Linguistic Laureate - Research Paper Example

?Dipti Kothari Weaver ENC 1102 20 November Linguistic Laureate "I created a cosmos of my own. I can move these people around like God,not only in space but in time too" (Parini 106) – Rightly uttered were the golden phrases of Faulkner who himself had the idea of his own greatness in the history of English literature. Born on September 25, 1897 in New Albany, Mississippi, named after Old Colonel - his great grandfather - the legendary American writer, nicknamed as Billy, was fond of story-telling since his childhood. According to one of his cousins, when Billy used to tell something, doubts were always present about whether it was true or something he had made up on his own (Oates 13). However, as many reviewers reckon, Faulkner’s life did not experience a pleasant start. He used to repel away from his peers at school since they did not like his ‘different’ style of dressing; a factor which might have later turned into him dropping out of school. As his age progressed to twenty, some significant characteristic dilemmas pronounced Faulkner’s personality - ranging from being socially eccentric, to a school dropout, to being a drunkard. To sum it up, the soon-to-become a legendary novelist had, then, no superior traits presumed to be in a person who inspires a vast number of readers and followers. However, despite the ridicule and disdain, Faulkner rose above expectations and ensued to envelop with his magical writing approach, nearly every aspect of how the everyday human life was in the American South. Having been born in the Magnolia State, Faulkner had immense love for the Southern roots. His ties with Mississippi ran deep; his great grandfather, known more prominently as the Old Colonel, was a famous lawyer, novelist and rail road investor. Throughout his lifetime, Faulkner never went astray of his town, spending the majority of his life span in Mississippi and writing about his soil and the people there. With his growing age, the Old Colonel’s imagination and vision of the South started emerging in him (Shmoop Editorial Team). On the other hand, Faulkner’s fictional inscription skills are believed to have originated primarily from close company with the African-American nanny, Caroline Barr. Known to Faulkner and his siblings as Mammy Callie, Caroline Barr – the Oxford based nanny – was born into slavery and used to tell numerous stories regarding her sorrowful experiences to Faulkner; the roots wherefrom the Faulkner’s yet-to-be-created fictional world initiates. No wonder Faulkner had profound empathy for his nanny, apparent from the dedication of his 1942 novel Go Down, Moses to her (Shmoop Editorial Team). Faulkner remembered her as a person who gave his family loyalty, faithfulness and compassion without any cost and who gave to his childhood immense love and affection (Parini 19). Alongside creativity and fictional storytelling, Faulkner also ignited in himself a brawny passion for reading literature. Contrary to being an imaginative, always-pondering boy at home, Faulkner was not as good at school. Being mediocre in studies, getting regularly teased by his colleagues, distinguishing his passion for art and writing rather than guns and football made his stay at school difficult. Likewise, against his parents’ wishes, he dropped out from high school after the eleventh grade and went on to opt for a bookkeeper’s job. Only his first rhyme and verse lessons by Phil Stone, an aspiring poet in high school, were to prove fruitful of all what he carried with him out of the high school. Agreeing to what Cleanth Brooks writes, although William started his career as a poet but fate had planned something better for him. Hence, Faulkner soon realized that his major and most fruitful strength lay in his prose (Brooks 1). Falkner’s first ever short story that was published in a major magazine in April 1930 was “A Rose for Emily” - a story that revolves around Emily, a lady with a mysterious, veiled character which is the consequence of the town’s fierce scrutinizing attitude. However, only a few critics appreciated the novelty of style of the American South at first. Faulkner portrays Emily as a monument, but at the same time also adds an element of irritation and pity which the townspeople have in their intellect for her. However, this balanced quantity of contrast created fictionally by Faulkner is not the sole reason why the story is widely praised. The narrator depicts Emily’s character as an eccentric, abhorrent woman who dismisses the law, challenges the basics and demonstrates wacky behavior. As the story progresses, Faulkner succeeds to maintain a pretty commendable balance between the positives and negatives of Emily’s character; the story remains vague almost until it concludes. The narrator advances the narrative and unfolds the numerous implicit ideas veiled behind the story - the timeless vacuum in which Emily resides, necrophilia: the sexual magnetism towards human corpses, the perishing of the conventions and modernization of the South and the struggle by the townsfolk to retain back their tradition. Moreover, the highly appropriate fictional themes used by Faulkner also form the crux of the narrative. Emily’s house is depicted to resemble much with how her character is: dusty, covered up and vague. Whereas, appreciation should also be made for the technique with which Faulkner ensures that the real, perverse character of Emily is not deduced by the audience until disclosed by the writer himself in the conclusion and the readers remain oblivious of the actual wickedness in her character. The absolute mystery and blurredness maintained by the author depicts his ultimate fictional brilliance. Many people believe the eccentricity and repugnance incorporated in Mrs. Emily Grierson’s character to be rooted in Faulkner’s own teenage life. In addition, necrophilia brings to the story a unique type of affiliation need. This is portrayed in Emily’s personality as she strives to find not the right person but the right way to love someone and ends up arousing in her desires for unresponsive carcasses. All in all, violating the conventions of chronologically sequential writing, Faulkner creates an illusionary character about which people crave to discern even more about today. Adding to Faulkner’s successful accomplishments as an aspiring novelist was another novel, “Barn Burning” which first appeared in Harper’s in 1939, the era which observed numerous publications of his literature. Faulkner inscribed in this novel, a true depiction of contrast, balance and the illusionary contradiction of morals and social priorities of a boy, Sartoris, entering his adulthood, (also referred to as Sarty). The contrasting style makes the reader look at the events of the story from multiple perspectives and different points in time. Hans Skei writes in his book, “Reading Faulkner's Best Short Stories” about Barn Burning that the narrative stance taken and the author’s own interruption in the story result in a vigorous evaluation of both irony and sympathy encompassed in the novel and which foster’s reader’s ability to viewing the tale from different perspectives (Skei 58). Faulkner constructs a pleasant and morally strong character of Sarty, perfectly divergent from his father’s personality, who is portrayed as a rigid, violent and an immoral elderly man. Faulkner has created a sense of confusion for Sarty regarding choosing his priorities, either the personal or moral social ties with his family. The story progresses as Sarty matures ‘earlier than his age’ and commences to realize the distinction between right and wrong – a realization which ultimately leaves him with no companion at the end of the story. The majority of Sarty’s life events are portrayed as ever-dark, dull scenes which demonstrate the lack of clarity and understanding he has about his beliefs and values. While the story advances towards a more favorable climax, as an authorial masterstroke, Faulkner scintillatingly covers up the dark sides of the plot with signs of escape and freedom. Moving towards the end of the story, Sarty realizes what’s right for him to do, and having grasped enough courage to take a stand for him. He chooses, though at the cost of abandoning his own family, to opt for the path of justice and morality which leaves him wandering all alone at the end of the story with no one to stand by his side. The ultimate reason for this novel being so widely recognized and appreciated lies in Faulkner’s Southern dialect which enables him to carry with a proficient awareness of regional language and vocalizations (McDonald 46-48). Conclusively, Faulkner has this ultimate quality of creating characters and circumstances, within which they were trapped, which has succeeded to leave an eternal mark on the readers’ memories. Subsequently, William Faulkner proceeded on to write many popular novels and short stories. However, he was still comparatively unknown to the world in general until he received the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. From on, he reached to the peaks of success, which the laureate could barely imagine. He also received the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction for two of his works - A Fable in 1954 and for his last novel, The Reivers in 1962. Faulkner spent around nine years to complete A Fable and named it as his most significant work (Skei 80). As it is obvious from the title, the novel actually proved to be a stunning success, with adjectives like realistic and fabulous being given to it. Cleanth Brooks compliments rather sarcastically that it is not always clear at what point the fabulousness ends and the realistic begins (Brooks 230-231). Skei expresses his feelings about the American writer’s work stating that A Fable was although complex, but was also one of Faulkner’s successful accomplishments (Skei 81). Whereas, Minter articulates about the novel that it progresses slowly through many subplots, detours and interpolations, to lead to a conflict between the attached spiritual and the bodily being (Minter 227). However, The Reivers was unfortunately the last, and perhaps the most below-expectations, novel by the American laureate, although Faulkner received the Pulitzer Prize soon after its publication. Mayer summarizes about The Reivers as, “Warm, humorous, poignant story about a boy's loss of innocence and a memoir and loving re-creation of turn-of-the-century Dixie” (Mayer). The novel was quite readily disregarded by many readers and followers of Faulkner, as it turned out to be different from the previous publications by him. This is quite evident from what other authors wrote about The Reivers. For example, according to Jelliffe, nothing in the previous works of Faulkner prepares the reader for his next novel, The Reivers. It is entirely different from its preceeding publications (Jelliffe 1-2), and Hicks writes in his review about the novel, “Once one accepts the fact that The Reivers isn’t a major Faulkner novel, nor, I should say was meant to be, one can settle down to enjoy it” (Hicks 27). Overall, the last of Faulkner’s novels cannot be remembered as also his best, since its predecessors, many of them, were far more appreciated than this one. Amongst many of his other tremendous works are As I Lay Dying, Light in August, Knight’s Gambit and Absalom, Absalom! Many authors later wrote books, articles and reviews about the great novelist and his marvelous works. (Inge has penned about Faulkner that he is a Nobel Prize winner, all his works have been successful and, including those which were his failures, have earned him money. He also expressed that Faulkner is a writer now globally accredited (Inge). John T. Matthews expresses his feelings about the work in his review of Faulkner’s novel, Centaur in Brass, “Suggests that the age-old economic foundation of erotic desire takes on particular clarification in capitalism’s transition to mass market practices” (Matthews 29). Faulkner, having proved himself to the world how legendary a novelist he was, breathed his last on July 6, 1962. His literatures are presumed to remain immortal and eternal by his million followers. In a nutshell it can be said that Faulkner has left a remarkable impact on the people who read his works. Faulkner – a man who is too intellectual, troubled and aspiring, yet too modest, surely has an eminent position among all-time authors of English literature. (He has set a mark too high, a standard of novelistic brilliance to achieve which requires the contrasting style and has given the world pieces of literature which leave a great impact on the audience. Works Cited Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner: Toward Yoknapatawpha and Beyond. New Haven: Yale UP, 1978. Print. Faulkner, William, and John, Mayer. The Reivers. Santa Ana, CA: Books on Tape, 2005. Sound recording. Hicks, Granville. "Building Blocks of a Gentleman." Saturday Review. 1962: 27. Print. Inge, Thomas and Faulkner. “William Faulkner.” Cambridge Books Online.Cambridge UP, 1995. Matthews, John. Shortened Stories: Faulkner and the Market in Faulkner and the Short Story, 29.Print. McDonald, Hal. “Faulkner’s Barn Burning.” The Explicator. 61.1 (2002): 46-48. Print. Minter, David. William Faulkner, His Life and Work. Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins UP, 1980. Print. Oates. Faulkner: The Man and the Artist ,New York: Harper & Row, 1987, 13.Print. Parini, Jay. One Matchless Time: A Life of William Faulkner. New York: HarperCollins Publishers,2004. Print. Shmoop Editorial Team. "William Faulkner: Biography"Shmoop.com. Shmoop University, Inc., 11 Nov. 2008. Web. 5 Nov. 2012. Skei, Hans. Reading Faulkner's Best Short Stories. Columbia: UP of South Carolina, 1999. Print. SparkNotes Editors. “SparkNote on A Rose for Emily.” SparkNotes.com. SparkNotes LLC. 2007. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. Faulkner. BrainyQuote.com. Xplore Inc, 2012. Web. 6 Nov. 2012. Read More