Recurring Families in William Faulkner’s Fiction
William Faulkner, one of the most influential writers in American history, was born in 1897, at a time when the conflict between the North and the South was unsettled because people in the South faced difficult living conditions and controversial issues, such as abandoning their past.(Frenz,"William Faulkner - Biographical"). Under such conditions, especially in the South, women’s rights were stifled and human nature was distorted. The families depicted in Faulkner’s fictions convey the manner of living people had during such an era. Through depictions of families like the Compsons and the Snopes, Faulkner wanted to show characters who were suffering to provoke changes in the era he was living in.
The story of the Compsons family is a tragedy. Heroine Kitty, a woman who thirsts for knowledge, could not tolerate the Southern society and even feel revolted against it. She desired the world outside, but her father restricted her behavior and stifled her freedom. As she grew older, she could not get along with the Southern society and felt uncomfortable under this situation. Finally,she became disillusioned and lost her virginity. I think the things she did are ways to rebel against the society. Life is one challenge right after another for Kitty. She had to take care of her brothers in the family; at her young age, she started to take care of her brother who had physical disabilities. When Kitty grew up, her husband discarded her and her brothers, lied to her, and extorted money from her. Although Kitty suffered from physical and emotional pains, she put up a tenacious fight against the difficulties in her life. Quentin, the daughter of Kitty, grows up in an environment without care and full of depression. Just like her mother, she became another woman of loose morals and escaped her family to seek the life that she desired. Under patriarchal society, Kitty and Quentin were deprived of their rights by their father when they were born. The fact that Kitty did such immoral things to fight against the society and that Quentin escaped from her family means they wanted a new start and reflects the society that needs to take a change (Deng 3).
After Kitty had lost her virginity and became a mistress of a Nazi Officer, which gave the Compsons family a heavy blow. The shame Kitty cause on her family made her older brother took his own life by throwing himself into the river; her father became a heavy drinker and her younger brother suffered from pains that no one will ever take care of him anymore. The Compsons family has moved toward ending. The old, rigid rules had come to an end and a reformation is indispensable for the South (Deng 3).
The Snopes, another example of a family clan, appeared in three novels by William Faulkner: “The Hamlet,”“The Town,” and “The Mansion.” Through the novels, the impoverished Snopes family moved into the town as newcomers. Snopes’ son, Flem Snope, was hired to be a clerk in the store by the Varner family, who owned the Old Frenchman’s Bend. Flem Snope developed into the ruthless operator of the store and became conceited. He built strong connections with the Varner family by all kinds of dirty tricks and lies. In addition, he also married Eula, Varner’s daughter, who had become pregnant out of wedlock. Since then, the Snopes took almost all of the property of the Varner family. The Snopes developed a strong sense of guilt but they remained loyal as a family while abandoning traditional morality and even laws of society. “It tells us the difference between traditionalism and modernism, humanism and naturalism. The Snopes were act oppose the Sartoris World, in a way of anti-traditional. They only care about self-interest with no ethical duty” (Warren 256). The world we see during those periods is not what we expected to see; people have their skeletons in their closets. Faulkner made these people do not behave in an acceptable way thus indicating that the backwards society needed to be changed.
Faulkner’s fiction always involves families with distinguishing features, but all of them mean the same thing: awful living conditions in the South, a society where people were treated differently, where women were treated differently, and where a change needed to be initiated. Most people would just do nothing and accept what is happening. However, William Faulkner was not pleased with the society and informed people by creating characters that may encounter the same situation. Such “justice” is not what we expected and reformation is necessary. This is what Faulkner wants to tell people.
Works Cited
Horst, Frenz. "William Faulkner - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 16 Sep 2013.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-bio.html
Deng, Chunyan. “Analysis of The Sound and The Fury.” China Academic Journal. February 2009.
wenku.baidu.com/view/60946648c850ad02de804132.html
Warren, Robert. “The Kenyon Review”. Volume 3. Page 256. Kenyon College.
www.jstor.org/stable/4332249?seq=1
William Faulkner, one of the most influential writers in American history, was born in 1897, at a time when the conflict between the North and the South was unsettled because people in the South faced difficult living conditions and controversial issues, such as abandoning their past.(Frenz,"William Faulkner - Biographical"). Under such conditions, especially in the South, women’s rights were stifled and human nature was distorted. The families depicted in Faulkner’s fictions convey the manner of living people had during such an era. Through depictions of families like the Compsons and the Snopes, Faulkner wanted to show characters who were suffering to provoke changes in the era he was living in.
The story of the Compsons family is a tragedy. Heroine Kitty, a woman who thirsts for knowledge, could not tolerate the Southern society and even feel revolted against it. She desired the world outside, but her father restricted her behavior and stifled her freedom. As she grew older, she could not get along with the Southern society and felt uncomfortable under this situation. Finally,she became disillusioned and lost her virginity. I think the things she did are ways to rebel against the society. Life is one challenge right after another for Kitty. She had to take care of her brothers in the family; at her young age, she started to take care of her brother who had physical disabilities. When Kitty grew up, her husband discarded her and her brothers, lied to her, and extorted money from her. Although Kitty suffered from physical and emotional pains, she put up a tenacious fight against the difficulties in her life. Quentin, the daughter of Kitty, grows up in an environment without care and full of depression. Just like her mother, she became another woman of loose morals and escaped her family to seek the life that she desired. Under patriarchal society, Kitty and Quentin were deprived of their rights by their father when they were born. The fact that Kitty did such immoral things to fight against the society and that Quentin escaped from her family means they wanted a new start and reflects the society that needs to take a change (Deng 3).
After Kitty had lost her virginity and became a mistress of a Nazi Officer, which gave the Compsons family a heavy blow. The shame Kitty cause on her family made her older brother took his own life by throwing himself into the river; her father became a heavy drinker and her younger brother suffered from pains that no one will ever take care of him anymore. The Compsons family has moved toward ending. The old, rigid rules had come to an end and a reformation is indispensable for the South (Deng 3).
The Snopes, another example of a family clan, appeared in three novels by William Faulkner: “The Hamlet,”“The Town,” and “The Mansion.” Through the novels, the impoverished Snopes family moved into the town as newcomers. Snopes’ son, Flem Snope, was hired to be a clerk in the store by the Varner family, who owned the Old Frenchman’s Bend. Flem Snope developed into the ruthless operator of the store and became conceited. He built strong connections with the Varner family by all kinds of dirty tricks and lies. In addition, he also married Eula, Varner’s daughter, who had become pregnant out of wedlock. Since then, the Snopes took almost all of the property of the Varner family. The Snopes developed a strong sense of guilt but they remained loyal as a family while abandoning traditional morality and even laws of society. “It tells us the difference between traditionalism and modernism, humanism and naturalism. The Snopes were act oppose the Sartoris World, in a way of anti-traditional. They only care about self-interest with no ethical duty” (Warren 256). The world we see during those periods is not what we expected to see; people have their skeletons in their closets. Faulkner made these people do not behave in an acceptable way thus indicating that the backwards society needed to be changed.
Faulkner’s fiction always involves families with distinguishing features, but all of them mean the same thing: awful living conditions in the South, a society where people were treated differently, where women were treated differently, and where a change needed to be initiated. Most people would just do nothing and accept what is happening. However, William Faulkner was not pleased with the society and informed people by creating characters that may encounter the same situation. Such “justice” is not what we expected and reformation is necessary. This is what Faulkner wants to tell people.
Works Cited
Horst, Frenz. "William Faulkner - Biographical". Nobelprize.org. Nobel Media AB 2013. Web. 16 Sep 2013.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-bio.html
Deng, Chunyan. “Analysis of The Sound and The Fury.” China Academic Journal. February 2009.
wenku.baidu.com/view/60946648c850ad02de804132.html
Warren, Robert. “The Kenyon Review”. Volume 3. Page 256. Kenyon College.
www.jstor.org/stable/4332249?seq=1