William Faulkner is known to be an intelligent Nobel prize winning author of unique narrations for his short stories about the southern regions such as, “A Rose for Emily” and “As I lay Dying”, where he shows a trending theme about death, grief and greed in the South, he shows the readers his own unique level of narrating his stories and how death is inevitable. Faulkner expresses death, grief and greed in many ways in the southern areas and returns back to the themes because he was born and raised his in the south, New Albany, Mississippi, where he dealt with many circumstances of grief and death, such as the death of his Grandfather at a young age, and death of his child. He was at war but they would not allow him because of his height, …show more content…
A more relevant question would be to ask “how they go under” (Urgo11). He replied to that, “It’s to go under when trying to do more than you know how to do. It’s trying to defy defeat even if it’s inevitable” (Meriwether 221). Faulkner explains this to us about his work to let us better understand that people “go under” when they are trying to do more in life that what they can manage or handle, if it is inevitable there is nothing mankind can do although mankind all try to “defy defeat” of what is to come. For example death, and grieving, there is nothing that humankind can do to alter death not come about, it is inevitable as he sates you cannot stop the inevitable. Faulkner also states, “But mankind lives in a world of illusion,” Faulkner wrote in 1925, “he uses his puny powers to create about him a strange and bizarre place” (Blothner 350). Faulkner shares with us why he is so fixated on writing about death, grief, defeat, because mankind live in illusion that people are able to do something about the inevitable, he shows that mankind cannot. Faulkner, then returns to the theme of death and grief with a story he wrote called; “As I lay Dying”, where there is a multi-voice narration with …show more content…
Jean Stein asked Faulkner; Would you deny validity of technique in your writings, Faulkner states, “By no means…Since none of my work has not met my standards I must judge it on the basis of that one which caused me the most grief and anguish, as the mother loves the child who became the thief or murderer more than the one who became the priest” (Stein). This shows the readers a better understanding of some of his own life and what he thinks of his mother, showing readers a lot of his writing comes from his life. Interviewer Jean then asked, how much of you writing is based on personal experience; Faulkner explains; “With me, a story usually begins with a single idea, memory or mental picture…obviously writers must use one of his tools the environment in which he knows, mine is music”(Faulkner). This shows the readers that some of his writings do come from his own personal experience as well as other inspirations such as his own memories and music. It is shown to the readers of William Faulkner that many aspects went into his writings such as life experience, environment to allow such a writer to want to write on themes such as death and grief in the
Yoknapatawpha County is a fictional county made up by William Faulkner in which As I Lay Dying takes place in; this is now the third novel to take place here. As I Lay Dying was one of the last novels written in the 1920’s by William Faulkner and within fifty-nine chapters, this novel features a unique narration of fifteen different first person narrators. Each chapter is written from that particular character’s perspective telling their version of what is happening in the novel, making this not only an interesting take on narration but a compelling read as well. Faulkner uses the characters use of language to help us identify and see glimpses into the lives of the Bundren family; through this we can understand the revenge and secrets from within the characters that is blind to the most if not all-remaining characters within the novel.
In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner comments on how death affects individuals differently and how sanity is not defined by a mental state but rather by a community of people. Varying viewpoints in narratives, allow the reader to gain insight into the character's thoughts. However, he uses perspectives outside of the Bundren family in order for the reader to create some sort of truth.
William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, chronicles a family facing a series of trials in the wake of a traumatic event, Addie’s death. Faulkner first suggests that the journey to bury Addie, a wife and mother, is a way for her family to show her their final respect, yet each character’s real motivation in participating begins to emerge as the novel progresses. The motivations and circumstances present as an over-the-top dramatic tale, something that often times only appears on reality television. Through the use of Biblical allusions and religious contradictions, Faulkner presents a sarcastic tone mocking the backwardness of the journey and the Bundren family’s ethics. Faulkner chooses to use these stylistic devices to expose the impact of religious
In the early 1900s, the American South had very distinctive social classes: African Americans, poor white farmers, townspeople, and wealthy aristocrats. This class system is reflected in William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, where the Bundrens a poor, white family, are on a quest to bury their now deceased wife and mother, Addie in the town of Jefferson. Taking a Marxist criticism approach to As I Lay Dying, readers notice how Faulkner’s use of characterization reveals how country folk are looked down upon by the wealthy, upper class townspeople.
While I was watching the documentary William Faulkner, a Life on Paper I found it striking how the different people that were interviewed talked about two different sides of the author William Faulkner. His daughters, Jill Faulkner Sommers and his stepdaughter, spoke mainly about his alcohol abuse and his moodiness whereas Faulkner’s contemporaries from Oxford underlined Faulkner’s generosity and kindness. The documentary shows Faulkner not only as father of Jill and his stepdaughter but also as a father figure for many others. He had to take care of several families at once. At one point Faulkner had seventeen dependents to provide for. Many of the people that were interviewed describe Faulkner as being very generous and always willing to help others even when he had almost nothing himself. One special example is his brother Dean who died in an airplane accident and because Faulkner had bought the plane he apparently felt guilty about the death of his brother for the rest of his life as his sister-in-law says in the interview.
In his Novel Prize Address, Faulkner states that an author must leave "no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart...love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice." He accuses his younger contemporaries of ignoring these noble spiritual pillars while pondering the atomic doom of mankind with questions like, "When will I be blown up?" Such physical fears, far from conflicts of the heart, are what plague his bomb-obsessed contemporaries. Yet Faulkner stands, seemingly alone, in opposition to this weakness; he "decline[s] to accept the end of man" and in rebelling, fights for the old universal truths and the glories of the past. In classical style, he brushes away passing fears and fads, settling for nothing less than the "problems of the human heart in conflict with itself." Nothing else is worth writing about and Faulkner's work is living proof.
Growing up in Mississippi in the late Nineteenth Century and the early part of the Twentieth Century, young William Faulkner witnessed first hand the struggles his beloved South endured through their slow progression of rebuilding. These experiences helped to develop Faulkner’s writing style. “Faulkner deals almost exclusively with the Southern scene (with) the Civil War … always behind his work” (Warren 1310. His works however are not so much historical in nature but more like folk lore. This way Faulkner is not constrained to keep details accurate, instead he manipulate the story to share his on views leading the reader to conclude morals or lessons from his experience. Faulkner writes often and “sympathetically of the older order of the antebellum society. It was a society that valued honor, (and) was capable of heroic action” (Brooks 145) both traits Faulkner admired. These sympathetic views are revealed in the story “A Rose for Emily” with Miss Emily becoming a monument for the Antebellum South.
If we compare William Faulkner's two short stories, 'A Rose for Emily' and 'Barn Burning', he structures the plots of these two stories differently. However, both of the stories note the effect of a father¡¦s teaching, and in both the protagonists Miss Emily and Sarty make their own decisions about their lives. The stories present major idea through symbolism that includes strong metaphorical meaning. Both stories affect my thinking of life.
Faulkner’s title phrase “As I Lay Dying” solicits many suspicions from potential readers of the novel. The phrase itself is not traditionally grammatical because it is not able to stand by itself. As a dependent clause, the phrase “As I Lay Dying” would typically serve as a noun, adjective, or adverb within the sentence and then be linked with a main clause. The absence of a main clause in the title causes the reader to speculate about the forthcoming plot of the novel.
Any one who’s ever visited the south has a true appreciation for the writings of William Faulkner. Everything ever written by William Faulkner has a trace of the South that can be felt by just reading his words. Growing up in Mississippi, Faulkner was exposed to the Deep South and everything it had to offer, both good and bad. Through his writings, William tackles some of the most difficult issues of his time period and sheds light to the every day issues going on in the South. William Faulkner set the precedent for future generations, and he will arguably never be contested in his southern style. Without William Faulkner, American literature would be blind to the truth of the South and all its glory.
Three key elements link William Faulkner's two short stories "A Rose for Emily" and "Dry September": sex, death, and women (King 203). Staging his two stories against a backdrop of stereotypical characters and a southern code of honor, Faulkner deliberately withholds important details, fragments chronological times, and fuses the past with the present to imply the character's act and motivation.
William Faulkner takes us back in time with his Gothic short story known as, “A Rose for Emily.” Almost every sentence gives a new piece of evidence to lead the reader to the overall theme of death, isolation, and trying to maintain traditions. The reader can conclude the theme through William Faulkner’s use of literary devices such as his choice of characters, the setting, the diction, the tone, and the plot line.
A horrific aspect of life that many people have a difficult time dealing with is death. The thought of death scares people because as humans we do not have a way to comprehend something that we cannot test, see or even have a grasp of. When a person loses a loved one they get scared by this reality of that they do not know where they are going and when they make it there how will it be for them. In William Faulkner's book, As I Lay Dying, we go through the process at which a family loses a “loved” one and we follow the family all the way until the deceased, Addie Burden, is buried in Jefferson. In As I Lay Dying you see the steps of grieving are different for many people and some of the people will come out destroyed and others without a scratch. The character Cash goes through a process of grief, odd to most in his way of grief we do not see pain because of the pressure he puts on himself to finish the journey for the family. Cash’s brother, Jewel, seems to snap from the pain of losing his mother and he let the pain ingulf his life. Finally, the last
William Faulkner, a Nobel Prize winning author, wrote the novel "As I Lay Dying" in six weeks without changing a word. Considering the story's intricate plot, not changing a single word seems like it would take a literary genius to complete. Many people agree that Faulkner could very well be a genius due to the organization of this story. Faulkner uses fifteen different characters to narrate and allow the reader to analyze each of their point of views. Through the confessions of each character, the reader is able to form his or her opinion about different characters and issues. Since some narrators are unreliable for different reasons, it could be confusing to form opinions. One character that is easily understood is Dewey Dell Bundren. She is the only daughter in the Bundren family and ends up being the only woman in the family. "As I Lay Dying", the story of a family's journey to bury their mother and wife, is also the story of Dewey Dell's journey toward maturity. Along their journey to bury their mother, the characters, like Dewey Dell, seem to evolve through their encounters with other people. Faulkner depicts Dewey Dell as a very monotonous person in the beginning of the book. In the beginning, Dewey Dell is seen fanning her mother, picking cotton, or milking cows. However, towards the end of the book, her repetitiveness is lost. Towards the end of the novel, Faulkner specifically shows Dewey Dell in numerous situations becoming a mature individual.
"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.