An Analysis Of The Scapegoat Images In Faulkner’s Works

As the greatest Southern writer in American literature in the twentieth century, William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize for literature in1949. During his whole life, he produced nineteen novels and almost one hundred short stories, and among them, fifteen novels and the majority of short stories were set in the imaginary Yoknapatapha County.Trapped by the tragic history of the America South, Faulkner was deeply harassed by the scapegoat mechanism in modern society, for which he repeatedly displayed scapegoat images in his works like Light in August,"A Rose for Emily", and As I Lay Dying. Thus, this thesis analyzes the scapegoat images from three aspects:race, class and family, and points out that it is racial discrimination, class prejudice and the indifferent relationship among family members that cause the protagonists’tragedies. Although the protagonists fought against the fate, they were doomed to become the victims and scapegoats of race, class and family. By creating scapegoat images in his works, Faulkner displayed the traditional American South and revealed the effects of poisoning and destruction of the traditional culture and values on human beings.By analyzing the identity of Christmas, the protagonist of Light in August, the thesis points out that it is just the racial discrimination and social forces that attribute to Christmas’s ambiguous identity and final death and make him a scapegoat and victim of the racial discrimination. By analyzing Emily’s behavior and circumstances in "A Rose for Emily", the thesis studies women’s predicament, mirrors their suffering and destruction under patriarchy and traditional values. By analyzing the members of the Bundren family in As I Lay Dying, the thesis explores the causes of Darl’s tragedy. Through the above analysis, the thesis digs Faulkner’s creative thinking and humanistic concern reflected in his works.