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Faulkner's influence
Faulkner's influence
The short literary analysis of william faulkner
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William Faulkner's classic Absalom, Absalom!, certainly ranks among the gems of twentieth century American literature and indeed is arguably the best Southern novel ever written. Indeed it might well be thought of as a metaphor of the Confederate legacy of the lost cause myth, which so desperately seeks an answer for how such a noble cause, championed by just and honorable men went down in utter collapse and defeat. For among the sorted affairs of the Sutpen clan lie the elements of destruction of Southern society. Cruelty, lies, deceit, greed, resentment, revenge, and worst of all in its white supremacist view, miscegenation. The summitry between this tragic tale, centered around the fictional plantation Sutpen's Hundred and the true history of the South is quite striking. For the work vividly contradicts the popular history of the Old South so tightly wrapped in visions of stately columned plantation manors surrounded by bountiful fields, worked by contently sated Negro slaves, who were paternally nurtured and well cared for by the benevolent stalwarts of Southern elitism, the rich, and overwhelmingly white planter class. Any white man who reached this pinnacle of success, was accepted as a member of respectable society regardless of their background or the circumstances which created their situation. In exchange for their care and protection, the slaves gratefully toiled in service to their masters, feeling as though a part of the family of the estate, each with his or her own small stake in the prosperity and reputation of the whole. The masters and their families lived a life of graceful ease up in the big house, tasked only with the planning and management of their estates and “people” in this romanticized version of the ... ... middle of paper ... ...ured those rich, white, men would remain in power. That Faulkner and Mitchell both wrote these conflicting novels about the legacy of the South is quite telling about the world view of Southern Whites, regardless of economic or social standing. Certainly it can not be easy to reconcile the fact that one's ancestors believed and acted as they did and yet were revered as heroes. Few places outside the dust bowl were in more dire straits as the rural South during the 1930's and perhaps many thought, as Faulkner's characters seemed to have, that perhaps God had still not forgiven their sins. Such are the answers which historians seek as they attempt to put the pieces of the past in order and try to solve the riddle of who we are and how we got here. Works Cited Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom! Modern Library College ed. New York: Random House, 1936. 378. Print.
...gro Slavery tried to influence the reader all too much. Instead, Stampp preferred to let the statistics and anecdotes tell the tale which allowed both scholars and non-scholars to draw their own conclusions based upon the evidence presented. Because of this, The Peculiar Institution is an invaluable source of information regarding both the institute of slavery as well as southern culture during the ante-bellum period. Personal anecdotes as well as impersonal plantation records solidify this work as an important piece of research that seeks to present the realities of slavery to a modern audience. This impersonal presentation provides a more scholarly approach to a long sensitive topic of debate in the United States. It serves as a reminder to the modern generation of the horrors of slavery and seeks to debase the romantic notion of the paternalistic slave holder.
Hammond’s voice was very loud when it came to the issue of slavery. He was not ashamed to let everyone know how much he supported it. In 1831, Hammond became the owner of a cotton plantation called Silver Bluff. There were 147 slaves at Silver Bluff when Hammond arrived to take possession of it. They were eager to meet their new master. “Hammond had acquired seventy-four females and seventy-three males, a population with a median age of twenty-five. He would certainly have noted that forty-six, nearly a third of these slaves, were not yet fifteen, too young to be much use in the fields but a good foundation for a vigorous future labor force. Undoubtedly, too, he observed that sixty-four of the slaves were between fifteen and forty-five, the prime work years. These were the individuals upon whom Hammond would rely to plant, cultivate, and harvest the cotton and corn that would generate most of his yearly income” (Faust, 71). The rest were older slaves that couldn’t really do a lot of hard labor in the field, but they could do chores that didn’t require such demanding work ethics like watching over the children whose parents are out working in the fields.
When reading about the institution of slavery in the United States, it is easy to focus on life for the slaves on the plantations—the places where the millions of people purchased to serve as slaves in the United States lived, made families, and eventually died. Most of the information we seek is about what daily life was like for these people, and what went “wrong” in our country’s collective psyche that allowed us to normalize the practice of keeping human beings as property, no more or less valuable than the machines in the factories which bolstered industrialized economies at the time. Many of us want to find information that assuages our own personal feelings of discomfort or even guilt over the practice which kept Southern life moving
This story was set in the deep south were ownership of African Americans was no different than owning a mule. Demonstrates of how the Thirteenth Amendment was intended to free slaves and describes the abolitionist’s efforts. The freedom of African Americans was less a humanitarian act than an economic one. There was a battle between the North and South freed slaves from bondage but at a certain cost. While a few good men prophesied the African Americans were created equal by God’s hands, the movement to free African Americans gained momentum spirited by economic and technological innovations such as the export, import, railroad, finance, and the North’s desire for more caucasian immigrants to join America’s workforce to improve our evolving nation. The inspiration for world power that freed slaves and gave them initial victory of a vote with passage of the Fifteenth Amendment. A huge part of this story follows the evolution of the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment more acts for civil rights.
Cobb, James C. Away Down South: A History of Southern Identity. Oxford University Press. 2005. Print.
The issue of Slavery in the South was an unresolved issue in the United States during the seventeenth and eighteenth century. During these years, the south kept having slavery, even though most states had slavery abolished. Due to the fact that slaves were treated as inferior, they did not have the same rights and their chances of becoming an educated person were almost impossible. However, some information about slavery, from the slaves’ point of view, has been saved. In this essay, we are comparing two different books that show us what being a slave actually was. This will be seen with the help of two different characters: Linda Brent in Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl and Frederick Douglass in The Narrative of the life of Frederick
Valerie Martin’s Novel Property is an engrossing story of the wife of a slave owner and a slave, whom a mistress of the slave owner, during the late 18th century in New Orleans. Martin guides you through both, Manon Guadet and her servant Sarah’s lives, as Ms. Gaudet unhappily lives married on a plantation and Sarah unhappily lives on the plantation. Ms. Gaudet’s misserableness is derived from the misfortune of being married to a man that she despises and does not love. Sarah, the slave, is solely unhappy due to the fact that she is a slave, and has unwillingly conceived to children by Ms. Gaudiest husband, which rightfully makes Sarah a mistress. Throughout the book, Martin captivates the reader and enables you to place yourself in the characters shoes and it is almost as you can relate to how the characters are feeling.
Many plantation owners were men that wanted their plantation ran in a particular manner. They strove to have control over all aspects of their slaves’ lives. Stephanie Camp said, “Slave holders strove to create controlled and controlling landscapes that would determine the uses to which enslaved people put their bodies.” Mary Reynolds was not a house slave, but her master’s daughter had a sisterly love towards her, which made the master uncomfortable. After he sold Mary he had to buy her back for the health of his daughter. The two girls grew apart after the daughter had white siblings of her own. Mary wa...
Growing up in the South, Faulkner gives a good perspective on what it was like for
Faulkner uses the view point of an unnamed town member while he uses a third person perspective to show the general corrosion of the southern town’s people.
(1) Schwartz, David G. “The South and Slavery” History 101. University of Nevada Las Vegas. March 30, 2004
Palumbo, Donald. "The Concept of God in Faulkner's "Light in August," "The Sound and the Fury," "As I Lay Dying" and "Absalom, Absalom!"" The South Central Bulletin 39.4 (1979): 142-46. JSTOR. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
On September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, a son was born to Murry Cuthbert and Maud Butler Faulkner. This baby, born into a proud, genteel Southern family, would become a mischievous boy, an indifferent student, and drop out of school; yet “his mother’s faith in him was absolutely unshakable. When so many others easily and confidently pronounced her son a failure, she insisted that he was a genius and that the world would come to recognize that fact” (Zane). And she was right. Her son would become one of the most exalted American writers of the 20th century, winning the Nobel Prize for Literature and two Pulitzers during his lifetime. Her son was William Faulkner.
Brooks, Cleanth. "William Faulkner: Visions of Good and Evil." Faulkner, New Perspectives. Ed. Richard H. Brodhead. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1983.
Vickery, Olga. The Novels of William Faulkner: A Critical Interpretation. Bear, Man, and God. Ed, Francis Lee Utley, Lynne Bloom, Arthur F. Kinney, New York (1964); 209-212.