William Faulkner's classic short story, "A Rose for Emily," has been noted as an excellent example of Southern literature. Southern literature can be defined as literature about the South, written by authors who were reared in the South. Characteristics of southern literature are the importance of family, sense of community, importance of religion, importance of time, of place, and of the past, and use of Southern voice and dialect. Most of the novels are written as a Southerner actually speaks. Many books also describe the historical importance of the Southern town. William Faulkner was a twentieth century American author who won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Most famous for his novel The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner defines Southern literature. In his mythical county of Yaknapatawpha, Faulkner contrasted the past with the present era. The past was represented in Emily Grierson, Colonel Sartoris, the Board of Alderman, and the Negro servant. Homer Barron, the new Board of Alderman, and the new sheriff represented the present. Homer was the main representative of Yankee views towards the Griersons and the entire South, a situation of the present. Emily held the view of the past as if it were a rose-tinted place where nothing would ever die. Her world was already the past. Whenever the modern times were about to take hold of her, she retreated to that world of the past, and took Homer with her. Her room upstairs was that place, a place where Emily could stay with dead Homer forever as though no death nor disease could separate them. Homer had lived in the present, and Emily eventually conquered that. Emily's family was a monument of the past; Emily herself was referred to as a "fallen monument." She was a relic of Southern gentility and past values. She had been considered fallen because she had been proven susceptible to death and decay like the rest of the world. As for the importance of family, Emily was really close to her father. He was very protective of her…
In William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, the writer explores the complicated relationship between members the Compson family, an aristocratic Southern family, and puts them against the backdrop of post-Civil War America, a time when concepts of politics, economics, and social order were rapidly changing. The novel itself it unique in its prose, which relies heavily on the first person stream-of-consciousness narration from its characters, but it’s also a story that heavily relies on its setting and time period as the story is as much about the characters themselves as well as the environment in which they live.…
Emily Grierson- Emily is the main character of the story. She is a chore for the town, but a very hopeful character until her father died and lover left. She is now a recluse that never comes out for anything, but has her servant to do for her.…
William Faulkner’s commitment to depicting “the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself” (245) find perfect expression in “Barn Burning,” in which Sarty is torn between his growing realization of his father’s depravity and his innate conviction that there is another, better way of being in the world.…
Faulkner seems to be controlling the closeness of some characters. For instance, as mentioned, Darl and Jewel are the most intelligent and sympathetic characters. Darl is the most common narrator and Jewel shows his caring side when he wants to be with his mother. These instances make the reader connect with them more than the other characters in the novel. The other characters are first introduced with things that are not as relatable or even as likeable. The worst instance of this is how Anse is introduced sawing his mother’s coffin. This action makes the reader believe that Anse is devoid of showing the proper emotion in the time of his mother’s death, because he was making Addie’s coffin right outside the window of the room she was in.…
On the outside, Emily Grierson may seem to lack motive, but she faces conflicts throughout the story that could have driven her to murder. First of all, she has lived with her father in her childhood home for decades. Through subtle hints and imagery, the reader learns that Emily’s life with her father was far from happy. Faulkner…
William Faulkner’s rite of passage tale, “Barn Burning”, describes a young boys progressive move towards emancipation. Sarty, the young protagonist, begins to peel away from “the old fierce pull of blood” and towards a more moral lifestyle. (30) This change in character was motivated by factors that revolved around his family issues and natural sense of right and wrong. Furthermore, at the end of the passage there’s a sense of hope presented that gives light on what the boy’s future might entail. Therefore, Sarty’s transition from childhood was one of grit and bravery.…
Although she lived in physical bondage to her husband, Addie Bundren, the nexus of William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying,” not only found a way snap the mental tether of a patriarchal system, but also instilled an innate, and underlying rebelliousness toward that system, in her three eldest sons. Through her denial of the structure, and meaning of a male imposed vocabulary, Addie internally condemns a system that has mentally enslaved her. This condemnation is permeated externally to Cash, Darl and Jewel, through her ability to communicate with them, without speech. This paper will examine instances in which Addie’s overall influence, and general attitude toward the patriarchy can be observed in her, and her sons.…
Faulkner’s family made a great impact on his writings, especially his mother and grandmother. His artistic imagination flourished while being around these women, for they were all great readers. Also, they were painters, educating his visual language and use of sensory images in his writing. Faulkner was educated his entire life by Caroline Barr, a black woman who raised him since his infancy. She was also particularly critical to Faulkner’s success, for his novels’ dealt with the politics of race and sexuality. Also, his birth into a traditional southern family exposed him to fishing, farming, and other orthodox activities around where he lived, while being educated in literature, art, and poetry. These two influences created made and shaped the writer he was and became. His philosophy was that he only wanted to write about things that were worth his time, labor, and agony invested into his novels. He began his…
The Grapes of Wrath chronicles the story of two “families”: the Joads and the collective body of migrant workers. Although the Joads are joined by blood, the text argues that it is not their genetics but their loyalty and commitment to one another that establishes their true kinship. In the migrant lifestyle portrayed in the book, the biological family unit, lacking a home to define its boundaries, quickly becomes a thing of the past, as life on the road demands that new connections and new kinships be formed. The reader witnesses this phenomenon at work when the Joads meet the Wilsons. In a remarkably short time, the two groups merge into one, sharing one another’s hardships and committing to one another’s…
The contemptuous tone of William Faulkner’s Barn Burning is delivered through passages in which the son, Colonel Sartoris Snopes, is found to be paying more attention to details of his setting than the events in which he is involved. His descriptions of his family, and the manner in which the son is found to feel about his father’s choices, reveal a tone that indicates a scornful yet dutiful perspective. Sarty goes along with his family, realizing that he is expected to support his family, about whom he has mixed emotions. He finds his father expecting him to lie to a Justice of the Peace, describes his sisters in a demeaning manner, and he describes his desire to escape his family.…
I chose the documentary Sound and Fury as my topic. My current clinical practice area of interest is the family, and this film focuses on the aspects of the family. I am also interested in working with children, and I felt that choosing an ethical dilemma involving children might help me within my future practice. Although I have no history working with the deaf or people with cochlear implants, I found the concept to be very interesting. Sound and Fury allows us to look into the lives of the Artinian family. Peter and Nita are both deaf and their child, Heather, is deaf. Peter’s brothers name is Chris. Chris is married to Mary and they are both hearing. When their second set of twins is born, Peter III is deaf. Peter and Chris’ parents are…
By explaining her upbringing by a stern father and her slow journey through a secluded life to her death, Faulkner shows how…
The Sound and the Fury, written by William Faulkner, and much like Virginia Woolf’s To the Lighthouse, works hard to capture each respected character’s individualistic experience, reality, and growth by the use of stream of consciousness. Though these literary titans would never meet, both of their works published around the same time and experimented with the same form from half a world away. These great novels share many themes and qualities influenced by modernistic thought, in which, the literary scope scrutinizes the role of the individual and the struggle to combat an ontological crisis. Both The Sound and the Fury and To the Lighthouse depict individual experience and their respected roles within a stressful family environment. I will argue that the cause of the universal family stress derives from oppressive maternal values and the absences of Mrs. Compson in The Sound and the Fury and Mrs. Ramsay in To the Lighthouse.…
William Faulkner suspects that man's self-destructive nature will lead to doom, and constructed the parable of the Compson family in The Sound and The Fury to illustrate how the human race will react to confronting their demise. Caddy shows such strength that the entire family depends on her to keep its frail bonds from breaking, despite her looming promiscuity represented through water, and reminded to Quentin by honeysuckles. Quentin appears normal on the surface, but his inner soul rages with conflict and desperation, portrayed through the use of clocks and obsession of time. Shadows are used to foreshadow Quentin’s fate, as well as characterize Benjy, who simply withdraws into himself. Finally, Jason delves deeper into his cynicism and…