...In the short story “The Bear”, William Faulkner writes a story that includes many different characters who experience life-changing events. Faulkner demonstrates that a person’s success and failure will ultimately cause him to mistake his rightful place in society. Faulkner illustrates this theme throughout the story by using the developing characteristics of Boon. At the end of the short story, Boon’s unsteady life leads the developing world to exclude him because of his faulty success (Hess). To demonstrate how success and failure in an individual's life can steer that person to misinterpret his place in the world, Faulkner uses Boon’s strong bond with Lion as an example. In part due to Lion’s aggressive name and nature, Boon has high expectations...
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...------------------------------------------------- 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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...access>Online titles appearing in italics indicate that the hypertext is based on printed analogues. • ----------------------- "An Overview of Abraham Lincoln's Life''. URL: http://home.att.net/~rjnorton/Lincoln77.htm. Retrieved: 15 Sep. 2004. • Backman,Melvin."The Bear and Go Down, Moses".In William Faulkner.Ed. Dean Morgan Schmitter .New York: McGrow-Hill Book Company,1973.Pp.136-146. • Berland,Alwayn.Light in August:A Study in Black and White.New Yourk:Twayne Publishers 1992. • Blair, Walter. etal. American Literature: A Brief History.Glocose:Scott,Foresman And Company,1964. • Blanks,June."The Women of Absalom,Absalom!". URL: http://athena.english.vt.edu/~exlibris/essays02/Blanks2.htm. Retrieved: 22 Nov. 2004. • Bleikasten,Andre. "Light in August:The Closed Society and Its Subjects".In New Essays on Light in August.Ed.Michael Millgate. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,1987.Pp.81-102. • Brooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner:First Encounter.New Haven and London:Yale University Press,1983. • ____________.William Faulkner :Toward Yoknapatawpha And Beyond. New Haven and London: Yale University Press,1978. • Brown,Sterling ."A Century of Negro Portraiture in American Literature".In Black and White In American Culture.Eds.Jules Chametzky and Sidney Kaplan. Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press,1969.Pp...
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...A Close Reading of William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” portrays itself as sort of a gothic sort of story. The elements of a gothic novel are meant to fashion a sense of trepidation, obscurity and unknown, which are vital in creating compelling stories. It has its fill of suspense and madness throughout its entirety, resulting in fastidious conventions in its type of writing structure, characterization, point of view, theme, and setting. Gothic novels are also known to contain an element of romance, which are often exaggerated to the extremes. I would say that the main point of view of this selected passage comes from an unknown narrator, told in the first person, who clearly is a resident of the town of Jefferson and knows the little-known life of the protagonist, Miss Emily. The “they” that is in the second sentence refers to the group of townsfolk who arrived at her house. The emotions of the crowd are a mixture of respectful condolences and curiosity. The men are present merely out of respect, giving off an air they only attend because it is an expected behavior and not because she was popular in the community. The women go out of curiosity to see the inside of the house. There certainly seems to be a general consensus among the group that she was living almost a secret life which was clearly meant to stay that way. The phrase “would have to be forced” makes it clear the group is anxious about finding out what has been kept from the...
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...Addie Bundren’s love holds great power in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, as it is essential to her sons’ sense of self. Withholding affection from Darl, her second oldest son, negatively impacts his self-worth to the point of existential crisis. Conversely, Addie loves Jewel, her middle son, which leaves him a man of action, certain in his state of being. Jewel receives love from his mother, resulting in his self-assurance. The product of Addie’s affair with the local minister, Jewel is the apple of her eye. Cora Tull, the Bundren’s moralizing neighbor, recognizes Addie’s favoritism towards her illegitimate son— “Jewel, the one she labored so to bear and coddled and petted so” (21). Moreover, from Addie’s posthumous monologue, she reveals...
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...Different Approaches to Disillusionment in American Literature In novel writing, style serves as a significant, yet often underrated, element of a work. William Faulkner uses shifting points of view and stream of consciousness to portray how different people react to corruption and disillusionment through Benji, Quentin, and Jason; The Sound and the Fury takes on a unique approach to these common themes and contrast with other similar literary works like To Kill a Mockingbird. Caddy is the reason why several of the characters become disillusioned. Benji feels a foreboding sense of loss because his sister and caretaker has abandoned him. Quentin used to idealize Caddy, yet after her promiscuous escapades, Quentin turns to depression and eventually...
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...Ashley Cushinberry Dr. Chamberlain EN 300 December 10, 2014 A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner A Rose for Emily written by William Faulkner captures the life of a wealthy woman coping with life after the death of a loved one. Death is an indescribable feeling that can cause pain, anger, and sorrow for almost everyone. Early on in the story, Emily’s father passes away leaving her with all of these emotions concealed on the inside. After her father’s death Emily was left alone to grieve which caused her to react to his death in an unusual manner eventually leading to a state of depression. Emily barricades herself in her home away from the outside world for a long period of time trying to cope with her loss, but it seems as if life has moved on without her. Once she emerges from her home, it is like she is trapped in the past. Emily no longer has a sense of place and time. Emily finally finds happiness in a man by the name of Homer, but because of her family’s status in the community it causes a rift between Emily and herself on whether to keep him around or not. This caused Emily to go into a deeper depression, hiding from the world once again. Although death is a reoccurring theme in the story, it is not the only thing that has critics striving to understand the story even further. For starters, the title of the story has one scholar by the name of Laura Getty extremely interested because Faulkner does not come right out and say why he titled this story “A...
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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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...Fear of Failure Fear of failing, or atychiphobia, has been present in one form or another in everyones lives. What a failure means to one person is completely variable to another and what matters most is how you handle it and go forward afterwards. William Faulkner stated, “Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it.” Some people become so stricken with the image of failure that they become immobilized and cannot even bring themselves to start the task at hand. There are others however who embrace the challenge and view failure as a learning curve and opportunity not to the make the same mistake twice. Failure exists in every person’s life and can define our existence and character. Understanding that fear jeopardizes success and from failure we gain new insights, the question arises as to why people are so afraid to fail in the first place. People like to understand where things originate and how they became as they are so let’s discuss fear of failure and it’s roots. As a child in school for example, commonly if a child fails they are not given rewards. In some school culture the football player that doesn’t kick the football highest is a wimp, the one who failed that last math test is dumb, or if you didn’t make in on the basketball team you’re a loser. The harsh reality is, many of us have felt like other people judge our failures. Our focus is emphasized too much on visible success and not the ways...
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...Miss Emily Grierson and Eveline The family and society’s expectation of a woman has led to some women becoming tragic heroes and anti-heroes who battled consistently with their true identity. Literary works of William Faulkner in the short story, "A Rose for Emily", and James Joyce’s "Eveline", reflects the negative impact of these expectations. Based on information, culled from Dr David Smith’s notes, tragic heroes are driven and obsessed with past deeds or by fate, they are neither entirely good nor entirely bad and are fated to cause grief to individuals or to the community, they are often leaders in the community or head of family (2). Faulkner shows these common traits of tragic hero in Miss Emily Grierson; a protagonist in self-exile from the modern world, locked away in her decaying mansion (3). In James Joyce’s Eveline, a protagonist is revealed as tragic hero who endures a dramatic and tragic life full of conflicts, but Smith thinks otherwise, he refers to her as an anti-hero and is of the opinion that antihero should not be confused with tragic hero because, “existentialist believed modern life does not allow the existence of a true hero. Modern life dehumanizes everyone”(3), short of this, Eveline is a classic example of a tragic hero. William Faulkner’s Miss Emily and James Joyce’s Eveline are women who in the quest of fulfilling the roles assigned to them by their family, lover, and society, cost them happiness and freedom. Faulkner in his short story, “A Rose...
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...Anse as the Villain Addie Bundren in the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner has a dying wish to be buried in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi. When Addie dies her husband Anse Bundren is left to fulfill this wish along with his five children. Anse takes his children on a journey to Jefferson and during this journey he subjects his children to many catastrophes due to his carelessness and desire to get to town to carry out his own personal goals aside from burying Addie. Over the course of the novel Anse becomes the villain because of how he harms his children to carry out his own motives. Anse does not really respect Addie’s dying wish to be buried with her family in Jefferson. He travels to Jefferson to accomplish his own...
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...Chen Peng 20/09/2011 Interpretation of Literature Paper#1 In William Faulkner’s A Rose for Emily, recurring imagery of time passing demonstrates the tension between the past and the present in Emily’s lifetime, which reveals the negative impacts of the backward traditions of the past on her destiny. In this way, Emily both embodies and is affected by the changing times. She is, in so many words, a metaphor for the decay of the old era. Miss Emily was seen as a monument because of her dignity and tradition in her time. As a result, she had always reminded herself that she was supposed to be a legendary figure whose story would be told to the next generation. She was expected to have an immense amount of wealth, a respectable social identity, and a successful marriage. However, things did not turn out that way. Her father, who was a declined aristocrat, ruthlessly intervened in her early years and drove away all of the young men who wanted to court her. Since no one dared to approach her, “When she got to be thirty … she was still single” (Faulkner 287). Time, in this situation, was really the urgency and the pressure to her. She needed time to redeem her respect. Nonetheless, all of the respect that her family had earned during the old time died with the death of her father. She seemed to be too weak to prevent the time being away from her side, and “Thus she passed from generation to generation-dear, inescapable, impervious, tranquil, and perverse” (290). In the end...
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...HUMANITY There are many aspects pertaining to literature that cause readers to consider it good literature. Some may analyze the plot, setting, narrative structure, character, mood, or theme. Others may choose to analyze or focus on literary techniques such as imagery, hyperbole, personification, or irony. Though we may choose to focus on any of these facets, as well as many more, the one condition that we all seem to be looking for in literature is connection. We want to be able to relate to the characters in the works we read. We want to read stories that we can comprehend and identify with; stories that allow us to associate ourselves with the characters, see the story through their eyes, put ourselves in their shoes, feel their pain, and celebrate their victory. Good literature fully explores the depths and aspects of humanity through empathy, morality, madness, vulnerability, and pride. The White Troops Had Their Orders, but the Negros Looked Like Men by Gwendolyn Brooks exemplifies empathy through the white troop meeting the black troops, likely slaves, for the first time. The poem starts us off by showing how the white men had been trained to look at the black men. They had been given the formula on how to treat them until their empathy sets in after seeing the black troops for the first time. “But when the Negros came they were perplexed. These Negros looked like men” (Brooks, 2495). In fact, they appreciated the similarities so much, they didn't have the time or frame...
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...Steve Jobs: Man turned Ordinary Inventions into Extraordinary Art Forms Abstract There have been numerous individuals who have walked the earth throughout the existence of mankind, but there are a very limited number in the amount of individuals who leave a great impact upon the land. History may not recall the extensiveness and importance of these individuals but there contributions still remain very evident even in today’s society. There comes a time in every generation that a mind comes along and transforms the way we view and see things, and most importantly change the way we live our day to day lives. Of this generation, Steve Jobs transformed the way we view technology, he added a sense of character, savvy, and style to a market which was just emerging and led that area of interest to heights unimaginable in present day. Inventions such as the telephone, computers, and software were major advances manhood created, however there were major destructive flaws. Every once in a while, one is born with extreme hyper intellect, and utilizes all of their natural abilities, and uses that greatness to transcends those relegated to that which is ordinary (mediocrity) into extraordinary. Steve Johns had an endowed vision, fortitude, relentlessness, passion and iron force that made an impact on how we communicate to the world (phone, computers, and television, multimedia and animation). . This paper will discuss how a man with the seeds planted from birth to adulthood propelled...
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...Narrative A narrative is a sequence of events that a narrator tells in story form. A narrator is a storyteller of any kind, whether the authorial voice in a novel or a friend telling you about last night’s party. Point of View The point of view is the perspective that a narrative takes toward the events it describes. First-person narration: A narrative in which the narrator tells the story from his/her own point of view and refers to him/herself as “I.” The narrator may be an active participant in the story or just an observer. When the point of view represented is specifically the author’s, and not a fictional narrator’s, the story is autobiographical and may be nonfictional (see Common Literary Forms and Genres below). Third-person narration: The narrator remains outside the story and describes the characters in the story using proper names and the third-person pronouns “he,” “she,” “it,” and “they.” • Omniscient narration: The narrator knows all of the actions, feelings, and motivations of all of the characters. For example, the narrator of Leo Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina seems to know everything about all the characters and events in the story. • Limited omniscient narration: The narrator knows the actions, feelings, and motivations of only one or a handful of characters. For example, the narrator of Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland has full knowledge of only Alice. • Free indirect discourse: The narrator conveys a character’s inner thoughts...
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