Paternity at Stake and Its Reflexively Destructive Effects in Faulkner's Selective Novels

Abstract

One of the major themes of William Faulkner's works is fatherhood or paternity, which is declining in the Southern background due to the enormous changes in political, social, and cultural fields. This partly results from too strong a tradition of Southern community where ancestral father figures' influence has dominated descendants in many ways. Many works of Faulkner deal with such communal problems, and this paper discusses the declining paternity in the Southern community and its effects on the coming generations in the works such as Sanctuary, Flags in the Dust, and The Sound and the Fury. The biggest problem for male characters in these stories is that they cannot escape from their dead ancestors' shadow. Unable to escape, the males from coming generations have no choice but to repeat what their forefathers have done. This continues the Southern tradition in ways that deteriorate the existing paternal tradition. Faulkner's works discussed here seem to suggest that it is hard for male characters to terminate this ongoing process of degenerating paternal activities. The lack, or even absence, of definite solution for this dilemma seems to reflect Faulkner's rather gloomy view of human beings with its Southern background as the universal place for human community. Through these works, Faulkner delivers a message as to the general conditions of human beings and their effect on human society as well.