The voice of Faulkner

The voice of Faulkner Introduction William Faulkner’s writing in three short stories (‘A Rose for Emily’, ‘Barn burning’, and ‘As l lay dying’) is highly emotional, complex, gothic and has an unconventional choice of narrators. These attributes denote two literary elements and they are: language and style. One can analyze those two elements in order to understand William Faulkner’s voice.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on The voice of Faulkner specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More How Faulkner uses language and style in ‘A Rose for Emily’, ‘Barn burning’ and ‘As I lay dying’ Emotional and poetic language Faulkner has the ability to be intensely emotional in most of his pieces without really sacrificing the story line or the strengths of his characters. In ‘Barn burning’, the author evokes emotions by compressing deep meaning in jus t a few lines. In one scenario, Sarty says ‘Father! Father!’ (Faulkner, As I lay dying 14)These might seem like simple words, but they are packed with meaning. The reader is able to feel a sense of loss, sadness, and a hint of relief as the speaker makes this statement. The author allows his phrases to possess some level of ambiguity in order to give his readers room to interpret or create their own meaning. In ‘As I lay dying’, the author uses one of his characters to convey literary or poetic language. Darl is extremely articulate and his language is quite innovative. Gothic style Faulkner has the ability to bring out elements of death, decay, destruction, isolation and darkness in a unique way. This component in his writings caused him to stand out from his contemporaries. In ‘A rose for Emily’, Faulkner creates an image of a woman who clearly does not belong to her world. She refuses to leave her house for years on end; she stops talking to everyone, has an affair with a disapproved male, and finally murders her lover. Here was a woman who was trapped in the past, and had alienated herself from life. Emily had a lush and beautiful environment outside her house; she never bothered to look at it. She chose to live in darkness, both literally and metaphorically as she never drew her curtains. This depiction of deep darkness was something that Faulkner always focused on; it added a gothic element to his writings and made it distinctive. In ‘As I lay dying’, the author selects a relatively poor family- the Bundrens. Although the group is ignorant and has a series of other weaknesses, the author still conveys their experiences with empathy and grace. The setting of the community in which the Bundrens live has an element of grotesqueness because it focuses on members of the lower class. The death of Addie is also one of the dark and disturbing components of the narration. Additionally, Faulkner describes the des truction of Darl in such a tragic and dignified manner. One cannot help but feel the same devastation that surrounded that development. The gothic style in this narrative is therefore reflective of the author’s preference for dark tales. In ‘Barn burning’, the author’s preference for the bizarre is seen through his choice of characters. This is a dysfunctional family whose head has a need to burn houses. He causes his children to participate in his wrongdoings by instructing them to help him out with a few things.Advertising Looking for critical writing on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More It only gets worse for Sarty when the Major chooses to kill his father before he can destroy his barn. Eventually, the young boy keeps running until midnight, when he stops to sit at the crest of a hill. This must be a dark moment in Sarty’s life because he did not have a fathe r anymore, yet he also ran away from people who love him. These are all depressing issues that cause the reader to empathize deeply with Sarty. Complex style Faulkner had a complex style of writing owing to his treated of time, his use of long sentences and unconventional sentence structure, his preference for ambiguity, and his use of stream of unconsciousness. One of the most interesting component’s of Faulkner’s style of writing was his complicated treatment of time. He achieves this by changing from narrator to narrator and from character to character. The lack of chronology in his pieces is the reason why some unseasoned readers find his work difficult to follow. In ‘A rose for Emily’, the story commences with the main character’s death. This is followed by many events that occurred in the modern age to the period just before the Civil war in the South. The present is sometimes interrupted by events in the past and the past sometimes appears to be the present. One is able to deduce this interweaving of events through phrases such as: ‘thirty years before’ or ‘eight years later’ (Faulkner, A rose for Emily 17). It is almost as if Faulkner is giving his audience little pieces of a puzzle that must be put together in order to understand the whole narration. The time movements have been achieved through the use of flashbacks and foreshadows. The end of the story illustrates that the entire piece has been a flashback since it talks about the discovery of the corpse of Homer in Emily’s house. Faulkner did not just choose this non linear approach in order to make his work interesting or to confuse readers; he did it in order to make his readers engage more with the text. As one goes through the story, one is likely to be inspired to compare chronologies with other people so as to detect any possible misreading. In these discussions, one can then analyze the thematic repercussions of those chronol ogies. This unconventional style has a way of making readers more engrained in the narration, and hence more likely to admire his work. The same thing occurs in ‘As I lay dying.’ Although the story spans through a couple of days, the author utilizes the perspectives of several voices in order to bring in a different dimension to the story. Faulkner manages to create a sense of wholeness despite the fragmentary nature of the story. The various sub plots that are added from time to time seem to add more strength to the story. The ambiguity of the narrators requires meticulous analysis of their descriptions because not all of them are credible.Advertising We will write a custom critical writing sample on The voice of Faulkner specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Complexity is also created in ‘Barn burning through the use of long sentences. This method has also been employed in ‘As I lay dying’. The long sente nces can make it difficult to follow the narrative, if one does not pay close attention 9Faulkner, as I lay dying 65). He is fond of this style of writing because he wants to capture the action and emotions that his characters are going through. When Sarty starts chasing after de Spain, the author describes this experience using very lengthy sentences. As one reads them, one gets lost in the events of the moment. One can feel the confusion and sense of loss that Sarty is going through using this technique. Faulkner therefore achieves his objective by causing readers to get carried away. Since there is no slowing down in the sentences, there is also no slowing down with the actions being described. Unconventional choice of narrators as an element of style In ‘A rose for Emily’, the writer uses the town as the main voice in the short story. As the story continues, one learns about the habits and values of the people in Emily’s hometown. This narrator does not pre-e mpt anything in the short story. He seems to discover new things along with the audience. For instance, in one scenario, the narrator states that there was an awful smell from Emily’s house, and adds that it occurred as soon as her sweetheart died. He does not provide any correlation between these two components of the tale. It is only until the end of the story that the reader is able to know where the smell came from. The narrator, provides additional information, but still strives to maintain suspense in the story. In ‘Barn burning’, the author picks an omniscient narrator who seems very close to Sarty. The purpose of selecting such a voice was to make the main character get closer to readers. At one point, one feels as though one has entered Sarty’s mind. Since he is someone who understands things through symbols, the writer presented or explained things through such a perspective. For example, when Sarty went to court, he describes the crowd as having ‘a lane of grim faces’. Numerous metaphors have been used, that relate to a child’s perspective. In another instance, he describes his father’s voice as being harsh as tin and lacking heat as tin. However, the author manages to illustrate that Sarty was not in fact the real narrator when Sarty and his family are out camping and his father makes a small fire. It is noted that Abner does not hesitate to create large fires when burning other people’s barns. The narrator muses that had Sarty been older, he would have asked himself why this was the case. The author therefore plays with reader’s minds by providing more than one possibility for the narration. This kind of style was fundamental in providing essential details to the story while providing a mechanism for understanding the main character’s actions.Advertising Looking for critical writing on literature languages? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Perhaps the most complicated choice of narrators occurred when the author wrote ‘As I lay dying’; there are fifteen narrators in the story and each of the descriptions is highly subjective. Each narrator has his own kind of language and tone. Some of the narrators re confessional and seemingly neutral, but they end up loosing credibility later on. For instance, one of the first ones –Darl is an immensely articulate individual who seems to know what he is talking about. However, he is treated negatively by his family members who eventually take him to an asylum when he goes mad. To Faulkner, truth is debatable and depends upon the individual under consideration. The purpose for choosing such a complex interplay of narrators was to create a platform for adding more information to the story. Instead of depending upon one individual to describe everything, the author decides to use both real and interior monologues that the characters have with themselves and others in order to concretize the story. Objectivity is evasive in ‘As I lay dying’, and this causes readers to think a little bit more intensively about the developments in the story (Blotner 44). Stream of consciousness is also an important part of Faulkner’s complex writing. In ‘As I lay dying’, a number of narrators think about the death of the main character and they do this through continuous internal reflections. The same thing occurs in ‘Barn burning’. Sarty often describes his experiences as if they are flowing right out of his mind. For example, when his father walks in, he first describes what his father is wearing before he realizes that his father is in the house. Conclusion Faulkner was unsparing in his pieces; his words, plot and descriptions were intense and bold. His choice of characters and the lives they lived has grotesque or gothic inclinations. This author’s work was complex because of his sentence structures, his preference for ambiguity and his treatment of time. Lastly, the author’s choice of narrators was unconventional, but meaningful. Together, these components make Faulkner’s language and style exceptional in the literary world. Blotner, Joseph. Faulkner: A biography. NY: Random House, 1984 Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying: The corrected text. NY: Vintage publishers, 1991. Print Faulkner, William. A rose for Emily. NY: Dramatic publishing, 1983. Print. Faulkner, William. Barn burning. NY: Harper and brothers, 1939. Print.

Earthly vs. Earthy

Earthly vs. Earthy Earthly vs. Earthy Earthly vs. Earthy By Mark Nichol What’s the difference between earthly and earthy? Once upon a time, they were synonymous, but now, though there isn’t exactly a world of difference between the two terms, they have distinct meanings. Earthly is an adjective that refers to life on Earth, as opposed to extraterrestrial or spiritual existence. Earthy, by contrast, though it is superficially similar to earthly in its senses, denotes practicality, simplicity, or roughness, coarseness, or crudeness. Flavor, odor, or texture suggestive of soil, mundane matters and plain styles, and ribald humor are all described as earthy. Synonyms for earthly include earthbound, mundane (itself derived from the Latin word for world), terrestrial and terrene (both the former, a common word, and the latter, rarely employed, are descended from the Latin term for earth), and worldly; these terms, with the exception of earthbound, all relate to nonspiritual matters rather than extraplanetary ones. The noun from which both earthly and earthy developed is itself rich in meaning and has inspired numerous idiomatic phrases, including several that suggest the sense of earthly: Someone described as down to earth is realistic and sensible; a person described as being the salt of the earth is solid and reliable, and an earth mother is one with nurturing qualities, suggesting that she is an extension of the world, which provides all that humans need to live. And if someone says to a friend named Joe, â€Å"Earth to Joe, Earth to Joe,† the expression suggests that Joe is an astronaut in orbit and the speaker is an earthbound person sending a radio message to Joe to remind him that he figuratively needs to return to Earth’s surface and come to his senses. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:How Many Tenses in English?50 Idioms About Arms, Hands, and FingersTreatment of Words That Include â€Å"Self†

Why Natural Farming is better than Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) Research Paper

Why Natural Farming is better than Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) - Research Paper Example It was an excellent narration to illustrate the various sources of our food that can be had either from industrialized farms which utilizes GMO, to large scale organic farming to hunting (2006). In the same vein, the movie Food Inc by Robert Kenner Food Inc. demonstrates how industrial food makers through the massive use of GMO corn have altered our eating habits. Both the book and movie illustrated that industrial farm factory does not reveal the true cost of our food. While it may initially priced to be cheaper, the true cost is concealed in terms of undermining our health and the environment. This was more vividly illustrated in the movie Food Inc. where corn are also being fed to cows which is now fast becoming as part of our staple food causing us obesity and other health issues. The lethal contamination of E.coli that was induced by cows being in their manure during production was also illustrated with a kid dying just few days after consuming a contaminated burger. In effect, both Pollan’s book The Omnivore’s dilemma: a natural history of four meals and Robert Kenner’s movie Food Inc. illustrated that the source of our food is becoming a factory and is no longer grown the way it used to be. Worst, industrial farm factory and the use of GMOs are even packaged to be a better food source than organic farming (2008). Perhaps it was to illustrate the importance of organic farming over factory farming that uses genetically modified corn that Pollan showed his fascination on a farm where different species can be raised together in a theme of symbiosis (Pollan 126). The grower called himself a â€Å"grass farmer† to demonstrate that grass is the foundation of the intricate food chain. II. The rise of the Genetically Modified Organism agricultural products The debate over organic farming and Genetically Modified Organism (GMO) crop farming is still as intense when GMOs first caught the public attention. Each mode of farming the crop ar e pushing its advantage over the other as a better source of food with GMO gaining wider acceptance because of its putative efficiency in producing the crops. Genetically Modified Organism came to public attention in September of 2000 when the business section of the New York Times ran a frontpage story about an issue in the food supply. A new genetically engineered corn that contains a protein Cry9C which was supposed to be used as an animal feed was found in a nationally sold tacos (Kelso and Takahashi I). Despite of the issue, genetically modified crops have gained wide acceptance in the United States that it now contains more than 40% of soybeans, cotton and corn that is sold in supermarkets (Sakko). Crops have been modified to grow efficiently requiring fewer herbicides with some crops designed to be resistant to insects and pests. There were also crops whose genomes were altered to produce certain vitamins such as the Golden rice which has been said to contain Vitamin A. Genet ic alteration is not only limited to crops but is also used in trees and other animals (Sakko). III. The debate: why natural farming is better than Genetically Modified Organism? The most common reason used by the proponents of Genetically Modified Organism factory farming is that they are cheaper to produce and is a practical option to provide food to people worldwide (Royal Society of Chemistry). They are also said to be efficient because crops can be improved through genetic engineering to become more resistant to pests with an enhanced nutrient value at a lower production cost. Proponents of GMO’s are also highlighting the advantage of genetically improved crops to be more profitable because they can be grown faster. Proponents of organic farming on the other raised the advantages of organically raised foods over genetically