Soldiers Pay Research Paper

William Cuthbert Faulkner’s writing career began to commence when his best friend Phil Stone took a piece of Faulkner’s work, The Marble Faun to a publisher in 1924, shortly after this he traveled to New Orleans and began writing essays for a local magazine called The Double Dealer. These works were not published and did not receive much attention. However, in 1926, Faulkner published his first novel titled Soldiers Pay. This novel is more of a romance centered around a soldier who recently arrived home from World War One to marry his fiance, but there are numerousness obstacles in the immature, betrothed couples way. Initially, soldiers pay was considered to be a commercial failure because it sold less than 1,200 copies, but subsequently, he was awarded a Nobel prize for this novel. During his acceptance speech he said, “I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work” (‘William Faulkner”). Presently, copies of this novel are valued at more that 35,00$.

In addition to Soldiers Pay, faulkner published one of his more controversial novels, Sanctuary in 1931.

This novel focuses on the kidnapping and raping of a young women at Ole Miss. Critics often refer to this novel as being very dark, and showing a true vile mentality. As a matter of fact, Sanctuary had to be rewritten in order to moderate violence. This seemed to be the turning point of his career, this novel was considered a commercial success. As a result, Faulkner provided a sequel to this novel called Requiem for a Nun released in 1950. During this time, his previous partner, Estelle Oldham had divorced her husband. The two were still deeply in love with each other, within six months the couple were happily married. This same year, his wife gave birth to their first child, named Alabama. Unfortunately, the baby was born premature and died within a week. Faulkner wrote about this occurrence in thirteen short stories titled These 13, dedicated to “Estelle and

Abraham”.
Due to Faulkner’s upbringing in Oxford Mississippi during pre-civil war, he experienced the more gruesome detail of the struggle to end slavery. In fact, Faulkner was partially raised by a black women he called “mammy”. Numerous amounts of his novels seem to contain small hints of empathy towards African Americans than one would assume from his southern origins As a result, readers believe this is why he speaks out on racial issues very frequently. For example, in his novel Light in August, he again, touches on polemical matters like slavery, racial issues, and civil rights. This story, like many of his novels, is set in Yoknapatawpha County, this fictional place is almost identical to his hometown, Oxford Mississippi. Light in August is still one of his most famed novels, it's was listed in Times Magazine as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1923 to 2005. Critics described it as ”a novel that contrasts stark tragedy with hopeful perseverance in the face of mortality, features some of Faulkner’s most memorable characters” (Faulkner). Though Light in August was such a success, Faulkner’s most prominent and well known novel is Sound of the Fury, it was also listed as one of the 100 best English-language novels from 1932 to 2005.
In the early 1930s, Faulkner bought a Waco cabin aircraft, which he gave to his younger brother Dean. Faulkner often encouraged Dean to become a pilot, and eventually, Dean acceded and began practicing as a pilot, tragically, later that year, Dean Faulkner died in a plane. In 1936, Absalom Absalom was published, Many critics speculate that this novel contained strong emotions from his brother's death, but these accusations have never be proven entirely true. Dean died only a few months before his first child was born, leaving William to supersede the place of a father figure to deans child, also named Dean in her father's memory.
William Faulkner died on July 6, 1962 of a heart attack, coincidentally, this was the same day of his great grandfather. William Faulkner still remains to be a superior novelist of the twentieth century, and is held in high regard in the rural American south. Contemporary readers including critics, teachers, and scholars have celebrated faulkner's less defensive attitude towards the basics, southern beliefs. “Faulkner’s literary reputation remains as high as it was at his death, perhaps higher” (Mississippi).