Imagery Of Primitive Return In Light In August And The Bear

William Faulkner, from the south of America in the20th century, was a great modernistwriter of fiction. The background of his works is often set in a mythical kingdom calledYoknapatawpha. The novels set in Yoknapatawpha depicts the unique natural geographicaland natural conditions of Faulkner’s hometown in Mississippi as well as the wax and wane ofthe South after the Civil War, which embodies his nostalgia. The preoccupation of his worksis mainly on the past rather than the present nor the future. Back to1990s many Chineseliterary critics pointed out the tendency of primitivism in his works when they were studyingthe literature of the West and primitivism. At the same time, the nostalgia comes with thetendency of return thinking.Two works, written in different periods, are chosen in the thesis from the perspective ofthe primitivism and return. One is Light in August, his representative work of his early years,and the other is The Bear, his late prominent novel. These two novels, ten years away interms of the creation and the publication, were strikingly different on themes, structures andcharacters but are similar in the background set in Yoknapatawpha. It could be found out thatthe description on human nature is in both of them, in that the author fully demonstrated thecontradiction among the people and characters’ inner conflicts. The features of return andprimitivism lie in the themes, the characters and the description of the environment. Thisthesis is aimed at discovering sublimation and development of primitivism and return inFaulkner’s works with Light in August as an evidence for his later work The Bear.The tendency of primitivism and return in Faulkner’s works are analyzed in thefollowing aspects. Firstly, from the perspective of Faulkner’s feelings towards the south ofAmerica as the source of his creation of the works, the nostalgia embodied in the descriptionof the retrospect of yesterday and the past reflects profound primitivism and return. Secondly,the analysis of some prominent metaphors and images in the two works shows that suchmodernist figures of speech as symbolic metaphor and image can further illustrate thetendency. Thirdly, the analysis of some characters in the two works and the primitivism inthem in particular can reflect the tendency as well as his eulogy of the bright side of humannature. In conclusion, William Faulkner is considered as a great writer concentrating onhuman nature and psychology. His motive mainly presented by primitivism and return severeas the salvation for the people living for the day. His works are filled with the hope for abright future for each and every one of us.