Pathfinder Of Human Fates

In 1949, three voters on Nobel Prize Committee opposed William Faulkner, an outstanding representative of the Southern Renaissance. They thought that his outlook belonged to the cosmos pessimism and his works were full of incest, miscegenation, fratricide, patriarchal power and filial obsession and so on. They thought they should choose a laureate poet who should have more smiles in the face of our increasingly dark world. The next year, when the news of Faulkner's winning the Nobel Prize reached the United States, the public opinions were roarous, some critics thought this was the best illustration for Nobel Prize Committee's irresponsible actions.Is William Faulkner really so? Faulkner said," I decline to accept the end of man, I believe thatman will not merely endure, he will prevail.....He is immortal, not because he alone among creatureshas an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of the past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the prop, the pillars to help him endure and prevail. His work is to create out of the human spirit something which didn't exist before."Hemingway, in a 1946 interview, agreed that Faulkner was the greatest living American writer. O' Conner thought that Faulkner's works should not be considered in terms of regions but in terms of issues.Indeed, Faulkner exposed the bad aspect of human nature, but his vvorks are realistic. When we come across his works at first time, we feel not only repressed but also frightened. We seem to hear those ghosts who refused to lie down sobbing on drizzle nights and climbing from their caves and attacking mankind in harsh words. Faulkner was never behind Theodore Dresser in criticizing Calvinism and materialism culture and in exposing the mental crisis beneath the genteel tradition. Faulkner's contributions to the treasure house of American literature lie not only in his exposition, but also in his rational introspection and constructive proposes, in his ways to solve the spiritual crisis and in his medicine for the ills in the minds of modern men.The south's military defeat in the Civil War led to the doomed ruin of traditional social structure, value systems and traditional order. Military conquest, industrialization and reconstruction followed the Civil War. The Southerners still lived in poverty and misery. Cruel reality, combined with the conservative nature, made the southerners look ahead in tears, they tried to find solace from the past. After World War One, the south began to participate in the normal development of the United States and the solitary days ended. The southerners had not yet been freed from foolishness, but now they became the slaves of greed and the instruments of materialism. Action is the translation of the ideas, At that time, the ills in the mind is the source of all the strange behavior of the Southerners.Industrialization led to the development of education in the south. The new intellectuals at the very beginning of the 20th century received much more education. They could examine the south from another aspect. William Faulkner was among them. Mis ideas were formed before reconstruction, his family background and social culture were the sources of his ideas. But he also received Harvardeducation and had been to Europe, he could make penetrating introspection into the past and the south. The result of his introspection was the birth of Yoknapatawpha novels.Most of his works are set in Yoknapatawpha County and its main town Jefferson. He probed the sources of many problems the south was confronted with and he tried his best to cure the illness in the minds of the south. From1 the very first settlers lo his time, human civilization is a tragic story...