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The Effect of Cultural and Historical Situations on American Literature (2016)
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The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner, is an excellent representation of culture change in America during the 1920s. The interaction between the Black servants and their white employers portray a sense of the feeling that the South was going through because they knew that times were changing, aristocracy was slowly diminishing and Modernism was rapidly rising. One of the strongest characters in the novel is Dilsey, who narrates the last part of the novel. She is represented as a grandmother figure, a black servant to the Compson family. Dilsey was present when the Compson family rose to power and remains during their downward spiral. Dilsey also represents a deeper meaning for the novel, she represents the modern era which is soon rising during the time, the progressive and liberal culture. She plays three different roles in the novel which relate to the Compson family and through these roles one can see the cultural change. Dilsey plays the authoritative role in the Compson house, she is seen as maternal figure for the Compson children, and finally Dilsey is symbol of hope for the Compson family.
Dilsey takes on the authoritative role in the Compson household which is seen throughout the novel, especially the last section where she is narrating and everything is in her point of view. Regardless of being a black woman, Dilsey has an honourable status in the house. Yes, there are times when she gets ill-treated by Mrs. Compson, Jason, or Miss. Quentin, but they listen to her nonetheless. There are times when Dilsey outright defies Jason and scolds him off. This is shown most clearly in the last section of the novel where Jason tells Dilsey to go wake Miss. Quentin up but Dilsey rejects him and tells him that Sunday i...
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...inferiors and their status was nothing more than that of servant, if nothing less. Dilsey on the other hand, held a more honourable position and status in the Compson household. Even talking to her properly at one time would be considered awkward, much less giving out commands and talking back, as Dilsey dares to do. Through Dilsey, the novel and Faulkner himself represent the time changes and the cultural changes that the aristocratic, traditional society went through, and transformed into the liberal, progressive society like the North, where slavery was seen as a morally wrong deed, obviously. The Compsons did not like the changes that were occurring but were forced to accept and go along because they had nothing else to lose and rely on. Dilsey holds a very strong presence in the novel and through it, a reader can truly see how times were then and how it is now.
Family is a story about slaves, masters of the land, and the interconnectedness of what it means to be “family”. Loretta is the daughter of the Master of the Land and as a child spends time with Sun even teaching him to read. She was going against the law in doing this and she helped him to escape. Loretta was not a mean person; she risked a lot for Sun and truly cared about him. She knew he was her half-brother and treated him with respect. When Sun left he promised he would send for her, but he never did. He sent letters asking how his sisters were and she became jealous. Loretta had power over the slaves because she was the white daughter of the master and as she grew more jealous and learned the ranks in society she changed. She took out her anger and jealousy out on Peach, Plum, and Always. She became evil and all the goodness in her heart was gone. Due to the experiences in her life, she adapted to accommodate for her jealousy and to take on the role of Mistress of the Land. Under different circumstances in a different time period this might not have been the outcome. As a chil...
Waller. When Dele was consoling the mother while giving birth she says I won let nothing to bad happen to you. This speaks volumes although could easily be overlooked. This says that this woman knows that in this newborn child’s live she will have many hardships and suffer immensely, but she ill her best to protect her. As a slave the child will be forced to endure dehumanizing things and be subjugated to feelings of inadequately, but will have to suffer through it in order for her not to be killed or sold. Dele talking to the unborn baby saying she will try her hardest for not to have to take so much , but still knows because of skin color there is not much she really can do to protect her. Then the wanting of a boy slave by Mr. Waller shows the greed that was the slavery. Woman, although being able to produce more slaves, was not worth as much as an able bodied male. The truly cruel part comes when he takes the baby deeming her worthless putting fear in the heart of the mother and Dele for what he might do to the child. The initial reaction of Dele was begging for him to spare the child as she seems to start undressing, unbuttoning the top of her shirt. This demonstrate that the slave master has possibly inappropriately approached or raped Dele in the past though not actually expressed in the movie. Her offering
A key theme in William Faulkner’s novel The Sound and the Fury is the deterioration of the Compson family. May Brown focuses on this theme and explains that Quentin is the best character to relate the story of a family torn apart by” helplessness, perversion, and selfishness.” In his section, there is a paradoxical mixture of order and chaos which portrays the crumbling world that is the core of this novel.
The protagonist of this story is Miss Emily Grierson, an old maid spinster without family who becomes a “tradition” and a “sort of hereditary obligation upon the town” (Faulkner 299). The story begins with the death of Miss Emily, so I will rearrange my analysis of the character to begin with what we first know about Miss Emily.
Most importantly, slavery impacted many slaves lives including Sethe’s in a very unfortunate and negative way. Dying slowly and being worked to death was very unpleasant that’s why death was preferred. Another example that demonstrates Sethe’s concern for her children’s lives is, “‘Dead.’ ‘Aw no. When?’ ‘Eight years now. Almost nine.’ ‘Was it hard? I hope she didn't die hard.’ Sethe shook her head. ‘Soft as cream. Being alive was the hard part…(Morrison 4).” Sethe’s point is that the most hard thing about life was living. Slavery was not deserved to be brought upon anyone. This is is significant because it indicates that it is more challenging to be alive as a slave than being dead. Subjecting her children to what she went through at Sweet Home was the last thing Sethe wanted for her children. Furthermore another example is, “‘It ain't my job to know what's worse. It's my job to know what is and to keep them away from what I know is terrible. I did that’(Morrison 165).” In other words, Sethe didn’t compare what was right and what was wrong. She knew straight forward what was best for her children. This comes to much attention because as a mother, Sethe’s protection towards her children exemplifies that slavery is a worse fate than
Mrs. Auld became aggressive and opposing towards Douglass's reading because Mr. Auld told her to stop teaching Douglass. The issue is that because of the time frame of it being the 1800's-1850's women had to follow orders from men. Coming back to Mrs. Auld she was told what to do by Mr. Auld and therefore followed orders. In order for her to do so she had to completely change the person she was, the way her soul was by training, lying and justifying her actions with an extreme denial coping mechanism, cognitive dissonance.
In this passage, Douglass starts off by introducing us to his mistress. He describes her as “a woman of the kindest heart and finest feelings”and states “she had never had a slave under her control previously to myself.” This statement conveys a sense of excitement and newness. Because his new mistress lacks experience in slavery, Douglass doesn’t know what to expect from her, and believes that he will not be treated as harshly as compared to previous owners. In addition, Douglass perceives the mistress’s naivety as as lack of exposure to the”dehumanizing effects of slavery.
William Faulkner uses multiple narrators throughout The Sound and the Fury to depict the life of Caddy Compson without telling the story from her point-of-view. Benjy, a mentally disabled 33 year old, Quentin, a troubled and suicidal Harvard student, and Jason, a racist and greedy man, each give their drastically different sides of Caddy’s story to create an incomplete chronicle of her life. Faulkner’s first chapter explores Caddy’s life through the silent narrator Benjy. As a result of Benjy’s inability to talk, much of how he describes the world is through his heightened sensory awareness. Benjy constantly repeats the fact that, which, to Benjy, symbolizes Caddy’s innocence (Faulkner 6). Later in the novel when, Benjy realizes that Caddy has lost the innocence Benjy once idolized and loved (Faulkner 40).
Dee is seeking an altered life versus the way her mother anticipated when raising on her a farm in rural Georgia and seemingly has been doing so since a young age. Dee longs for an existence full of culture, sophistication, luxury, and edification that her sister and mother are unaccustomed with. Dee’s philosophies and self-image are scorned almost as if she is an foreigner encroaching on her mother’s and Maggie’s simple farm life. In some respects, it almost seems as if the character, Dee, is a bit of a representation of Walker’s own young self-perception and perhaps what Walker thought of her own family’s judgment of her when visiting home in rural Georgia.
“Aspiring minds must sometime sustain loss.” This quote said by Plato exemplifies the fact that in life, every individual has at least one major battle that they must overcome. Within the Puritan society setting in the novel “The Scarlet Letter”, the rules and regulation on the small town are extremely rigid. Therefore, when the reader finds out that Hester has committed adultery they see how sin was not acceptable in any form at this time. The person whom Hester committed adultery with is Reverend Dimmsdale. Pearl, the product of the sin committed, is more closely associated with Hester. On the other hand Chillingworth is more closely associated with Reverend Dimmsdale. Pearl is a living reminder everyday for Hester about the sin she committed. Chillingworth’s torturing of Dimmesdale affects both Dimmesdale and Hester. It affects Dimmesdale mentally because it helps him realize the severity of the sin and it affects Hester because she is in love with Dimmesdale.
As a result of his want to read and write Douglass experienced hatred from his teacher, hatred for himself, and hatred at the world. What’s eye opening about his mistress’ condition of hatred is that it was made stronger by spreading enlightenment or by teaching Douglass; as Douglass says she went from being “pious, warm, and tender-hearted” (191), to being “more violent in her opposition (to his education) than her husband himself” (191). Thus the consequences of pursuing enlightenment are double-edged. By Douglass pursuing his desire in earnest, he inadvertently took a woman from grace to
There is a sense that the women have been thrust into an environment that is not complimentary to their quality. Rosa Coldfield is “strong with forty-three years of hate,” against a world that has wronged her (the world of the South) with its male insistence that “if you haven’t got honor and pride, then nothing matters” (Faulkner 279). What Rosa has is emotion, true reaction, feelings, instinct. In the realm of the South, the instinct of emotion and truth is something that runs behind honor and pride, its presence fully realized and known but not given credibility over hierarchy: “Only there is something in you that doesn’t care about honor and pride yet that lives, that even walks backward for a whole year just to live” (279). The inner struggle of the South sets forth a destructive trap that derives from the arbitrarily enforced systems of male creation, especially honor and pride, that are not only based in domination but also in a false sense of hierarchy.
Within the novel, Sarny, the main character reveals one of the many methods of slave suppression. Early in the text, she mentions how she never knew her birth mother. This unfortunately, was the reality for the majority of slaves. As stated in an excerpt from Narrative of Frederick Douglass, ¨...before the child has reached its twelfth month, its mother is taken from it. And hired out on some farm a considerable distance off, the child is placed under the care of an old woman, too old for field labor...to blunt and destroy the natural affection of the mother for the child.¨ Frequently, this practice acted as the destruction of rising family powers in slave communities. Slave owners knew affinity would ultimately result in the inability to suppress African-American families. Sarny describes how her mother was taken away from her at the age of four, therefore she was put under care by a woman named Delie, or as the characters refer to her, ¨Mammy.¨ With the inclusion of this aspect of slavery, Nightjohn proves itself a very true-to-life telling of slavery. Despite the lack of affection, many slaves managed to form bonds with the other slaves in their community. When their mother and father figures were taken away from them, the managed to create new ones. Sarny, on one hand, learned to love Delie as though she was her
From experiencing this sense of ownership over the slaves, it ultimately had an impact on her self identity. Although one does not know her genuine emotions towards this situation and if she wants to return to when she was not aware, it is certainly clear that her current state as a human being is not in a favorable condition.Douglass also personally experienced a similar situation in which he expressed, “...I would at times feel that learning to read had been a curse rather than a blessing. It had given me a view of my wretched condition, without the remedy” (Douglass 35). This implies that Douglass rather regrets possessing the ability to read though it was initially considered as a blessing. It is predominantly due to the reason that he is now able to comprehend the reality of his life and his current condition as a slave. It signifies that he was not expecting to face the truth of reality, but rather simply desired to grasp how society worked. Still through this identification, he is able to acknowledge how he has transformed as a person. His ability to read had a greater emotional impact that essentially stimulated the emotion of regret which ironically made this trait undesirable when he had previously longed for
During the 1930s social inequality was widespread for marginalized groups in the south. The author puts the reader into a situation where Scout the main character in the book is learning about discrimination from her father. In To Kill A Mockingbird Harper Lee incorporates dialogue to illustrate one of the themes in the book; equality. Her father is a very important mentor to Scout and teaches her about equality, which she learns this through her small conversations with her dad.