William Faulkner

1. William Faulkner Rowan Oak

2. Early Life • William Faulkner, originally William Cuthbert Falkner, was born in New Albany, Mississippi, on September 25, 1897. • His family moved to Oxford when he was very young. • Interested in artistic pursuits from a young age, he was heavily influenced by the Romantic poets. • Never graduated from high school, instead tried to join the air force. He never saw action. Faulkner pictured in a Canadian RAF uniform.

3. Getting the Ball Rolling • Faulkner enrolled at the University of Mississippi in 1919, where he attended for three semesters and then dropped out in 1920. During his stint at Ole Miss, he wrote short stories and plays and had several published in various newspapers. • During his time in Oxford, he dated a girl named Estelle Oldham. She was dating several men at the time, one of which proposed and she was forced to accept by her parents. She and Faulkner would eventually get back together, 10 years later, when Estelle divorced her husband. • He published a volume of poetry, The Marble Faun, in 1924. • His first novel, Soldier’s Pay, was written in 1925, and it was quickly followed by Mosquitoes in 1926, and then his first novel about his native region, Sartoris (also Flags in the Dust),was published in 1929.

4. The Nobel Prize • Faulkner won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949 for his work. • His speech is largely regarded as one of the best speeches ever given. “I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s duty is to write about these things.... The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.”

5. Later Life • He continued to write both short stories and novels, and also did a large bit of traveling and attending various events during his later days. • He contributed work on several screenplays. • He died of a heart attack at age 64, on July 6, 1962.

6. Faulkner as an Author • Stream of Consciousness • he used this method of writing, in which narration resembles that of a character’s thought processes. • Yoknapatawpha County • Faulkner’s “own little postage stamp” • Geographically identical to Lafayette County, which is where Oxford, MS is located.

7. The Sound and the Fury • Divided into four parts: • First, Benjy (the idiot) is set in April 7, 1928 • Second, told by Quentin is set on June 2, 1910 • Third, told by Jason is set on April 6, 1928 • Fourth, has an omnicient narrator but focused on the black servant, Dilsey, and is set on April 8, 1928. • Published in 1929 • Set in Yoknapatawpha County, this story tells the tale of the Compsons, an old aristocratic Southern family who struggle to retain their former glory. Focuses largely on the three brothers, Benjamin, Jason, and Quentin, and their sister Caddy. "Tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow,Creeps in this petty pace from day to dayTo the last syllable of recorded time,And all our yesterdays have lighted foolsThe way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!Life's but a walking shadow, a poor playerThat struts and frets his hour upon the stageAnd then is heard no more: it is a taleTold by an idiot, full of sound and fury,Signifying nothing.“ Macbeth, Shakespeare, Act V, Scene V

8. As I Lay Dying • Published in 1930 • Told from the perspective of 15 different narrators • The story of the death and dying of Addie Bundren, the first chapter is told as she lays dying, watching her son Cash try and build her the most perfect coffin. • Other characters include: Jewel (the one that bought his own horse), Darl(the one that burns down a barn to try and cremate his mother’s body), Vardaman, Anse(the one that wants new teeth), and Dewey Dell (the pregnant one). • Addie wished to be buried in Jefferson, so the family makes the long and eventful trip, where many… interesting events occur along the way.

9. Light in August • Published in 1932 • Major Characters • Joe Christmas • Racially ambiguous • Lena Grove • Pregnant orphan from Alabama, looking for the father of her baby • Joe Brown • Works in the mill with Joe Christmas • Gail Hightower • Former minister in Jefferson • Byron Bunch • Initially incorrectly identified as the father of Lena’s baby

10. Absalom, Absalom! • Published in 1936 • Summary • Told from the perspective of Quentin Compson as the story is told to him. • This is the story of Thomas Sutpen, a man who moves to MS in order to gain fame and entrench himself in the aristocracy of the Old South. He has two children, Henry and Judith Sutpen. • His son goes off to school where he meets a man named Charles Bon, whom, when Henry brings him home, falls in love with Judith. • Thomas realizes that Charles Bon is his illegitimate son from a previous encounter in which he was not sure of the mother’s racial status. • The elder Sutpenrealizes he can’t allow his children to marry as that would be incest, and so he tells Henry that Bon is his half brother, they run off and join the army. • Henry meets his father again when Thomas becomes a Colonel, tells him that Bon is part black, and Henry promptly murders Bon.