fails. Such is the case in The Sound and the Fury. For the Compson family, history as memory indeed testifies to their passage from respectable to regrettable. Thus it is appropriate that some literary critics of the novel have focused on time and memory in their analysis. Jean-Paul Sartre and Cleanth Brooks attempt to explain the Compson dynamic by examining conceptions of time in the novel’s four narratives. Sartre and Brooks address certain themes in common, including emotional and mental paralysis or freedom, and the interconnectedness of the past and the present – the future having forsaken the troubled Compsons. Sartre, perhaps better than Brooks, aptly makes the case for time as duration in the Compson experience.
Sartre is concerned foremost with how the characters react to the limits of time. As evidence that time is personal, he explains “The story does not unfold; we discover it under each word” (265). He rightly suggests that the tensions between time and the characters free readers to better grasp the meaning o...
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... who concocts violent schemes in his platonic passion, and who, Brooks suggests, lives for his despair and takes his life to preserve his suffering for all time. Quentin is so absorbed by the past and mythic codes of honor that he sees “no future he is willing to contemplate” (complete work, 333; 291).
There is no escaping time in Faulkner’s fiction. The Sound and the Fury showcases two forms of time – the temporal chronology which is frustratingly disrupted and the duration of individual consciousness which speaks to lived memory. Cleanth Brooks wisely warns that, overwhelmed as we are by the apparent timelessness of the novel, we should not reduce its characters to mere abstraction, “stages in a dialectic” (292). They are people who expect and suffer - and remember. Restoring subjectivity to the passage of time also restores humanity to those who passed it.
There are 23 short stories that all together make up the compilation of Ida Finks book “A Scrap of Time and Other Stories”. All very different and unique in their own way, all tell or reveal different hidden secrets to the reader, but the first story is the most important. For in the first chapter of Finks book A Scrap of Time she reveals to the reader a hidden secret that they should carry with them in the back of their minds as they continue to journey through the pages of her book; the significance of time. For in this first story we see the importance of time to Fink. Not only does she spend the whole first page just primarily talking about time, but she also makes a distinction between two types of time. The first type is a time that
Faulkner, William. The Sound and The Fury. Harrison Smith and Jonathan Cape, 1929. Corrected text, Vintage Books, a division of Random House,
Read, J., & Sanders, P. (2010). A straight talking introduction to the causes of mental health problems Herefordshire, UK: PCCS Books.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the preventative effects of folic acid supplementation during preconception and pregnancy in women. Folic acid supplementation is a standard recommendation among a variety of vitamins and minerals during preconception and is said to prevent congenital defects, primarily neural tube defects in children. However, various studies suggest that folic acid supplementation is not directly correlated with the prevention of neural tube defects, but other factors such as socioeconomic status, healthcare, and education come into play (Banhidy, 2011). The use of folic acid to prevent neural tube defects is widely accepted and recommended by health professionals and researchers alike; delving deeper into this practice would be helpful in determining its effectiveness. The use of FA in early pregnancy and its association with 70% reduction risk of NTDs was studied. Faucher (2013) found that high maternal education level and low BMI lowers the risk of NTDs. Many research articles urge the use of folic acid supplementation during preconception in women because it was found that its use prevents the risk of NTDs. Researchers also suggest that folate has had a beneficial role in pregnant women and implies that it prevents the risk of NTDs in expectant mothers (Stamm & Houghton, 2013). FA supplementation and promotion towards mothers from healthcare professionals are also significant factors in NTD risk prevention (Tort, et. al, 2013). However, correlation does not imply causation and that some findings cannot establish causality (Berry, 2013). The goal of this research is to analyze the effects of folic acid and the research that contradicts its assumed preventative effects.
All in all, Coney Island brought different perspectives on the changing culture in America at the turn of the century. Now men and women were able express themselves in ways they never could have before, technological advances were well on their way into the modern era, and the morals people had changed drastically compared to the Victorian era. Coney island forever changed America, and created new views on leisure and entertainment. Today leisure and entertainment are a part of cultural society everywhere.
Dry lands is a previous stage into what can develop the atrocity of desertification. These plains of ground lack moisture. These areas lose it either to evaporation or by transpiration of plants. Generally the land that is considered dry lands is still used by primitive technologies within herding and farming. This weak land is put on even l...
Bettelheim, Bruno “The Importance of Externalization”. The Uses of Enchantment. The Meaning and Importance of fairytales. New York: Vintage books 1976
Understanding literary elements such as patterns, reader/writer relationships, and character choice are critical in appreciating William Faulkner's Barn Burning. Some literary elements are small and almost inconsequential while others are large and all-encompassing: the mother's broken clock, a small and seemingly insignificant object, is used so carefully, extracting the maximum effect; the subtle, but more frequent use of dialectal words which contain darker, secondary meanings; the way blood is used throughout the story in many different ways, including several direct references in the familial sense; how Faulkner chooses to write about poor, common people (in fact to the extreme) and how this relates to the opinions of Wordsworth and Aristotle; and finally, the relationship between the reader and writer, Faulkner's choice of narrator and point of view, and how this is works successfully.
Many of our today as “normal” considered values are everything but self-evident. One of the most striking aspects in the novel is time; and our relationship towards it. “ We yearned for the future. How did we learn it that talent for insatiability. ” In this particu...
Even the casual reader of William Faulkner will recognize the element of time as a crucial one in much of the writer's work, and the critical attention given to the subject of time in Faulkner most certainly fills many pages of criticism. A goodly number of those pages of criticism deal with the well-known short story, "A Rose for Emily." Several scholars, most notably Paul McGlynn, have worked to untangle the confusing chronology of this work (461-62). Others have given a variety of symbolic and psychological reasons for Emily Grierson's inability (or refusal) to acknowledge the passage of time. Yet in all of this careful literary analysis, no one has discussed one troubling and therefore highly significant detail. When we first meet Miss Emily, she carries in a pocket somewhere within her clothing an "invisible watch ticking at the end of [a] gold chain" (Faulkner 121). What would a woman like Emily Grierson, who seems to us fixed in the past and oblivious to any passing of time, need with a watch? An awareness of the significance of this watch, however, is crucial for a clear understanding of Miss Emily herself. The watch's placement in her pocket, its unusually loud ticking, and the chain to which it is attached illustrate both her attempts to control the passage of the years and the consequences of such an ultimately futile effort.
"William Faulkner (1897-1962)." Short Story Criticism. Ed. Jelena Krstovic. Vol. 97. Detroit: Thomson Gale, 2007. 1-3. Literature Criticism Online. Gale. Hempfield High School. 31 March 2010.
Bettelheim, Bruno. “Fantasy, Recovery, Escape, and Consolation. “The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales. New York: Vintage Books, 1976.
Time is but a concept that has the power to organize society, influence actions, and change inexorably. While infinite, it is not abundant, and the fact that, once it is gone, it cannot be regained, is unnerving. However, as time continues, people can become fixated on a period in an effort to reclaim lost time. William Faulkner explores the challenges when it comes to overcoming the past and looking forward to the future in The Sound and the Fury. He uses different perceptions of time to show how the Compson family is driven by the past and cannot see the future. The Compson family is stuck in a perpetual state of time, and as time progresses, they are left with their decaying values of the past.
The world’s drylands, contrary to popular misconceptions of being barren unproductive land, contain some of the most valuable and vital ecosystems on the planet. These dryland environments have surprising diversity and resiliency, supporting over two billion people, approximately thirty-five percent of the global population (UNEP, 2003). In fact, approximately seventy percent of Africans depend directly on drylands for their daily livelihood (UNEP, 2003). However, these precious and crucial areas are at a crossroad, endangered and threatened by the devastating process of desertification. There are over one hundred definitions for the term ‘desertification’, however the most widely used and current definition is as follows: desertification refers to the land degradation in arid, semi-arid and dry sub-humid regions due to human activities and climate variations, often leading to the permanent loss of soil productivity and the thinning out of the vegetative cover (UNCCD, 2003). It is important to note that desertification is not the expansion and contraction of deserts or hyper-arid territories, which grow and decrease both naturally and cyclically. French ecologist Louis Lavauden first used the term desertification in 1927 and French botanist Andre Aubreville, when witnessing the land degradation occurring in North and West Africa in 1949 popularized this term (Dregne, 242). The causes of desertification include overgrazing, overcultivation, deforestation and poor irrigation practices. Climatic variations, such as changes in wind speed, precipitation and temperature can influence or increase desertification rates, but they are not catalysts to the process- it is the exploitative actions of humans that trigger desertification (Glantz, 146). The most exploited area historically has been Africa. In the Sahel (transition zone between the Sahara and the Savanna) of West Africa during the period of 1968 to 1973, desertification was a main cause of the deaths of over 100,000 people and 12 million cattle, as well as the disruption of social organizations from villages to the national level (USGS, 1997). As a result of the catastrophic devastation in the Sahel, the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) was held in Nairobi, Kenya in 1977, where an agreement was reached to eradicate desertification by the year 2000. Obviously this goal was not achi...
According to a statement made by UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) on December 10, 1993, “Desertification is ‘one of the most serious global environmental problems’” (“Desertification: Not About, 1994). When discussing the topic of desertification, two common questions are, “What is desertification exactly, and how is it possible for the desert to advance?” Desertification is a term that describes “the loss of productive land to desert” (“Desertification”, 2013). It’s a common, innocent public misconception that the desert is advancing; however, this in fact is not the case. When an area u...