The main idea presented in William Faulkner’s acceptancespeech in the Nobel Prize for literature regarding the manner in which the preservation of mankind is the responsibility of thewriter, how man-kind should succeed and bear all the conflictsof the heart, and it is the duty of the writer to write about thesethings. He identified the subject as the conflict between thehuman heart and the human himself. In Williams’s speech, heconnects the purpose of the protection of writers and thesafeguarding of mankind. He formulates the writers believe thatfor mankind to triumph and endure, writers have to obligate towriting the issue of mankind‘s conflicts. He does not only makeit their duty but also inspire them to a paragon of a vast writer.He is asserting that the writer currently does no longer centerson issues that can be known by all. He says each individual cancomprehend the love, mercy, sacrifice, etc. as we go throughthese things in life. Faulkner offers the writers guidance thatwhen they are writing, they should write about the heart, fromthe heart, and for the heart. He, therefore, succeeds his speech‘spurposed goal by using letters of support to change writers towrite with compassion and from the heart, by use of antonymsall over his speech to show his contrasting idea and to stress hisidea for writers to be good writers, and using same sentencestructure to stress the significance of a writer‘s inspirationtowards a character.
In the pieces of fiction that are either assigned orunassigned, we end up becoming the witnesses to the struggle of a character with himself and the end outcome of the struggle thatshows the real character. In this assigned piece of fiction, William Faulkner reveals his own character with the struggle heused to achieve his works of literature. Having been born inMississippi, Faulkner relied heavily at times on family teachingsfor his works of literature; he relied even more broadly from hisskills of his geographic region and also from his sharp approachinto human nature. He, therefore, had the experiences as he grewup especially the family knowledge and teachings. Theseteachings, experiences and knowledge from his family becamethe basis of most of his novel‘s main characters. Faulknerisolated in a tiny southern town, in a way, developed and learnedeffectively to use his approach into human character as he stayedwatching the world around him. He made use of the things heobserved in the lives of simple individuals with modest needs tomake the realistic composite characters whose presences sofiercely dominate his best works.
In his quote “The Only Thing Worth Writing About Is The Human Heart In Conflict With Itself” Faulkner was signifyingthat the foundation of good fiction, be it poetry or else prose,comes from inside, and that inner conflict is the groundwork ofnearly all significant pieces of literature. This does not signifythat outer conflicts are not essential; relatively, it recommendthat they are significant, but it’s how the characters compact with them that creates an excellent piece of fiction. This is for thereason that writing which gets to the reader on an emotional oreven spiritual level is more than powerful, and will remain in themind longer than writing that compact exclusively with outerconflicts. The statement was made when the Nagasaki andHiroshima bombs had barely cooled in the atomic era.
His humility to human life is especially shown in thespeech when he said, “I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work — life‘s work in the agony and sweatof the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but tocreate out of the materials of the human spirit something whichdid not exist before“. The phrase from his speech reveals hischaracter as wanting to make contributions to the human raceand not for his yearning for fame in the field of literature.
Faulkner uses antonyms all through his speech to signifyhis distinct view and to stress on his idea of writers to becomebetter writers. In paragraph three, sentence two, he states, “Hewrites not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody losesanything of value, of victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion.” Faulkner is saying that to become agood writer, a person must write of love and write from theheart. Faulkner uses juxtaposition to compare the qualities ofwhat modern writers‘ write about; “lust,” “defeats,” “victorieswithout hope,” and “without pity or compassion.” Compared tothe qualities on what they should have written which is aboutlove and from the heart. In the final sentence of the paragraph hesaid, “He writes not of the heart but of the glands.” He goes intodepth into his idea of comparing to what they should writeabout. He uses juxtaposition, “not of the heart but of the glands,” two different organs. He attempts to tell writers to write aboutthings they should not write about and tell them what to writeabout.
“I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work – life‘s work in the agony and sweat of the humanspirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out ofthe materials of the human spirit something which did not existbefore“. He, therefore, sees a writer as a booster of the humanheart, which is shown in the character presented by him.
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You write well. You have broken down Faulkner’s speech. Now is the time to apply the concept chosen to two readings. Look to the syllabus to get the full topic for this assignment.
You can choose two Faulkner characters or two characters from other stories. And in these explore why it is important that the character come to terms with an inner struggle? What is the inner struggle and what does it mean and reveal about the character?
Safe Assign resulted in 37% matching. This is from using the information and potentially other websites regarding Faulkner’s words and meaning. Some matching is expected, in cases of Works Cited page, quoting, and general statements. Make sure to always use your own words and paraphrase wherever possible. Avoid block quotes if they do not enhance the topic you are on.
Work Cited
Faulkner, William. “Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature.” American Rhetoric. Stockholm Sweden. 10December 1950. Web. 5 October 2010.
Liukkonen, Petri. “William (Cuthbert) Faulkner (1897-1962) –original surname until 1924 Falkner,” 2008. Web. 5 October 5, 2010.