Faulkner’s Critique Of Modernity And Sense Of History In Pylon

William Faulkner (1897-1962) is considered to be one of the greatest Americanwriters of the20th century. He is a prolific writer. Most of his novels are set inYoknapatawpha county；the novel Pylon is set outside of Yoknapatawpha county, inNew Valois, a thinly disguised city of New Orleans. In the city of New Valois, themain setting for most of the novel, traditional social values and structures havecollapsed. In a newspaper reporter and a clan of itinerant stunt fliers it embodiesFaulkner’s evaluation of the mid-1930s modern world as a dehumanizing andalienated world which is a spiritual wasteland and the wreckage of modernity. Pylonis a denunciation of modern life, a condemnation of the mechanization anddehumanization of men.Compared with his novels of Yoknapatawpha county, Pylon seems less popularor even neglected. There are some negative voices about the complex style, theJoycean style of long and complicated sentences, the weak characterization and thelack of plotting. In fact, all the criticism is originally due to a lack of deep insight intothis novel. The reason Faulkner chooses the special style and language and the way ofcharacterization and plotting is to coordinate such a topic: modern world is analienated world in which modern people are gradually dehumanized and mechanizedand spiritually hollow. And Faulkner’s concern for the modern world, from anotherperspective, is a representation of his sense of history; in the meantime, his sense ofhistory also helps to construct his modernity. Then, how does Faulkner express hiscritique toward the modern world and how does the novel embody Faulkner’s senseof history?Faulkner’s critique to modernity is conspicuously embodied in his concern foralienation of humanity in modern society. While modernity has brought developmentand prosperity to societies, it at the same time becomes a shackle controlling andrepressing development of human beings with its modern culture, modern technology and modern way of consumption. Alienation is an unavoidable existential conditionfor human beings. Spiritual wasteland is a general tendency. Beneath alienation ofmodernity is the lack of sense of history for modern people. For the fliers, they are cutaway from history, away from families, away from home. They are rootless floats ofmodern society. They have been stripped from most of the manners, customs, andprinciples of traditional morality, and the nurture of children, the maintenance of ahome and marriage and even fidelity to one’s lover are luxuries for them. However,Shumann’s sacrificial death, Jack’s returning to his parental family and Laverne’sreestablishment of a traditional family, all these signify the return of traditional moralvalues and traditional family structure. As to Faulkner, though he is bewildered abouthuman beings’ future, it seems for him that traditional values and human’s virtues willglitter humanity and be a way out of alienation of modernity.If the image of the airplane revolving around the pylon and then crashingsignifies the disintegration of myth of modernity, then the image of “father” and“home” signifies the mythical world of the past which attributes meaning to life,constructs the order of societies and guides the development of societies. Pylon withthe image of the peak of tower directing into the sky also signifies a metaphysicalpursuit. The society of human beings’ historical development, whether it be at aslower or a faster pace, always revolves around their metaphysical pursuit ofhappiness. If Pylon is Faulkner’s meditation on societies and human beings’development, this is maybe the deeper meaning of the novel.