William Faulkner Research Paper

William Faulkner introduced the ideas and voices of the South to the greater American society. He was one of the greatest American writers the USA and possibly, the world has ever seen. He wrote novels, poetry, short stories and screenplays. Most of Faulkner's works were considered southern gothic. His first novel was Soldier's Pay, published in 1926 followed by Mosquitoes in 1927. Flags in the Dust was completed in 1927 though it was published after his death in 1973. Considered his first masterpiece, The Sound and the Fury was completed in 1929. William Faulkner completed 19 novels, 125 short stories, one play, 6 collections of poetry and contributed to 20 screenplays. (Source1) William Cuthbert Faulkner (the original spelling was Falkner)

Each brother goes through remembering their childhood and mourning the loss of their sister Caddy. Benji is mentally handicapped, Quentin is a Harvard student who commits suicide, and Jacob is mean and corrupt. The once prominent family is falling apart. The daughter, Caddy, gets pregnant before marriage, then divorces and is disowned by the family. Their father is an alcoholic, and their mother is a hypochondriac. (Source 6) As I lay Dying (1930) revolves around a poor Southern family who's ill mother dies. The story tells of the burdens the family has trying to carry out the burial wishes of the mother. They face many challenges including flooding, injury, losing the coffin, drowning mules, and burning down barns while trying to incinerate the coffin. Dewy, the daughter tries several times to buy an abortion medication but fails. They finally succeed in burying the mother. The next day, the father shows off his new teeth and introduces his new wife he met while buying shovels to bury the coffin. (Source

The Saturday Review of Literature said, "Mr. Faulkner has a remarkable literary gift. He can write." Conrad Aiken of the New York Evening Post said, "Mr. Faulkner has a sense of character; he has a sense of humor; he has a sense of style; and for his new novel, 'Mosquitoes,' he has found an amusing and more or less original setting." The New York Herald Tribune commented, "It approaches in the first half and reaches in the second half a brilliance that you can rightfully expect only in the writings of a few men." According to The New York Times, "A deft hand has woven this narrative of mixed and frustrated emotions and has set it down with hard intelligence as well as consumable pity. The book rings true," -in reference to Soldiers' Pay. Other authors have even commended his works. Ralph Ellison said "For all his concern with the South, Faulkner was actually seeking out the nature of man. Thus we must turn to him for that continuity of moral purpose which made for the greatness of our classics." Edmund Wilson said "Faulkner..belongs to the full-dressed post-Flaubert group of Conrad, Joyce, and Proust." Robert Penn Warren said, "For range of effect, philosophical weight, originality of style, variety of characterization, humor, and tragic intensity, Faulkner's works are without equal in our time and country." Some critics consider him controversial, while others consider him brilliant. (Source