“The past is not dead. It’s not even past” (Faulkner 1). Within in the pages of what is arguable his best-known book, acclaimed author William Faulkner penned this profound statement. Requiem for a Nun is, at its core an experiment with narrative technique. And much like Faulkner, writers and poets from ancient times used narrative technique in their stories to express the relationship between the past and future and the fluidity between the two. Three shining examples where writers expressed/showcased the relationship between the past and future are The Illiad by Homer, Pythian 4 by Pindar, and Plato’s Symposium. In addition to applying narratological techniques throughout these tales, the withholding of information to build suspense for future events and nested narratives also assist with highlighting the relationship between the past and the future.
As previously mentioned, the use of narratological technique is essential to conveying the relationship between the past and future. Good narratological technique must be done will to ensure that the audience will be able to follow along with the story, but in some cases, it may require careful attention to detail from the audience to understand the narratological levels and patterns within the story before the tale itself will make sense. In the Illiad, an unidentified narrator tells the story of the battle at Troy. The narrator appears to be looking down on the battle from above and can also view Olympus as they occasionally break away from the scenes on the ground to focus on a conversation between various gods. Without any formal transition, the narration may suddenly stop, and a dialogue between to central characters will begin. This happens repeatedly, and so frequently, tha...
... middle of paper ...
...tion between the past and the future in their works. The tales that have survived the ages are engaging masterpieces and the techniques applied to these tales from past eras are invaluable storytelling aids and will continue to be employed in the creative works of present day artists, and those that will arise in the future. If I had to venture a guess, these tools that have successfully bridged the gap between the past and future will be in place for an infinite number of years, and maybe, possibly, even beyond.
Works Cited
Faulkner, William. Goodreads. Goodreads Inc., Jan. 2008. Web. 12 May 2014.
Homer, and Stanley Lombardo. Iliad. Indianapolis: Hackett, 1997. Print.
Pindar, Anthony Verity, and Stephen Instone. "Pythian 4." The Complete Odes. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2007. 54-65. Print.
Plato, and Robin Waterfield. Symposium. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1994. Print.
In the passage, Indian Education we start off by following Victor who is a Indian boy from the Reservation, from first grade up to high school. Even though he is bullied in first grade, Victor finally gets payback when he gets even on Frenchy SiJohn by shoving his face in the snow and then starts punching Frenchy over and over again. Victor undergoes bad luck as the next two years he has two mean teachers in second and in third grade that do not like him very much, but luckily in fourth grade, he has a teacher named Mr. Schluter who inspires him to become a doctor so he can heal his people in the tribe. The next year life takes a turn for the worse as Victor’s cousin begins sniffing rubber cement. If it was not for his new friend Randy the
The Odyssey is no exception to this trick or technique. In the episode Scylla and Charybdis the plot is filled with intense confrontations, a heroic leader, and more. Some of this can be easily identified, for example, when Homer writes. & nbsp; scarcely had that island. faded in the blue air than I saw smoke and white water with waves in tumult- a sound the men heard, and it terrified them. Oars flew from their hands; the blades went.
If you haven’t you’re missing out. Its about a boy that learns he’s part of a secret society of people called Transitioners that are able to go through a eight day of the week.
William Faulkner’s "A Rose for Emily" is perhaps his most famous and most anthologized short story. From the moment it was first published in 1930, this story has been analyzed and criticized by both published critics and the causal reader. The well known Literary critic and author Harold Bloom suggest that the story is so captivating because of Faulkner’s use of literary techniques such as "sophisticated structure, with compelling characterization, and plot" (14). Through his creative ability to use such techniques he is able to weave an intriguing story full of symbolism, contrasts, and moral worth. The story is brief, yet it covers almost seventy five years in the life of a spinster named Emily Grierson. Faulkner develops the character Miss Emily and the events in her life to not only tell a rich and shocking story, but to also portray his view on the South’s plight after the Civil War. Miss Emily becomes the canvas in which he paints the customs and traditions of the Old South or antebellum era. The story “A Rose For Emily” becomes symbolic of the plight of the South as it struggles to face change with Miss Emily becoming the tragic heroin of the Old South.
William Faulkner’s life was defined by his inability to conduct himself as a true Southern gentleman. He never achieved affluence, strength, chivalry or honor. Therefore, the myth of Southern masculinity eluded him. Faulkner shied away from violence, he never proved himself in battle. He was not a hard worker, nor was he an excellent family man. Seemingly worst of all, he did not follow in the footsteps of his father and the “Old Colonel.” The code of Southern gentility highly praises family tradition. As a born and bred Southerner I can attest to this fact. Every man in my family for ten generations has been a plumber. It is the utmost honor for a man to follow his father’s example. Faulkner, unfortunately, was incapable of really living like his father. Therefore, I believe Faulkner’s collective failures are rooted in the fact that he could not live up to the standards set by the men in his family.
In the novel, A Light in August, William Faulkner introduces us to a wide range of characters of various backgrounds and personalities. Common to all of them is the fact that each is type cast into a certain role in the novel and in society. Lena is the poor, white trash southern girl who serves to weave the story together. Hightower is the fanatic preacher who is the dark, shameful secret of Jefferson. Joanna Burden is the middle-aged maiden from the north who is often accused of being a “nigger-lover”. And Joe Christmas is the epitome of an outsider. None of them are conventional, everyday people. They are all in some way disjointed from society; they do not fit in with the crowd. That is what makes them intriguing and that is why Faulkner documents their story.
The end of the American Civil War also signified the end of the Old South's era of greatness. The south is depicted in many stories of Faulkner as a region where "the reality and myth are difficult to separate"(Unger 54). Many southern people refused to accept that their conditions had changed, even though they had bitterly realized that the old days were gone. They kept and cherished the precious memories, and in a fatal and pathetic attempt to maintain the glory of the South people tend to cling to old values, customs, and the faded, but glorified representatives of the past. Miss Emily was one of those selected representatives. The people in the southern small-town, where the story takes place, put her on a throne instead of throwing her in jail where she actually belonged. The folks in town, unconsciously manipulated by their strong nostalgia, became the accomplices of the obscene and insane Miss Emily.
The time period has largely influenced the works of Faulkner. Through out the 1900's the traditional form of writing began to expand and evolve. Experimentation and individualism became morals and were thought to affect all authors of the time period. This general time period experienced a spectrum of cultural shocks. The first of the drastic changes of society was World War 1, which was supposedly the “War to End All Wars.” However, this war was so gruesome that it affected society as a whole and sunk the nations into a period of unknown fate. Authors such as Faulkner lived for these moments to have the ability to build on the depression and write stories such as, “A Rose for Emily.” The time period experiences drastic advancements and changes that greatly influence the content of the story.
Homer’s epic, the Odyssey, is a heroic narrative that follows the adventures of Odysseus, the powerful King of Ithaca. The main story involves Odysseus’s return journey to his homeland after the Trojan War. However, Homer skips around in the action periodically to give the reader a better understanding and interest in what is going on in the epic. Homer takes his audience from the present action involving Telemakhos’ search for news of his father’s return, to the past where Odysseus tells the Phaiakians of his tragic journey home after the war. The events in Homer’s epic are not in order but still prove more effective at guiding the reader through the narrative. Although the events in the Odyssey are not in chronological order, the story line is enriched by Homer’s use of the in media res method because it introduces characters that were not involved in Odysseus’ adventure, because it shows the urgency of Odysseus’ return to his kingdom, and because it allows the reader to become more interested in the opening chapters without having to wait for a climax in the action.
As Faulkner begins “A Rose for Emily” with death of Emily, he both immediately and intentionally obscures the chronology of the short story to create a level of distance between the reader and the story and to capture the reader’s attention. Typically, the reader builds a relationship with each character in the story because the reader goes on a journey with the character. In “A Rose for Emily”, Faulkner “weaves together the events of Emily’s life” is no particular order disrupting the journey for the reader (Burg, Boyle and Lang 378). Instead, Faulkner creates a mandatory alternate route for the reader. He “sends the reader on a dizzying voyage by referring to specific moments in time that have no central referent, and thus the weaves the past into the present, the present into the past. “Since the reader is denied this connection with the characters, the na...
In "A Rose for Emily", Faulkner contrasted the past with the present era. The past was represented in Emily herself, in Colonel Sartoris, in the old Negro servant, and in the Board of Alderman who accepted the Colonel's attitude toward Emily and rescinded her taxes.
On September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, a son was born to Murry Cuthbert and Maud Butler Faulkner. This baby, born into a proud, genteel Southern family, would become a mischievous boy, an indifferent student, and drop out of school; yet “his mother’s faith in him was absolutely unshakable. When so many others easily and confidently pronounced her son a failure, she insisted that he was a genius and that the world would come to recognize that fact” (Zane). And she was right. Her son would become one of the most exalted American writers of the 20th century, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature and two Pulitzers during his lifetime. Her son was William Faulkner.
In the Unvanquished, a version of southern masculinity is developed through the narrator using dialect and the device, or should I say vice of memory. Fairly early in the novel, the reflective standpoint of the narrator becomes obvious, and a certain sense of “retelling” the story, not just telling it as it happened, prevails. This use of memory is not necessarily selective but it does show the processing of perceptions of the narrator’s childhood. As readers, we first get the sense that we are hearing the story from a much older Bayard when he drops comments like “I was just twelve then; I didn’t know triumph; I didn’t even know the word” (Unvanquished 5). If he was just twelve then, he could be just fifteen or sixteen when retelling this story, assuming the grandiosity that adolescence creates, leading to such thoughts as “I was just a kid then.” However, the second part of the statement reveals a much older and wiser voice, the voice of someone who has had time to think out such abstractions as triumph and failure. Furthermore, the almost obsessive description of the father in the first part of the novel seems like the narrator comes to terms, much later in life, with how he viewed his father as a man. “He was not big” (9) is repeated twice on the same page. He was short enough to have his sabre scrape the steps while ascending (10), yet he appeared large and in command, especially when on his horse (13). The shape and size of a man being an important part in defining masculinity, I think Baynard grappled with his father’s physical presence as well as his tenuous position as a leader in the Confederate Army. Other telling moments are on page 66 when Baynard postulates what a child can accept as true in such incredible situations and on page 95 with his declarations on the universality of war. (Possibly he is an old man now and has lived to see other wars.) Upon realizing the distance between the setting of the story and age of its narrator, the reader is forced to consider how memory and life itself have affected the storytelling.
William Faulkner’s work has influenced many people today. He is known for his use of words and his theme. William Faulkner is also known as one of the greatest American authors of the twentieth century. His greatest work is A Fable, which won a Pulitzer Prize. William Faulkner was raised a southern boy, whose writing was influenced by two people and one major event, and his greatest work A Fable. A preeminent figure in twentieth-century American literature, Faulkner created a profound and complex body of work in which he often explored exploitation and corruption in the American South. Many of Faulkner’s novels and short stories are set in Yoknapatawpha County, a fictional area reflecting the geographical and cultural background of his native Mississippi. Faulkner’s works frequently reflect the history of the South while developing perceptive explorations of the human character. Faulkner used a variety of narrative techniques to enrich his exploration of this struggle.
It might be pertinent and helpful here to first discuss the structure of the narrative itself, for there are several elements in the sequencing of the discourse that contribute in no small way to the overall effect of the narration/narrator. The narrative begins in media res (beginning in the midst of the action at a crucial junct...