The Sound And The Fury As A Modernism

Falling apart and little hope left, the Bundren family travels together and only weakens their connections with one another. Attaining family love and appreciation,Faulkner alleges, can only occur when the members

“At last they could pity Emily” (453) or at least that is what the community thought they could do when Emily lost her father and became “humanized” (453). Emily is one of the most prominent people of her time and is even recognized through a story all written about her. This analytical essay of “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner without doubt, uses symbolism to portray change and decay throughout the story by using Emily’s home, Mr. Grierson, and herself.

So much of what one learns about love is taught by people who never really loved in return. That was the case for the perturbed Dewey Dell and the relationship obtained with her mother Addie Bundren. Dewey Dell, the only daughter of Addie, is left alone to discover the social constructions that Addie went through. Addie, as a mother, is hardly ever represented and she never proclaims her “love” for her daughter. Through Dewey Dell’s future motherhood, language, and sexuality, she undergoes conflictions and discoveries without the help of her mother. Dewey Dell’s character signifies the defilement of future female generations living in a patriarchal society. Faulkner uses the disconnected relationship between Dewey Dell and Addie to demonstrate

    Analyzing character in a Faulkner novel is like trying to reach the bottom of a bottomless pit because Faulkner's characters often lack ration, speak in telegraphed stream-of-consciousness, and rarely if ever lend themselves to ready analysis.  This is particularly true in As I Lay Dying, a novel of a fragmented and dysfunctional family told through fragmented chapters.  Each character reveals their perspective in different chapters, but the perspectives are true to life in that though they all reveal information

Who knew a high school dropout would become one of the most well-known authors still known today? Even though William Faulkner did not finish school (“William Faulkner – Biographical”), he certainly knew how to capture a reader’s attention and drop them into a new world with just a pen. The style in which he writes is unique. With only three semesters of college, he was forced to create from nearly a blank slate; college had not brainwashed him in to a repetitive nature with writing a certain way. He was forced to think outside the box and this makes him stand out from other writers. The building blocks of his stories can be derived from his life. If a reader had a collection of his literature, it would not be hard for them to take a guess at what his personal life was like. Faulkner lived an interesting life and incorporated its aspects into his short stories, two of which, “A Rose for Emily” and “Dry September,” have similar characters, symbolism, and themes. Critics have explored the meanings behind his work and thus given readers a better insight.

Addie felt differently about her children and with each one of them she had an impact on their lives even after her death. The way she convinced, treated, and viewed them resulted in the way each character did the same towards her in terms of her passing. She says “I gave Anse Dewey Dell to negative Jewel. Then I gave him Vardaman to replace the child I had robbed him of. And now he has three children that are his and not mine. And then I could get ready to die” (Faulkner 176). The monologue of Addie gave the reader insight on how she viewed her children in terms of which ones she loved more, which ones she had out of spite and which ones she had because of a passion within. It is interesting to see how the start of someone’s life and upbringing

Many things tend to stand out. Besides the use of reoccurring themes, the book deals with cringe-worthy topics such as child molestation. Banks early on lets the reader know that there is tension between Chappie and his stepfather. It is not until later when Chappie finally

It can be argued that any thoughts of Caddy end up destroying Quentin’s sense of order and replacing it with a sense of panic and urgency. Quentin’s mind lives in the past, and while there is a fair amount of attention to the present moment, much of his section consists of his thoughts (Brown 545). This attention to time is what contributes to the chaos in his mind because he looks back to his inability to stop Caddy from dirtying herself and the entire family’s honor. His mind constantly looks back to past events which remind him of the suffering he has gone through in trying to satisfy his code of honor, which only contributes to a sense of misdirection in his life. In “The Loud World of Quentin Compson”, it is noted that Faulkner purposely “enhanced the dramatic immediacy” (Ross 250) of some scenes in order to show how chaotic his mental processing becomes when Caddy is brought up. He wrote Quentin’s section in a way that would emphasize the struggle Quentin faces in trying to restore his family’s honor by ignoring punctuation and grammar, among a plethora of other methods. It is known that Quentin’s section consists of only Quentin’s narration, and it varies drastically from orderly, grammatically proper sentences to disorderly, crude sentences in order to clearly mark lines between moments and thoughts

Faulkner’s use of southern gothic writing style helps the reader build a mental depiction of Miss Emily. When the town sent their ambassadors to discuss the taxes that were owed, Faulkner described Miss Emily as “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water” (2182). This description gives the reader the sense that the character is not well. Faulkner’s description that Miss Emily looked bloated achieves the desired effect on the reader to show how hideous she appears. This graphic description, combined with the author’s depressing description of the parlor (2182), makes the reader think of death. The reader gets the sense of being in a funeral parlor which helps to strengthen Faulkner’s narrative.

Faulkner has characterized all the characters in the best possible way. Emily Grierson, Homer Barron, Judge Stevens – the mayor of Jefferson, Mr. Grierson – Emily’s father, Tobe – Emily’s servant, and Colonel Sartoris – a former mayor of Jefferson are the major charters in the story. The narrator describes Emily as a monument, but with a lot of negativity. The story shows us how she was a smart young girl and then how she end up being an overprotective and secretive old woman. She refused to accept the change when her father died and that’s why she kept telling all the people in town that her father is still alive. Homer Barron is much like Emily. Like Emily, Homer is an outsider and becomes the topic of gossip. The narrator describes Homer as a big man with dark complexion with a good sense of humor. Tobe’s character in the story plays an important role. He is a loyal and dutiful servant. He cared for Emily till she died, but he walked out of the back door and never returned after Emily’s death. Mr. Grierson was a well-maintained person. When he was alive, Emily’s house was always beautifully maintained. He earned a lot of respect in the society but when he died the respect towards his family died with him.

In Faulkner's story, an onlooker tells of the peculiar events that occurred during Miss Emily's life. The author never lets the reader understand Emily's side to the story. Instead, the reader is forced to guess why Emily is as strange as she is. In the story, Emily had harbored her father's dead body in her house for three days (par. 27). The reader is told of how the town looked upon what Emily had done, but the reader is never able to fully understand Emily's actions until the end of the story.

Faulkner uses a system of italics to show Quentin's innermost revelations; as he shifts from thoughts of virginity to more personal memories, the language changes from an encompassing statement about women to a singular elucidation of his sister. The first piece of italic language punctuates a piece of dialogue and immediately implies a question of virginity. "ever do that Have you ever done that In the gray darkness a little light her hands locked about" (93) is the repetition of Caddy's question to Quentin on whether or not he had ever had sex. Faulkner continuously inserts the image of Caddy sitting on the ground next to her brother with her hands locked around her knees. Strangely, the image brings a sense of chastity to a sexually charged situation, as if she is locking her knees together to insist against any improper movements towards the contrary. The next piece of language, again interrupting a friendly dialogue between friends, has "her face looking at the sky the smell of honeysuckle upon her face and throat." Faulkner sets the reader up for the continuation of a few themes be these beginning interceptions into normal conversation. Her face looking up at the sky, the smell of honeysuckle, the gray darkness or light - all these descriptions continue to be executed in the remaining consciousness language. Moreover, honeysuckle and gray light

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.

By focusing on the figure of Caddy, Bleikasten’s essay works to understand the ambiguous nature of modern literature, Faulkner’s personal interest in Caddy, and the role she plays as a fictional character in relation to both her fictional brothers and her actual readers. To Bleikasten, Caddy seems to function on multiple levels: as a desired creation; as a fulfillment of what was lacking in Faulkner’s life; and/or as a thematic, dichotomous absence/presence.

“In this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes.” This quote by Benjamin Franklin is a mirror to Emily’s story as it begins with her death and then the reader is abruptly brought into the tax remission she received after the death of her father. This interesting yet confusing vignette is about a girl named Emily Grierson and her inconsiderate relation with the town, a man she loved, Homer Baron, and her Father. For Readers of Faulkner, it is truly apparent that his stories do not follow the pattern of the conventional beginning to the end of the story. This method of disorderly sequence of events along with the descriptive style tends to lead this story as if we are