The Life and Writing of William Faulkner Essay

World War I, along with World War II and the rise of Marxist-Leninist states in Russia and China, is one of the defining moments of the 20th century. Parts of Europe lay in devastation and the United States found itself in an increasingly prominent place on the world stage. The United States’ decision to intervene in World War I meant that American soldiers would be fighting in foreign lands under brutal conditions. All aspects of society were rapidly changing as developments in technology and changing economic conditions redefined every part of everyday life. These developments along with World War I allow for the birth of Modernism. Modernism represents the uncertainty drudgery of contemporary life and the desire to achieve a new social order capable of overcoming the failures of the past. Ernest Hemingway and F. Scott Fitzgerald present readers with two different accounts of modern life rooted in the same context of “American life.”

William Cuthbert Faulkner (changed from the original spelling Falkner) was an American novelist. He usually wrote his novels, books, and poems in a mighty ways. This was one of the reason why only readers who pay strict attention to details can understand his writing’s main idea. Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi, in 1897. He came from a wealth family. His family lost all its financial power like other southerners did during the Civil War. Most of Faulkner’s early works were poetry, but he became famous for his novels set in the American South. He is best known for his novels such as The Sound And The Fury and As I Lay Dying. The novel As I Lay Dying is one of his novels written in a challenging way. Faulkner did not go back to his novel As I Lay Dying and change a word after he finished writing it.

“It takes two people to make you, and one people to die. That’s how the world is going to end” (Faulkner 35). In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner captures the reader with reality in a perplexing and unequivocal portrayal of a Mississippi family. Born in Mississippi, Faulkner’s expertise in innovative techniques of language qualified him for his accomplishments in the Nobel Prize for Literature (1949), the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction (1955 & 1963), and the National Book Award (1951 & 1955) (William Faulkner Biography). Although referred to by some critics as a simple novel, Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying uses technical innovations that are compelling and captivating. The novel is not just a story about family, but a story that shows how people within the same family grieve differently.

Modernist literature began between 1915-1935, writers mainly wrote fiction this is because they started to question what the future was going to bring since they were living through both World War. Modernists wrote their stories in first person which made their stories seem like a stream of consciousness, irony and satires. This type of literature was mainly written in English and became well known due to the increase of globalization, which was more about how the people felt about the events going on and how the people were affected in other words it spoke from the inner self of the writer. Many famous writers including Ernest Hemingway, Langston Hughes, and F. Scott Fitzgerald believed that the increase in new technology was leading to the decrease in civilization which was making individuals lonely.

In William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, the image of honeysuckle is used repeatedly to reflect Quentin’s preoccupation with Caddy’s sexuality. Throughout the Quentin section of Faulkner’s work, the image of honeysuckle arises in conjunction with the loss of Caddy’s virginity and Quentin’s anxiety over this loss. The particular construction of this image is unique and important to the work in that Quentin himself understands that the honeysuckle is a symbol for Caddy’s sexuality. The stream of consciousness technique, with its attempt at rendering the complex flow of human consciousness, is used by Faulkner to realistically show how symbols are imposed upon the mind when experiences

Faulkner grew up in Mississippi in the beginning of the twentieth century ('William Faulkner'; 699). He was the son to Murray C. and Maud Butler Faulkner (Hoffman 13). Growing up in the South in the early 1900's meant being exposed to harsh racism. He watched the blacks endure unbelievable amounts of cruelty and was amazed at how the blacks conducted themselves with such dignity. He witnessed, first hand, what discrimination is and could not comprehend why this goes on. In many of Faulkner's works I found that he portrayed blacks as quite,easy-going, well-tempered people. He attempted to show them as heroes. It is my belief that Faulkner writes about the south because that is the subject that has affected his life most.

One of the main realities of human existence is the constant, unceasing passage of time. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner explores this reality of time in many new and unexpected ways as he tells the tragic tail of the Compson family. The Compsons are an old Southern aristocratic family to whom time has not been kind. Years of degeneration mainly stemming from slavery have brought them to the brink of destruction. Most of the story focuses on the Compson children who are undergoing the worst of the social and moral decay. Each of the four children perceives time in a much different way but by far the strangest and most bizarre attitude toward time that is given in the text is held by

     The works of William Faulkner have had positive effects on readers throughout his career. Local legends and gossip trigger the main focus of his stories. Considering that Faulkner grew up in Mississippi, he was very familiar with the ways of the South. This award winning author has been praised by many critics for his ability and unique style of writing. One of Faulkner's most popular works, which also was his first short story nationally published in

William Faulkner, the eldest son to parents Murry and Maud Butler Falkner, was born in New Albany, Mississippi in 1897. Although Faulkner was not a keen student in high school, which eventually lead to his dropping out before graduation, he was very enthusiastic about undirected learning. After years of studying independently, Faulkner allowed a friend of his family, Phil Stone, to assist him with his academic vocation. This relationship inspired Faulkner and after a short period spent with the Royal Air Force in 1918 he decided to go to university where he began writing and publishing poetry. In 1924 Stone’s financial assistance helped Faulkner publish a

     In William Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury, Caddy Compson is the anchor character because Faulkner himself is so obsessed with her that he is unable bring her down off a platform enough to write words for her. Instead, he plays out his obsession by using her brothers as different parts of himself through which to play out his fantasies and interact with her. Faulkner writes himself into the novel by creating male characters all based on aspects of his own personality. In Freud's personality theory the human personality is composed of three parts; the id, the ego and the superego. (Freud 17) By writing about Caddy from her three brothers' perspectives, Faulkner is

Faulkner’s works consisted of many dark touchy topics such as war, racism, mental illness and suicide in all of books, short stories, William Faulkner wrote about almost every part of life, from something that could be absurd at his time, to something real like racism in the American South. Throughout his life, Faulkner was kind of a rebel, notorious for his confidence, drinking, and he would often make up stories about himself. Faulkner wrote from experience and as a person who lived in the south during times of racism, he wrote about a lot of things in the south. To be exact his specific genre or style in which he wrote in is what some call “southern gothic”. Southern gothic is a unique style of writing and only expressed by very few authors. These stories usually take place only in the south and have darkness to them. His stories would use irony to examine the values of the American south. Instead of solely trying to add suspense with the style it is also used to explore social issues and cultural character of the south. Which leads me to one of Faulkner’s first important novels “Sartoris”. In Sartoris Faulkner focuses on a family during the world war era in the south. In the book the Sartoris family is one of the more important families in Yoknapatawpha County where the book is set. The Old Colonel, John Sartoris, represents an old and dying out order dating back to the mid 1900’s. His world revolves around his plantation home, his slaves and his

William Faulkner’s unconventional writing style is widely renowned for his disregard of literary rules and his keen ability to peer into the psychological depths of his characters. His novel As I Lay Dying is no exception to his signature style. This book sets forth the death of Addie Bundren, her family’s journey through Yoknapatawpha County to bury her with her relatives in Jefferson, Mississippi, and examines each character in depth from a variety of perspectives. While this journey wreaks havoc among members of the family, As I Lay Dying serves as a dark reminder that life is to be lived and that happiness is within reach.

Gasping; the type of gasping a helpless girl would have if she were drowning in a sea of water. Across her bedroom, the whistling of the wind begins creeping around the window sill, making its way across her hardwood floors, and slithering onto the painted walls. Frigid streams of blood reluctantly travels through her veins, resembling an infant bird, weary to come out of its nest for the first time. Forming above her layer of skin, goosebumps rise, resembling her fear of ants rising from the dead. Gushing waterfalls pour from her eyes with no hesitation. Her eyelids disturb the waterfall and force themselves to stop leaking. Nevertheless, these tears dry immediately just like how they were taught to do.

Emily was fuming and angry whilst fighting for the ability for women to stand in court hearings about prostitution.

     William Faulkner is one of America's most talked about writers and his work should be included in any literary canon for several reasons. After reading a few of his short stories, it becomes clear that Faulkner's works have uniqueness to them. One of the qualities that make William Faulkner's writings different is his close connection with the South. Gwendolyn Charbnier states, 'Besides the sociological factors that influence Faulkner's work, biographical factors are of great importance…'; (20). Faulkner's magnificent imagination led him to create a fictional Mississippi county named Yoknapatawpha, which includes every detail from square mileage of the county to the break down of