William Faulkner Influences

The American writer William Faulkner was born in Oxford, Mississippi, in September 1897. He had a very open and commonly known drinking problem from the age of seventeen following up to his last few months before passing in July 1962. William was part of the so called “Lost Generation” in the 1920’s. William Faulkner wrote novels, short stories, a play, poetry, and essays. Faulkner wrote about every way of life from war to perversion to racism to even mental illness and suicide. His writings always linked together fake names or families to a real theme that he had lived through or known about personally. For how unorthodoxy Faulkner seemed, he was incredibly brilliant, innovative, and eccentric. William’s writing had a great influence

In his books, Faulkner’s characters were faced with situations where their decisions were based on tradition or where their actions were based on selfish desires. In the story Sartoris, the fictional family is filled with heroic and traditional beliefs that are disheveled by the Civil War. John Sartorius was a creator of the first Confederate regime in the county, and was murdered by a man named Redmond. Although he was aware of Redmond’s intentions to kill him, he faced him unarmed because he was “tired of killing men”. Bayard Sartoris II was expected to avenge his father’s death, but shunned this violent path. This was not an easy decision, but his heroic mindset almost caused the loss of his life when a foe attempted to kill him. Juxtaposing heroic decisions, in As I Lay Dying, characters base their actions on selfish desires and greed. The mother, Addie, had asked to be buried in Jefferson near her hometown. The family then treks through terrible conditions of strong storms, an underwater bridge, and lack of money to replace missing goods. They stay with her rotting body for days in the wagon on their way to the city. Although all claim to be going for the honorable reason of burial, all but two family members have ulterior motives. Anse, the husband, wants a new set of false teeth since all of his are missing. Cash, one of her sons, intends on buying a record player in Jefferson. Addie’s only daughter, Dewey Dell, is looking for an abortion, and Vardaman, another son, hopes to see a train in the window of the toy store. As these characters drag Addie’s body throughout the countryside of Mississippi, the decaying corpse began to smell staunchly, and many people begin to complain before the family arrives due to the odor. Rather than burying her body in a different spot to be respectful to her, they continue on their way to