Jeffrey M. Boyd

October 3, 1999

Honors Amer. Lit.

Faulkner Essay

Faulkner believed that, "human beings learn the deepest truths about themselves through suffering." In his work, many of his characters are portraits of suffering. The truths they learn are the old verities and truths of the heart discussed in Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice."

In his short story "Two Soldiers", Pete's younger brother learns a truth about himself when he travels to Memphis to find his brother. When Pete decides he needs to enlist in the military, his younger brother does not know how to cope with the idea of his brother being gone. He does not quite grasp and understand why his brother would want to leave him and go fight in a war. He tries one last desperate act to try and comprehend his brother's actions; he travels all the way to Memphis just to see him again. While Pete's younger brother was not outwardly suffering, you must assume he is suffering on a different level, an emotional level. Having a family member that is closer to him than even his mother and father, just up and leave one day must be terror on the emotional level. Feelings of abandonment, loneliness, and sorrow are present in this young man's mind. And once he goes beyond these emotions and finds Pete in Memphis, he learns the deep truth that he loves his brother, and that love is stronger than any pity or pride. The boy finally breaks down and cries on the way home. It is then that his emotions overwhelm him the deep truth he learns, through his emotional suffering, comes into full effect.

In Faulkner's short story, "Barn Burning" Sarty Snopes, the young son of a tenant farmer experiences a different kind of suffering than the boy in "Two Soldiers". Sarty is suffering both emotionally and physically. Physically, his father is abusive and his family is in the process of moving and they are not very wealthy. Emotionally, Sarty's suffering pinnacles at the climax of this short story. As the story develops, Faulkner leads Sarty into a situation where he must make a final decision and as a consequence, learns a deep truth. The suffering Sarty is feeling is the question of whether he should remain true and faithful to his family, especially his father, or if he should do what he knows is right in his heart and do contrary to his father's wishes. With his decision to do what he knows is right in his hear, Sarty learns a deep truth; he learns to sacrifice his pride and honor out of love for his family. Sarty literally sacrifices his pride and honor, his father, in his decision. The decision brought upon him by his suffering heart.

In "A Rose for Emily", the main character, Emily, is suffering from a deep, hidden pain. She was born into nobility; she is a Grierson. A source of pride, honor, and prestige. Her father never lets any of the young suitors come near her because he does not feel they are worthy. Hence, Emily never learns the deep truth of love. When the opportunity for love comes around and threatens to leave, Emily doesn't know what to do. She is suffering from a lack of love and too much pride. She kills her one chance at love, and her pride kept her from admitting it. The pain she suffers from and the deepest truth she never learns is that what keeps her alone. Emily never learns to love, she knows only pride and honor, not compassion and sacrifice.

Faulkner truly believes that people learn the deepest truths about themselves through suffering. This is evident in the character development of his short story work. As he said in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, "...the problems of the heart in conflict with itself ... alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat." The problems of the heart is the suffering from which we learn the deepest truths.