...------------------------------------------------- William Faulkner William Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter. Most of Faulkner's works are set in his native state of Mississippi. He is considered one of the most important Southern writers along withMark Twain, Robert Penn Warren, Flannery O'Connor, Truman Capote, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams. While his work was published regularly starting in the mid 1920s, Faulkner was relatively unknown before receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. Since then, he has often been cited as one of the most important writers in the history of American literature. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Biography Born William Cuthbert Falkner in New Albany, Mississippi, he was the eldest son of Murry Cuthbert Falkner (August 17, 1870 – August 7, 1932) and Maud Butler (November 27, 1871 – October 16, 1960). He later changed the spelling of his name to Faulkner. His brothers were Murry Charles "Jack" Falkner (June 26, 1899 – December 24, 1975), author John Falkner (later Faulkner) (September 24, 1901 – March 28, 1963) and Dean Swift Falkner (August 15, 1907 – November 10, 1935). Faulkner was raised in and heavily influenced by the state...
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...As I Lay Dying Children are, by nature, products of their parents. For better or for worse, children learn from their parents and the way they are treated growing up. According to Mitch Albom, author of The Five People You Meet in Heaven, “All parents damage their children. It cannot be helped.” In William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying, the patriarch of the Bundren family, Anse, damaged his children through his selfish and lazy nature. Right from the beginning, readers can gather that Anse is just plain lazy. He is quick to put his children to work, because he claims that “if he ever sweats, he will die” (Faulkner 16). Cash is the one to slave over his dying mother’s coffin, and Darl and Jewel leave to work, and miss their mother’s death....
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...The novel, As I Lay Dying, has many conflicts. Choose one conflict in the novel and, in a well-developed essay, explore the sources of the conflict and how it contributes to the meaning of the novel as a whole. It is not the destination that matters, but the journey itself, as the proverb goes. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner explores the hectic journey of the Bundrens as they seek to bury their mother, and valuable lessons are learned along the way. The origins of their journey lead the family to understand that while each person has a different personality and some personalities cooperate better than others, such a relationship cannot be forced. In this case, death is the catalyst which forces the family to embark on their tumultuous...
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...William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying breaks the facticity of literary convention by constructing a storyline that asserts a conflict in the reader rather than predominately within the characters. The basic conflict that sets forth thematic conflict of the distinction of facts and truth within the nature of the mind is of a Southern decaying family’s attempt to bring their mother home for burial. Faulkner narrates each character’s singular point of view to show the result of the multitude of subjective interpretations as each character deals with their emotions engendered by the events. The reader is unsure as to which imitated perspective is objective towards the truth. Faulkner’s narration of imitating events from a different stand point develops an arguing conflict of what is thought to be an established nature of mind. As I Lay Dying is a conflict of the conceptual idea of truth. It can be interpreted that the conflict of the narrative is a conflict of our beings – whether or not there is such a thing as unprejudiced truth. Within the beginning narratives, the characters reveal their corruptions that will obscure their interpretations: including adultery, pregnancy, abortion, hatred, and insanity. Using multiple views promotes the isolation each family member’s internal conflicts in relation to their response to their mother’s death, relationships, and own seemingly selfish concerns. The reader begins to see the instability of their isolation when the Faulkner establishes...
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...Analyzing Characterization In As I Lay Dying In William Faulkner’s, As I Lay Dying, characters create themselves through their narrations of the event of their Addie’s death. The novel relies on characters for narration and own character development. In a way, the characters expose themselves in the novels and the novel becomes a form of “reflective characterization.” The narrations give insight to the characters personality by the syntax, imagery, stream of consciousness they employ. Often each narrative also offers a different perspective of another character or affirms the self-characterization of another character. Darl, who narrates most of the story, seems to be the most cerebral character. Darl’s character is particularly interesting because he is indeed mad in some ways but yet he is also the healthiest and most realistic of all Bundrens. He has a strange sense of what’s going on like that of Benjamin Compsons in The Sound and the Fury. He senses Addie’s death even though he and Jewel were getting lumber at the time of her death. He also knew that Dewey Dell was pregnant and that Jewel was an illegitimate son. Dewey Dells narration also supports Darl’s psychic abilities. Like Benjamin, he has the ability to communicate without words. After going into the secret shade with Lafe, Dell realizes that Darl knows what she has done. “I saw Darl and he knew. He said he knew without the worlds like he told me that ma was going to die without words,” (page 26). In a moving scene...
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...Darl’s Sanity. Was He Really Crazy? In William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying, the reader is met with Darl Bundren, one of five children Addie Bundren has birthed. From the start, Darl presents himself as a philosophical character with curious ideas and a strange mind. Often throughout the novel, he asks very strange and disturbing questions. By the end, Darl could be declared insane as he talks to himself on the train and that would be the end of the discussion. But is Darl really mentally insane? Or is there a deeper reason to his actions and words that led to the ultimatum of his departure on the train to Jackson? Darl shows signs of psychological disorders which at that time was a strange and unspoken concept with little access to help....
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...Topic n.1 As I lay dying… is a really eccentric novel written by William Faulkner. Faulkner likes to play in his work with human stupidity and haughty. Faulkner’s ability to reveal the difficulty of the human psyche. This novel is written in 59 sections in stream of consciousness form of literary style. This unique writting style shows us the unstoppable flow of thoughts from many different narrators, in this case from Bundren’s familly members. This novel is actually all about - Bundren‘s family which is very poor and -their journey to the Jefferson, because of Addie wanted to be buried there. During the long journey happens a lot of things. Natural elements are fighting them and slowing them down, meanwhile Addie is dacaying in the coffin...
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...purposed to reveal the problems of being tied to another person. From my point of view the concept of being married means being tied to another person no matter how good or bad circumstances are. The matter of fact is that being tied to another person, prevent us from being ourselves. The story of an hour clearly reflects this concept beginning by describing Mrs. Mallard as a woman with a “heart trouble” and not certainly because she is unhealthy. All of her illnesses come her condition within marriage, either because she finds out about her husband death or because of the inherent thought of being tied to her partner. This is explained later as the author describes the main character as "young, with a fair, calm face, whose lines bespoke repression and even a certain strength", even if Brentley Mallard is not described it seems like if through her grief she celebrates the triumph of being free from the man who imprisoned her. The death of Brentley clearly depicts an open window for Mrs. Mallard as she repeats “free, free, free”, the author makes clear that the attachment to her husband was eating her alive. This attachment meant to be physically,...
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...The Tall-Tall Tale of William Faulkner Gavin D. Respress ENG 1102 Troy University The Tall-Tall Tale of William Faulkner The brilliant author William Faulkner stood only five feet, six inches tall, but he is enormous in size in relations to American literature. Faulkner was a prominent writer from the state of Mississippi, who became a Nobel Prize winning novelist and an excellent short story writer who is admired worldwide as one of the best writers of the twentieth century. He is giving credit for transforming the deep-south region of Mississippi in to a fictional setting, where he explained, tested and explored “the old verities and truths of the heart.” In less than a decade, Faulkner accomplished more artistically than most writers have accomplish in their entire lifetime. In fact, his greatest creative triumph is during the period of The Sound and the Fury in 1929 to Go Down, Moses in 1942. This essay will discuss how William Faulkner became a legend of American literature, writing a series of novels, in spite of never graduating from high school or attending college, while living in the poorest state in America and balancing a large family and financial setbacks during the Great Depression. William Faulkner was the first of four sons born to Murry and Maud Butler Falkner in New Albany, Mississippi on September 25, 1897. His parents named him after his great-grandfather who was killed eight years prior in a battle in the streets with a former business...
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...In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, Cash claims that “it aint so much what a fellow does, but it's the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it”(Faulkner 233). Through his character, Faulkner argues that whether or not one man’s actions are abnormal, it is society that has the power to deem them as rational or insane. For example, Martin Luther King was regarded as simply another advocate for black rights during his time as a young leader because he lacked the power to actually create significant change in communities. However, when he gained enough of a following, he had the power to negatively impact the hold whites had on restricting blacks’ rights. This led radical whites to attempt to shut him down, many calling him...
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...The novel As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner takes place in the years following the Civil War in the South, specifically the 1920s. Following the freedom of slaves, a new economic gap was created in American society, requiring people to do the laborious work previously done by slaves. With this gap, a new economic system of farming grew the fill the gap –sharecropping. Although marketed in a different way, sharecropping utilized unfair practices and caused heavy debt for the farmers, creating a cycle of poverty. In the novel, the Bundrens fall victim to the consequences of sharecropping and are riddled by poverty. Because of this poverty, Faulkner consistently emphasizes the notion that the Bundrens are dissociated from society due to their...
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...literature of the 17th century are determined by the events of the Engl. Bourgeois Revolution, which took place in 1640-60. King Charles I was beheaded in 1649& General Oliver Cromwell became the leader of the new government. In 1660, shortly after Cro-ll’s death, the dynasty of the Stuarts was restored. The establishment of new social&eco-ic relations, the change from feudal to bourgeois ownership, escalating class-struggle, liberation movement and contradictions of the bourgeois society found their reflection in lit-re. The main representatives of this period is: John Milton: was born in London&educated at Christ’s College. He lived a pure life believing that he had a great purpose to complete. At college he was known as the The Lady of Christ’s. he Got master’s degree at Cambridge. It’s convenient to consider his works in 3 divisions. At first he wrote his short poems at Horton. (The Passion, Song on May Morning, L’Allegro). Then he wrote mainly prose. His 3 greatest poems belong to his last group. At the age of 23 he had still done little in life&he admits this in one of his sonnets. (On his 23d B-day) In his another sonnet he wrote on his own blindness. (On his Blindness) Milton wrote diff. kinds of works. His prose works were mainly concerned with church, affairs, divorce & freedom. The English civil war between Charles I & Parliament followed by the 2nd civil war, 1641-1651. During these years Milton worked hard at his pamphlets, supported Cromwell...
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...NORTH AMERICAN FICTION BRIEF INTRODUCTION: Before starting our study of American Fiction we must understand what American Literature is in itself and which pieces of writing we can include within this label. It is believed that when a piece is written in North America, more precisely in the USA, it would automatically be given this epithet. But it should be taken into account that this idea is quite broad and doesn’t reflect the real essence of the term. However, there is also another definition that gathers this essence: American Literature is the one that represents the Americanism, the singularity of the USA philosophy and culture. This way, instead of focusing on who the author is, it is focused on the content of the writing. In that which concerns Fiction, the following documents are the ones considered as narrative: Speeches Letters Short Stories Essays Political Documents Sermons Novels Diaries 1 FIRST LITERARY EXPRESSIONS The first documents in which the idea of Americanism is very present are the Sermons. They respond to the strict Protestantism settled in the New Continent after the arrival of the Pilgrim Fathers and Puritans in the Mayflower (1620) and the Arabella (1630). They established a theocratic community whose main and only point of reference was the Bible. That is why the idea of the ‘city upon a hill’ is still very present in American mentality. As we all know...
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...CTCS 466 LECTURE NOTES 1/17: John Dies At the End * CTCS 466 * Former Professors * Arthur Knight * Charles Chaplin * Former Students * Ron Howard * Robert Zemeckis * 16 mm/35 mm * Brotherly Love (Popeye), Max Fleischer * Original song * Made for adults as well as children * Take place in cities * As opposed to the barnyard settings of early Disney * Classic cartoon * Postmodern cartoon (The Simpsons) * Digital Cinema Print (DCP) * Ted Mundor, Landmark Theatres * Career * Monsters Magazine Film Fan Monthly (13 y.o.) * Movies on TV & TV Movies (17 y.o.) * American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) * Gene Shalp, The Today Show * Bruce Cook, Entertainment Tonight * Theme: Great Moments from Movie Musicals * “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”, The Wizard of Oz * Only a few cuts * Simplicity requires confidence * Contrast with the circus of Les Miserables * Remains in character without melodrama * Impression that she actually is singing * She is very much still Dorothy Gale, not Judy Garland * John Dies At the End * Phantasm * Bubba Hotep * Horror + Fantasy + Comedy * Based on novel of the same name * Don Coscarelli (Director/Producer) * Loved...
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...Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 i RTNA01 1 13/6/05, 5:28 PM READING THE NOVEL General Editor: Daniel R. Schwarz The aim of this series is to provide practical introductions to reading the novel in both the British and Irish, and the American traditions. Published Reading the Modern British and Irish Novel 1890–1930 Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Daniel R. Schwarz Brian W. Shaffer Forthcoming Reading the Eighteenth-Century Novel Paula R. Backscheider Reading the Nineteenth-Century Novel Harry E. Shaw and Alison Case Reading the American Novel 1780–1865 Shirley Samuels Reading the American Novel 1865–1914 G. R. Thompson Reading the Twentieth-Century American Novel James Phelan ii RTNA01 2 13/6/05, 5:28 PM Reading the Novel in English 1950–2000 Brian W. Shaffer iii RTNA01 3 13/6/05, 5:28 PM © 2006 by Brian W. Shaffer BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Brian W. Shaffer to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and...
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