Faulkner opens his acceptance speech by establishing himself as a humble and modest person, acknowledging that the Nobel Prize, “was not made to me as a man, but to my work.”(line 1) He appeals to the audience by dedicating his speech to the young men and women of the time. Faulkner proceeds by questioning people’s willingness to write with raw emotion, declaring that the tension caused by the Red Fear and Cold War does not nullify a writer’s ability to use the old verities and truths of the heart in their writing. Using his own work as an example, Faulkner argues that in order for a piece of literature to be valuable it must illuminate the universal truths, and embrace the verities of love, honor, pity, pride, compassion, and sacrifice. Expanding
on this idea, Faulkner points out that instead of living in fear, he used the tension of the Cold War Era as motivation to enhance the expression in his writing, as if he may die tomorrow. He exhorts, however, that instead of writing about the negativity surrounding the Cold War Era- particularly the potential end of mankind- writing should focus more on positive topics, such as how man will survive and prevail. Faulkner concludes his speech by implicating that it is the writer’s privilege to, “help man endure by lifting his heart,”(lines 26-27) and reminding him that he has a, “soul, a spirit, capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance.”(lines 25-26)
Upon listening and reading William Faulkner's Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, it is immediately deduced that he provides his vast audience of the epitome of himself. William Faulkner is not someone, but everyone. His humanistic approach to writing and thought has allowed him to hide complexity within simplicity, and for this, he is memorable: his work is a true testament to the unbreakable nature of the human spirit in the face of enormous hardship and consequence; a look into the human mind that is simultaneously interesting and uninteresting. This, along with so much more, is prevalent in this speech, which perfectly conveys the responsibilities of the writers in 1949.
In the 1930s, the time of the Great Depression, most Americans were struggling merely to survive while a select few hoarded the collective wealth of the nation. A man named Huey P. Long stands out from many other politicians and promoted economic equality across Americans. In his speech “Every Man a King,” he blames the rich for the strife of the poor. As a lawyer from a poor agricultural community, Long became the advocate for farmers in Louisiana.
In the "Letter from a Birmingham Jail", Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. responds to an article by eight clergymen, in which he explains the racial injustice in Birmingham, and reasons why King's organization is protesting for Civil Rights. He introduces himself and his actions at the beginning of his letter. He states that the purpose of his direct action protest is to open the door for negotiation on the Civil Rights. He tries to convince his audience by providing evidence in order to gain his audience to be involved in his movement and support him. He also highlights police actions against nonviolent Negros and crimes against humanity in Birmingham city jail.
On December 10, 1950, in Stockholm, Sweden, one of the greatest literary minds of the twentieth century, William Faulkner, presented his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize. If one reads in between the lines of this acceptance speech, they can detect a certain message – more of a cry or plead – aimed directly to adolescent authors and writers, and that message is to be the voice of your own generation; write about things with true importance. This also means that authors should include heart, soul, spirit, and raw, truthful emotion into their writing. “Love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice” (Faulkner) should all be frequently embraced – it is the duty of authors to do so. If these young and adolescent authors ignore this message and duty, the already endangered state of literature will continue to diminish until its unfortunate extinction.
On March 15th, 1965, Lyndon B. Johnson delivered the, “We Shall Overcome” speech to the American Congress. Johnson demonstrated many rhetorical strategies, and used various poetic devices throughout his oration. Johnson did a great job of establishing a connection with his audience, which allowed for him to simply promote his ideas. Throughout his speech, he talked a lot about American pride and conveyed a strong sense of Nationalism. His speech was structured in a unique way, which allowed for his it to flourish and be very effective.
Portrayed as a Southern demagogue, Huey Long, who was also known as King Fish, was a major character on the American political stage around 1930s, an era during the Greate Depression that brought a worldwide economic crisis; many people lost their jobs. According to Frank, Robert H. and Bernanke, Ben S., 25% of American lost their jobs at that time. Huey Long was good at raising his audience’s anger towards the rich. Unlike some Southern demagogues, Huey Long did not criticize African-Americans to seek support from racists; his target was always the rich. He said, “It is the fact that the rich people of this country – and by rich people I mean super rich – will not allow us to solve the problems” (Para 4). During the Depression, when many people lost their jobs and had trouble with supporting their family, the rich easily became the target of their anger. Huey
While I was watching the documentary William Faulkner, a Life on Paper I found it striking how the different people that were interviewed talked about two different sides of the author William Faulkner. His daughters, Jill Faulkner Sommers and his stepdaughter, spoke mainly about his alcohol abuse and his moodiness whereas Faulkner’s contemporaries from Oxford underlined Faulkner’s generosity and kindness. The documentary shows Faulkner not only as father of Jill and his stepdaughter but also as a father figure for many others. He had to take care of several families at once. At one point Faulkner had seventeen dependents to provide for. Many of the people that were interviewed describe Faulkner as being very generous and always willing to help others even when he had almost nothing himself. One special example is his brother Dean who died in an airplane accident and because Faulkner had bought the plane he apparently felt guilty about the death of his brother for the rest of his life as his sister-in-law says in the interview.
The commencement speech given by David Foster Wallace in the autumn of 2005, is a very deep speech that examines the whole idea of a Liberal Arts education at an extremely deep and intellectual level. In the 22 minute long speech Wallace talks about how higher education not only teaches you to think but “how to exercise some control over how and what you think.” (Wallace). Wallace later in his speech stresses the importance of this level of thinking by saying “if you cannot exercise this kind of choice in adult life, you will be totally hosed” (Wallace) What he means by saying this is that if you cannot think at a higher level and make sense of real world problems your life will become meaningless and you will become dead inside your head.
Of the many truly inspirational speeches given by African Americans, Booker T. Washington’s The Atlanta Exposition Address is one of the few that intends to achieve compromise. In his speech, Washington is trying to persuade an audience composed significantly of white men to support African Americans by granting them jobs and presenting them with opportunities. His goal is to convince his white audience that African Americans will be supplied with jobs lower than those of white men, allowing white men always to be on top. Booker T. Washington’s The Atlanta Exposition Address adopts a tone of acquiescence and compromise to persuade a predominantly white audience to accept his terms.
Brooks, Cleanth. "William Faulkner: Visions of Good and Evil." Faulkner, New Perspectives. Ed. Richard H. Brodhead. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey : Prentice-Hall, 1983.
Faulkner, William. "A Rose for Emily." Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing. Ed. Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. Compact 4th ed. Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers, 2000. 81 - 88.
Growing up in Mississippi in the late Nineteenth Century and the early part of the Twentieth Century, young William Faulkner witnessed first hand the struggles his beloved South endured through their slow progression of rebuilding. These experiences helped to develop Faulkner’s writing style. “Faulkner deals almost exclusively with the Southern scene (with) the Civil War … always behind his work” (Warren 1310. His works however are not so much historical in nature but more like folk lore. This way Faulkner is not constrained to keep details accurate, instead he manipulate the story to share his on views leading the reader to conclude morals or lessons from his experience. Faulkner writes often and “sympathetically of the older order of the antebellum society. It was a society that valued honor, (and) was capable of heroic action” (Brooks 145) both traits Faulkner admired. These sympathetic views are revealed in the story “A Rose for Emily” with Miss Emily becoming a monument for the Antebellum South.
In William Faulkner’s “Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature,” he asserted, “It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past” (Faulkner). Humans, by nature, are capable of achieving the unimaginable. However, individuals often do not believe very strongly in this ability. While they possess the potential, many people do not have enough determination to reach toward their goals and “not merely endure: prevail” (Faulkner). As expressed by Faulkner, writers hold the duty to motivate their readers in an optimistic way. Although many individuals believe that the “writer’s duty” is primarily
Hoffman, F. J. and Vickery, O. W. William Faulkner: Three Decades of Criticism. New York, Harbinger, 1960.
William Faulkner is recognized as of the greatest American novelists and is also noted as one of the greatest novelists of world literature. William Faulkner was awarded a Nobel Prize for his powerful and artistic contribution to American literature through his career. William Faulkner gave his speech on December 10, 1950 in Stockholm, Sweden, but he did not just accept this award with gratitude and honor. Instead, William Faulkner’s speech would speak volumes for writers and readers for many centuries to come. Faulkner goes beyond accepting the award on his behalf, and turns the focus to mankind as a whole. Faulkner captivated the attention of his audience by relaying helpful advice to expand the abilities of readers and writers. “He writes not of love but lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and, worst of all, without pity or compassion”(Faulkner 1).William Faulkner stated that literature must come with love and spark from the heart. William Faulkner’s acceptance speech of the Nobel Prize is a highly noted speech and is an overall view of how writing is enhanced with focus on man’s inner struggle. Faulkner pushes young writers not to just write about common tragedies man experiences, but of the emotional capabilities of the human spirit. Faulkner inspired writers to stray away from just telling information and a story, but also by adding an emotional meaning to the text. William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize conveys an everlasting message to the world of literature. Through parallelism, ethical and emotional appeal, and his own sense of writing, Faulkner improved the abilities from writers then, and even still to this day.