William Faulkner Research Paper

1770 Words4 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: William faulkners influence

If someone were to ask a random person who William Faulkner was could the person tell them? William Faulkner was a well-known novelist and poet. Shaping him as a writer William Faulkner’s troubled, yet talented background, time during Great Depression, and poetry and novels made him a memorable writer. William’s troubles and talents started as a child. William Cuthbert Faulkner was born September 5, 1897 (Padgett Web) in New Albany, Mississippi (Polk Web). He was the oldest of four brothers, and was named after his great grandfather.
His parents were Maud and Murray Falkner (Padgett Web). His father, Murray, would spend much time with William, but when he was not, he was drinking. Murray was very hostile when drunk. Though, much of …show more content…

He would learn from his mistakes and make himself better, but there is an old writer he admired, John Conrad. Conrad would layer his stories putting stories inside of stories. An example of Conrad doing this is Heart of Darkness. In Conrad’s book Victory, he tells the story through the narrator but not knowing the protagonist, this technique also made William very interested. He even “borrowed” some of these writing styles for himself so his stories in the south would be better (“William” Web). William ended his writing career successfully. In January of 1962, he won the Gold Medal for Fiction from Eudora Welty. Finally, he again won the Pulitzer Prize in 1962 for his last novel The Reivers (Padgett Web). I do not think William was greatly affected by the Great Depression in his story The Sound and the Fury. His story was about the south and all the reason why they were suffering. The time period of the depression did not affect most of his writings. The person could tell them yes now, because the person knows that William Faulkner was a well-known poet and novelist. His troubled, yet talented background, time during Great Depression, and poetry and novels shaped him as a writer, making him a memorable

Show More
Related

  • Writers of the 1920's

    483 Words  | 1 Pages

    William Cuthbert Faulkner was born into a financially stable family from New Albany, Mississippi. Faulkner dropped out of high school to work in his grandfathers store. While at the store Faulkner found out he enjoyed writing. Faulkner enrolled at U of Mississippi to pursue his his passion of writing. ("William Faulkner",Discovering Authors)

    Read More

  • William Faulkner’s Barn Burning and A Rose for Emily

    1159 Words  | 3 Pages

    Padgett, John B. "MWP: William Faulkner (1897-1962)." The University of Mississippi. 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 1 Apr. 2011. .

    Read More

  • William Faulkner’s An Odor of Verbena – An Act of Courage

    1561 Words  | 4 Pages

    William Faulkner’s short story "An Odor of Verbena" is the tale of a young, Southern man, Baynard Sartoris, who must come to terms with his father’s sudden (but not entirely unexpected) murder. Because this murder takes place in the decade following the Civil War, young Baynard is faced with the South’s ancient honorary code. This code dictates that, as the only son of his father, he must avenge this death. Should Baynard fail to retaliate on his father’s behalf by confronting the murderer, Redmond, who once was his father’s business partner, both Baynard and his family would lose face within their community.

    Read More

  • Response to the Film William Faulkner: a Life on Paper

    492 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Sound and the Fury

    2566 Words  | 6 Pages

    The author of The Sound and the Fury is William Faulkner. He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi. After dropping out of high school, Faulkner pursued his studies at the University of Mississippi. And he was a member of England’s Royal Navy in World War I.

    Read More

  • Making a Difference In Our World: William Randolph Hearst

    885 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...earst has had a great influence on our American society with all of the great things that he has done. Starting with his childhood William had an outstanding family to support him in his ever interested mind in the field of journalism. Williams father had gave him one of the biggest things in his life , the newspaper company which gave William something to start with , and he blossomed in to a huge owner of many newspaper companies. Williams’s impact on our society is tremendous. Just image not walking out to your mail box, or opening up your internet in your computer, and not seeing the news. Without William Hearst none of this really would have happened. William Randolph Hearst stayed efficiently remembered through his family and personal life, too his economic and industrial pursuit to the newspaper chains, and lastly his wonderful impact on our society today.

    Read More

  • Faulkner The Quintessential Southern Writer

    1185 Words  | 3 Pages

    As a child, Faulkner was well aware of his family background, especially the notoriety of his great-grandfather who had moved to the Mississippi Delta from Tennessee in 1841 (Zane). William Clark Faulkner was a Civil War Colonel, a lawyer, a planter, a politician, a railroad entrepreneur, and a best-selling novelist best known for The White Rose of Memphis. He died in the streets of Ripley, Mississippi, where a former business partner he had forced out of his railroad gunned him down (Padgett). While Faulkner had never met his great-grandfather, he was a powerful influence. When his third grade teacher asked what he wanted to be when he grew up, the young William replied “I want to be a writer like my great-granddaddy”(Padgett).

    Read More

  • The Life and Works of Tennessee Williams

    910 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... of American literature. Tennessee Williams’ talent and his story will never be forgotten. He paved a new path for those who may be facing the same struggles he did. The greatness of Tennessee Williams will live on to inspire other people in time.

    Read More

  • William Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury

    1107 Words  | 3 Pages

    In William Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury, Caddy Compson is the anchor character because Faulkner himself is so obsessed with her that he is unable bring her down off a platform enough to write words for her. Instead, he plays out his obsession by using her brothers as different parts of himself through which to play out his fantasies and interact with her. Faulkner writes himself into the novel by creating male characters all based on aspects of his own personality. In Freud's personality theory the human personality is composed of three parts; the id, the ego and the superego. (Freud 17) By writing about Caddy from her three brothers' perspectives, Faulkner is able to use each brother as a vessel for expressing his different personal feelings about the character Caddy.

    Read More

  • Edgar Allan Poe

    813 Words  | 2 Pages

    “All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream” (Poe). This is a quote commonly taught in English and literature books worldwide. It was written by Edgar Allan Poe in one of his most famous poems “A Dream within a Dream”. He is considered one of the most prestigious poets in early American culture, and surely left an imprint on the way our world sees different works in the English language. He was a true scholar who put plenty of intellectual, yet eerie plots into all of his writings, which made him a fan favorite. He is so easily recognized by people by the creepy feeling you get when reading some of his poetry. Poe is easily a memorable poet in American history because of is intriguing life story, unforgettable death, mysterious work of literature “The Raven,” and his influence on the modern world of arts.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Faulkner Short Stories

    1044 Words  | 3 Pages

    In each of these stories, Faulkner communicates to the reader through very strange characters. In “Was”, we hear of a story that basically stems around a runaway slave. The two Uncles are very stereotypical. The other owner was also very stereotypical. Basically, in this story, the white men are trying to apprehend a slave that has run off to see his girl. However, the story then progresses into a standoff between the white owners. They bet each other on very arbitrary matters until finally, though the previous bets did hold some weight, the men turn to a deck of cards to settle their disputes. The ironic aspect of all of this is that they end up betting on the lives of the slaves. So, in order to prove their superiority over each other, they use their slaves as leverage. This was one of the times I felt that Faulkner was trying to illustrate the fact that these people seemed hopelessly lost in the old Southern way. What was also very interesting though is that they seemed to treat the slaves fairly humanely. First of all, if a slave had run off in early times, they probably would have beaten him or killed him. Here though, it is a kind of game. It’s a race to see who can get him first. Faulkner also throws into the story the woman who seems to be in love with one of the uncles. This too, was very clever because the new “southern Belle” was also being communicated to the reader. The Uncles though, are bachelors, perhaps signifying the dying southern gentleman, who is unable to deal with his past, and who will lead his genre of people to extinction. All in all, I liked this story. I didn’t see Faulkner as a racist and I didn’t see any of his charact...

    Read More

  • Faulkner's Human Spirit

    2633 Words  | 6 Pages

    William Faulkner accepted his Nobel Peace Prize in December 1950. During his acceptance speech, Faulkner proclaimed that the award was made not to him as a man, but to his life’s work, which was created, “out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before.” (PF ) He felt that the modern writer had lost connection to his spirit and that he must reconnect with the universal truths of the heart—“love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.” (PF ) Through his characters voice and exposure of their spirit, Faulkner solidified man’s immortality 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.”(PF ) Although some critics have characterized his work as violet, dealing with immoral themes and the miseries and brutality of life; it can be argued that even his most sad and depraved characters express positive virtues and personal strengths, even if by a negative example. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the portrayal and manifestation of the human spirit in a select few of William Faulkner’s literary characters, showing that they possess both human strength and flaws.

    Read More

  • William Faulkner: Southern Culture

    948 Words  | 2 Pages

    If you could describe the idea of Southern Culture in fewer than three words? The author William Faulkner uses a special way to establish a perspective by way of imagery which helps the reader to visualize his views. Faulkner has ways of viewing regular ideas in a more abstract less conventional way. Faulkner has a unique perspective on Southern Culture, to explain what Faulkner explains as broken he uses imagery. He uses the imagery of a relation between characters along with a scent that allows for a sense of inspiration.

    Read More

  • The Life and Works of Tennessee Williams

    1835 Words  | 4 Pages

    The sudden move to St. Louis affected Williams greatly (Madden). Tennessee Williams fell ill around the age of twelve (Rade). Edwina Williams forced Williams in to reclusion. During his illness Williams changed completely. He went from a tough kid to a recluse that sat in his room alone. Williams’s imagination ran wild while he sat in his room. His imagination turned into writing. Also, the shy sixteen year old Williams had troubles communicating to people. He always would blush whenever he made any eye contact (Williams). In school he wrote everything down because of his fear to talk (Rade). He feared his father greatly; when his father made him work for his shoe company as a teeneager, Williams fell into depression. The depression led Williams into writing more as a child.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast I Wandered Lonely As A Cloud By William Wordsworth

    889 Words  | 2 Pages

    William Wordsworth is a British poet who is associated with the Romantic movement of the early 19th century. Wordsworth was born on April 7, 1770, in Cockermouth, Cumberland, England. Wordsworth’s mother died when he was seven years old, and he was an orphan at 13. This experience shapes much of his later work. Despite Wordsworth’s losses, he did well at Hawkshead Grammar School, where he firmly established his love of poetry. After Hawkshead, Wordsworth studied at St. John’s College in Cambridge and before his final semester, he set out on a walking tour of Europe, an experience that influenced both his poetry.

    Read More

More about William Faulkner Research Paper

Open Document