Surname 1 Name: Course: Instructor: Date: William Faulkners The Human Heart In Conflict With Itself William Faulkner

is quoted saying the human heart in conflict with itself is the only thing worth writing about. When this statement is taken out of context, it happens to so vague that it is incoherent. The statement only makes sense when its context is known to the readers. The period in which the statement was made was a time when the world was under the shadow of the horror of the realization that human beings were capable of instantly and utterly annihilating their own species from the face of the earth. It was the first time such a realization had been made in the history of mankind. Up to the point that the atomic bomb was created, humans believed that devastation was something that only God or mother nature was capable of; this depended on ones religious beliefs though. However, following the dropping of the atomic bombs on Japanese cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima, it became quite obvious that survival of the human species depended greatly on something more precarious than God and nature; mankind. Duly so, the literature which sprang forth following the Second World War really reflected the mundane concern that everything could disappear at any moment, under a mushroom cloud. The call by Faulkner on writers and poets to write great pieces of work which reflect upon the human heart being in conflict with itself was simply a last cry by modernism on the

Surname 2 lingering human tragedy at the discovery and development of new technologies before it gave way to the conditions of post modern times. Following the development, the postmodern condition has abandoned the concept of tragedy. Faulkners Barn Burning as well as The Chrysanthemums by John Steinbeck, is concerned with the small events which are tinged with tragedy in the lives ordinary people live. Neither The Chrysanthemums nor Barn Burning bears any relation to stories which are commonly associated with tragedy like the plays of Shakespeare or Sophocles; however, this was part of what the modernism movement was all about. The modernism movement aimed to reveal the fact that the lives of ordinary people had great significance, if not any at all, of the kind of life royalty lives. From face value, neither of the two stories seems to be carrying the kind of weight the plays of Shakespeare or Sophocles do carry. Nonetheless, when the two stories are broken down, it is happens that they are not that much different. When all is said and done, Oedipus just happens to be the story of the human heart being in conflict with itself. While Barn Burning by Faulkner seems to be nothing but a white trash story, isnt it a young mans story of trying to come to terms with his conflicted feelings in his heart; as well as the power history has, and the easily persuaded march of generations? As William writes of Sarty: he was running, moving, outside the house, heading to the stable: this was that old habit, that old blood that he had not been allowed to make a choice on for himself, that which had been bequeathed him will nilly, and that had until now, run for quite some time (227).

Surname 3 He is simply giving a description of the conflict that happens to be within Sarty, as well as that overwhelming burden of the generational resistance towards changing; that Sarty is fighting against. William Faulkners stories are seldom self-contained; more often than not, they tend to fit into the larger panorama of history of the fictional County of Mississippi that he wrote about. If a lesser writer of contemporary times wrote these stories, it would be very easy for the stories to be a case in point for what William Faulkner was speaking out against. It would have been much easier for Faulkners Sarty to struggle against the souths oppression rather than the struggle against a domineering and abusive father. The story could have been nothing but that struggle for survival in our very much unfair world. However, the fact that William Faulkner decided to place the small story right into the context of the history of Sarty, and then put that very history again into the United States history, he succeeds in coming up with a conflict which takes place in Sartys heart; both in the universal sense and the personal level. Tragedy is created with the ability of translating the personal right into the universal. Eventually, Sarty decides to break free from bondage; he breaks free from family, and from all kinds of obligations that are not of his own choosing. From that point on, there is truly a tragedy as the story comes to a fold; a tragedy of a cold small boy stiffly walking right into a fresh dawn of a new day. He refuses to look back from that point onwards (230). However, in the end of it all, the story is no longer of the little boy having survived his escape from his brutal father; rather, it happens to be more profound, as well as deeper. It is the story of a small boy who was able to make a decision which rightly suits him; he has made the right decision right in the battleground that happens to be in his heart.

Surname 4 As Carson McCullers puts it, the heart happens to be a lonely hunter. Just as Sarty happens to be alone and just with his heart, so does Elisa seem to be in Steinbecks story; the Chrysanthemums. She is also lonely and alone with her heart. In Elisas case, it may seem that nothing is wrong with her marriage; she is clearly unhappy and would do anything to escape. Elisas heart is tinged with the universal very much unlike Sartys, which seems to influenced by forces from the outside. The chrysanthemums are not always more yellow, neither is grass always greener. When Steinbeck starts by writing how Elisa took off the gloves she had on, and then stuffing them with the scissors in the apron pocket; someone in modern times would be compelled to wonder whether or not this will develop into a survival story; an attempted rape survival. The story is about rape of the spirit and not simply about rape. Elisas conflict is rendered negligible when she comes into realization of the flowers that had been thrown on the road. She had been contemplating between staying in the unfulfilled life she had been living, or running away from it altogether. In those times, neither of the two options really offered fulfillment, especially given that she was a woman. The two stories, about Elisa and Sarty both succeed in fulfilling Faulkners sole requirement of worthy subject matter in literature. The hearts of both the subjects in the two stories are in conflict with their bearers; Sarty battles the interior demons he has, at the same time he battles the assault of history; on the other hand, Elisa is confronting the dreadful realization of the fact that battles are faced by millions every other day, and are unwinnable. Nonetheless, postmodernism has tried to change everything to look like a comedy; and though it may seem that tragedies are seldom found in todays literature, people like Sarty and Elisa play the part in everyday life; and perhaps countless times.

Surname 5 Works Cited enotes.com. William Faulkner. 2012. enotes.com. 15 July 2012 <http://www.enotes.com/william-faulkner-criticism/faulkner-william-79720>. SparkNotes Editors. SparkNote on Barn Burning. 2007. SparkNotes.com. 15 July 2012 <http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/barn-burning/>. . SparkNote on The Chrysanthemums. 2007. SparkNotes.com. 15 July 2012 <http://www.sparknotes.com/short-stories/the-chrysanthemums/ >. Steinbeck, John. The Chrysanthemums. 1938. 15 July 2012 <http://nbu.bg/webs/amb/american/4/steinbeck/chrysanthemums.htm>.