LYCOS RETRIEVER 
William Faulkner: Stories
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On this day in 1919, twenty-two-year-old William Faulkner published his first prose, a short story entitled "Landing in Luck." It is a lighthearted tale about an air force cadet's first solo flight, and it gives little sign of the style or fame to come, but the autobiographical details behind its telling are pure, playful Faulkner. They ... might make the author worthy of his hero's description as "the biggest liar in the R. A. F."
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NOTE: THE FAUST LEGEND Faulkner compares Joe to Dr. Faust. According to German legend, the magician Faust made a pact with or sold his soul to the devil. Both the German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) and the English Elizabethan playwright Christopher Marlowe (1564-1593) wrote famous dramas about Faust. Here Faulkner seems to be suggesting the rebellious freedom of a man who has defied society's moral code. But he could ... be hinting that the freedom Joe feels will be brief, just as a deal with the devil has its price. In addition, Faulkner may have been thinking of the fact that in Goethe's version of the Faust story, Faust is always striving, never satisfied.
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Faulkner needs to be understood in both the context of southern literary traditions and modernism. "Emily" interbraids a meandering, typically southern mode of narration, replete with communal bias and obfuscation, with a modernist sense of rupture, scrambled chronology, and Freudian subtext. "Barn Burning," in its employment of Jamesian point of view as confined to Sarty's consciousness, requires detailed analysis of its narrative structure, its language, and the consequent effects on the reader. Both stories attempt to present complicated psychological conditions and situations while adhering to the firm realities of dramatic plotting.
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[P]ublished in 1929, Faulkner created his "heart's darling," the beautiful and tragic Caddy Compson, whose story Faulkner told through separate monologues by her three brothers--the idiot Benjy, the neurotic suicidal Quentin and the monstrous Jason. Read more >
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The teacher can conduct a traditional literary analysis by analyzing the elements of the selected Faulkner short story. The students could be asked to list their analysis on a chart. A review of the short story elements can be found at the following web sites:
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Having been rejected by the U. S. Army because of his size (just under 5'6"), Faulkner decided to try to enlist in the Canadian RAF, under pretence of being an Englishman. FULL STORY »
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