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STYLE AND STRUCTURE OF WILLIAM FAULKNER'S NOVELS.   Term Paper ID:29985 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Analysis of two novels: AS I LAY DYING & THE SOUND AND THE FURY.... More...

7 Pages / 1575 Words 7 sources, 9 Citations, MLA Format $28.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Analysis of two novels: AS I LAY DYING & THE SOUND AND THE FURY. Setting, themes, experimental use of language. Shifting points of view. Multiple narrators. Stylistic shifts to fit different perspectives. Infusion of plot with a political and social structure related to South's slave-owning past. Use of element of time in THE SOUND AND THE FURY. Use of strong female characters in AS I LAY DYING. Paper Introduction: William Faulkner was one of the leading novelists of this century, and he drew upon his own town of Oxford, Mississippi for his stories, his setting, and his themes. The Civil War was the defining moment in history for the South, and the fact that the South had lived by slavery before that was an indictment of the old families of the South and a reason for the people of the new South to atone. In each novel, Faulkner infuses the story with a political and social structure related to the slave-owning past of the South and showing the effect of that past on the present. He does so in a way that is somewhat experimental in terms of his use of language particularly. Faulkner often uses shifting points of view to break up reality and to emphasize that reality is a matter of perception and is seen differently by different people. As I Lay Dying has several Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. Chicago: University of Chicago, 1975.Millgate, Michael. Jason has his code of conduct, but itis on based on the need to keep up appearances, It might seem as ifQuentin had a similar idea, since he was concerned about how people wouldview Caddy's downfall, but Quentin is more concerned with the code of theOld South and with ideas of honor, while Jason is concerned with rules toprotect his own position in town and not an idea of family. Addie's powerful personality and the principle of family unity which she embodies have long held the family together and continue so to hold it at least until her body has been buried, and it is entirely natural that she should not only occupy the foreground of the novel throughout but become, in effect, the battlefield on which her husband and her children--especially Jewel and Darl--fight out their personal rivalries and antagonisms (Millgate, 1966, 1 7). Faulkner shows women to be strong and dedicated to the unity of thefamily in this novel. The opening section is from thepoint of view of Benjy, and his muddled mind mixes past and present freelyin a stream-of-consciousness method mirroring his own retarded mind whilealso exposing links across generations. Tull speaks of Anse's reference to thedead Addie as if she were still alive and still in charge of the family:"She'll want to get started right off . . In each novel, Faulkner infuses thestory with a political and social structure related to the slave-owningpast of the South and showing the effect of that past on the present. In Addie's case, she uses violence and anger as a way of makingpeople recognize that she is alive, though in the end she also sees theneed to do something else to make it clear that she had existed. Cora speaks of Darl's nature as it relates to Addie: "I always saidhe was the only one of them that had his mother's nature, had any naturalaffection" (Faulkner, 193 , 1532). Faulkner also presents thisdisintegration in terms of classical tragedy within the form of the novel.The most important element in the novel is time, and the way each of thecharacters reacts to time is linked to the underlying themes and to thedecay of the family unit. In The Sound and the Fury, Faulkner portrays the decay of the Compsonfamily as a representation of the disintegration of the family in modernsociety, as subject to external forces stronger than the family itself, andas bound to the past and the sins of the past. "I'm tired" (Faulkner, 193 , 1535). The single-mindedness of Addie is based not on love,a word she does not recognize as valid, but on a sense of self and of theneed for that self to have an effect on the external world. Guerard (1976) sees Faulkner as at least partially a misogynist(Guerard, 1976, 69), but Faulkner's Addie, for instance, is not painted sodarkly and is both appealing and repellent at the same time. Quentin, on the other hand, suffers as he thinks about Caddy andwhat her downfall means to him: Attempting to preserve the moral code of the Old South, in which the honor of a family was equated with the chastity of its women, Quentin makes Caddy the repository of the Compson family honor . Jason's section of the book takes place on Good Friday, which issupposed to be a day of renewal but which means little to Jason except thathe will lose money over the holiday. Her mind is set on it"(Faulkner, 193 , 1535). Because he can neither accept a new code nor reject the moral code that invests value in a concept or a tradition rather than in human beings, Quentin chooses to kill himself so that Caddy's dishonor will die with his memory of it (Tuck, 1964, 27). Darl is the only character with an awareness ofthis and other facts about life, and he ends up in an asylum, showingFaulkner's pessimistic view of the family. The Civil War was the defining moment in historyfor the South, and the fact that the South had lived by slavery before thatwas an indictment of the old families of the South and a reason for thepeople of the new South to atone. His father has been trained as a lawyer but had allowed hispractice to deteriorate and had become an alcoholic. Jason, themodern man, is selfish and thinks of family only as it affects his abilityto do business, while Quentin had a sense of an ideal that has beenviolated. She uses violence as one way of doing this,and her children become another. . Louisiana State University Press, 1959.----------------------- 1 As I Lay Dying. pulled the covers up and shut her eyes. The Triumph of the Novel: Dickens, Dostoevsky, Faulkner. William Faulkner. . Quentin is the sensitive intellectualof the family, and he is too sensitive and so commits suicide rather thanface the reality of the world that is coming. His wife has become aneurotic who complains all the time. The Novels of William Faulkner. "You all will have to look out for pa the best you can," she said. The Compson family had once been prominent, had even produced agovernor, but by the beginning of this century the family had started todecay. Addie feels her father has never loved her,and her new family becomes an escape from the old. Jean-Paul Sartre noted the way Faulkner treated past and present andstates, The past here gains a surrealistic quality; its outline is hard, clear, and immutable. Vickery (1959) finds that Faulkner's women often have much in commonwith other non-white-dominant-males in society: Women, children, and Negroes are not necessarily more limited in mental capacity than other people, but they are more interested, according to Faulkner, in practical affairs and in the non-verbal world of experience (Vickery, 1959, 244).This is seen in Addie as she considers life after the birth of Cash: That was when I learned that words are no good; that words don't ever fit what they are trying to say at. Similarly, the Compsons are affected by pastmembers of the family throughout time. New York: Oxford, 1976.Howe, Irving. New York: Random House, 1966.Tuck, Dorothy. It also makes her a real person instead of just someoneabout whom others speak, and in her own voice she both reflects much ofwhat has been said about her and counters some of it by explaining her ownattitude toward her life. For Benjy, alltime is the present, and events from different eras mix together. While family is central to As I Lay Dying, family is aburden more than a blessing. It also occurs after Addiehas died, which again emphasizes her power as center of the family evenafter her death. Tull further relates the commitment to work withkeeping the family together, the task which marked Addie's life: Worked every day, rain or shine; never a sick day since her last chap was born until one day she kind of looked around her and them . . There are verbal cues to thereader to show the different changes in time, but there are alsodeliberately introduced confusions showing how close past and present canbe--there are two Quentins, for instance, two Jasons, two Maurys, and Benjyhas had two different names--first Maury and then Benjy. New York: Vintage, 193 .Guerard, Albert J. Faulkner fragments time and usesdiffering points of view to fragment perception as well. Faulkner often uses shifting points of view tobreak up reality and to emphasize that reality is a matter of perceptionand is seen differently by different people. Addie's life is seen asa failure by her, and her death becomes a means of bringing the familytogether. Crowell's Handbook of William Faulkner. The south as a whole is tied to itspast and the slavery that was its crime. The Achievement of William Faulkner. New York: Thomas Y, Crowell, 1964.Vickery, Olga W. The novel is structured in four sections, witheach section told from a different point of view, and with eachrepresenting a different view of time. . Addie's lifeis a reminder of the secondary place women hold in society at large and howthey make up for it, for good or ill, by taking a central place in thefamily. The multiple points of view are seen as confusing by some critics andas a self-defeating technique, but it actually strengthens the focus of thestory in several ways: A further focusing effect is achieved by the way in which the relationships within the Bundren family radiate about Addie, the mother, as both their physical and their symbolic core. . I knew that fear was invented by someone that had never had the fear; pride, who never had the pride (Faulkner, 193 , 171-172). The Sound and the Fury also usesdifferent points of view and shows a number of related stylistic shifts aseach character provides a different perspective, with the totality creatinga sense of modern life that goes beyond the specific family involved. . In As I Lay Dying, there are fifteen narrators in Faulkner's novel,shifting points of view around the central figure of Addie, the mother.Her importance to her children should be the center of the book and ismeant to provide an anchor of sorts for each character to find his or herown identity. Works CitedFaulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. Only one section in the novel is actually narrated by Addie, and thissection occurs about halfway through the book. As I Lay Dying has severaldifferent narrators, each with a unique point of view, all centering on thedying central character, their mother. His sense of lost values centerson his sister, Caddy, and on Dalton Ames, who seduced her. Hedoes so in a way that is somewhat experimental in terms of his use oflanguage particularly. Relationships, however, are the central fact of life, and eventhough they may not work, they provide the individual with a sense of selfand a place in the world. The indefinable and elusive present is helpless before it; it is full of holes through which past things, fixed, motionless, and silent, invade it (Tuck, 1964, xiv).This vision of the past is developed through its effect on family groups,and Faulkner uses linguistic devices and differing points of view toindicate the relationship between past and present showing how much thepast still exists in the present. Caddy is alsocentral to Benjy's narrative, but Benjy does not have a hierarchy of valueshe brings to bear on the issue and merely remembers what he has seen andheard. . Addie wantspeople to know she is alive. Their actions will make Addie's presencefelt long after she is gone. Benjy always returned toscenes of the past because he could not tell the difference between themand the present, while Quentin returns to scenes of the past because thepast holds him in its grip. The second section is that of the male Quentin, so tied to the pastthat he has no life in the present at all. Jason's section contrasts with theprevious two in its linguistic simplicity--Jason thinks in astraightforward manner, with time taking a chronological order and withpast and present clearly delineated. Her plan succeeds only faintly, for the family does what shewants but does not become closer or more aware of their debt to her in theprocess. William Faulkner was one of the leading novelists of this century,and he drew upon his own town of Oxford, Mississippi for his stories, hissetting, and his themes. The key to her character may come from what herfather told her: I could just remember how my gather used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time (Faulkner, 193 , 169).At this point, she has finished that struggle and is now dead, adding ironyto the words. His section exists in the past,having stopped on June 2, 191 with his suicide. New York: Vintage, 1984.Faulkner, William. What means something toQuentin are values such as honor and justice, and he sees these things aslacking in the world his family has made. His family history is vitally important tohim. If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.