The Father Images And Cultural Metaphor In Faulkner’s Novels

William Faulkner is one of the most important American novelists in the 20 th century,and his works have gained enduring influence with rich techniques and profound connotation,the moral strength and aesthetic value of his novels are still closely related to people’s life up to now,and people have always talked about the formal techniques in his novels.William Faulkner studies has yielded fruitful results,but the study of the father images in his novels still needs.to be expanded.From an overall perspective,this paper investigates the father images in William Faulkner’s works,trying to clarify the isomorphi crelationship between the father images and the southern culture,reveal the cultural metaphor of the father images;This paper attempt to explore William Faulkner’s reflection on the southern culture and the construction of Human’s ideal through the discuss of the resistance of the offspring.Thesis text devided into three parts: Introduction,body text and conclusion.There are four chapters in the main text.In the part of introduction,it brings in combing research of works of William Faulkner at home and abroad,evaluating the existing research findings on William Faulkner’s father images,and pointing out the limitations to be in-depth research.Chapter one analyzes the influence of the Father in William Faulkner’s family history on his depiction of father images and points out that the father images created by William Faulkner has a tendency of paradigmation,which have a profound influence over the Americansouthern social history to the fathers who show some common features in their thoughts,ideas,behaviors and personality traits.Chapter two analyzes the relationship between the father images and southern history.The frontier times,the racism times,and the age of abolition of slavery left their mark on the fathers,who unconsciously became the carrier and mirror of the American southern history.William Faulkner presents the influence and type-casting of History on people.Chapter three analyzes the relationship between the father images and the southern Puritan culture.The father images in William Faulkner’s novels are harsh practitioner of puritanism ethics,They position theriselves as vicar of God who dominated children,women,blacks,and so on.Puritanism,racism and the male-power chauvinism represented by Father are in a collusive relationship.Chapter four analyzes the relationship between the son generation and the father generation.In Faulkner’s novels,the children are both obedient and rebellious to their fathers,they are immersed in the glory of their fathers to mourn the passing of history,but also base on the current context reflect on the advantages and disadvantagesof southern culture,and construct the ideal father images in spirit.Those ideal father images in William Faulkner’s works declare publicly his understanding and expectations for human.In the conclusion,this paper summarizes the above discussion,points out that Faulkner’s father images is not limited to the issue of father’s identity,and the metaphor behind it includes William Faulkner’s reflection on southern culture and his concern for human.