Despair, Hope

William Faulkner is a very important American writer, renowned all over the world. Faulkner was born and grew up in South America, so he was quite familiar with the southern geography, history and people which supply plenty materials for his novels. As a writer with strong sense of social responsibility, Faulkner relentlessly pursued a combination of social criticism and ethics. He also profoundly exposed the evil slavery and racism in South America, but strongly praised people's lofty quality and spirits. However, although writing a lot about the dark side of the society, sometimes even letting readers feel despair, Faulkner was not at all a pessimist and actually he entertained a firm belief in mankind. Reading his novels, you can see hope from despair, feeling the glory of human nature.The main body of this paper includes five parts. The first chapter made an analysis of"human nature"from a philosophical angle, thus introducing Faulkner's viewpoint of human nature. The next three chapters elaborated six characters of three types: the first category is the Redeemers like Jesus Christ including Cash Durham in As I Lay Dying and the black maid Dilsey in The Sound and the Fury, and I will use the archetypal criticism to analyze their spirit of endurance and self-sacrifice; the second category is the guardians of nature including Sam Fathers in Ancient Tribal and Isaac McCaslin in Bear, and I will use ecological criticism to analyze the harmonious relationship between man and nature; the third category is people who seek a beautiful life including Charles State in Absalom, Absalom! and Lucas Beauchamp in Go Down, Moses, and I will use social criticism to analyze their tenacious and persistent quality against hardships. In the epilogue, I made a summary of the whole paper and further explored the revelation to contemporary people from the glory of human nature in Faulkner's novels.