William Faulkner Haunting: Stream of Thesis

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Together, the chapters present a beautiful glimpse into the minds' of Faulkner's characters, as well as a peek at the author's own stream of consciousness, his process of getting a fully formed story from his mind to the paper.

Other than as I Lay Dying, Faulkner's short story "Barn Burning," contains elements of stream of consciousness. This can be best realized through segments of the story in which the narrator allows the reader into the mind of young Colonel Sartoris Snopes (Sarty), a young boy named for an important military man. For instance, as the judge prepares to call the boy to testify for his father, the boy's internal though process is depicted by the following stream of consciousness:

Enemy! Enemy! he thought; for a moment he could not even see, could not see that the justice's face was kindly nor discern that his voice was troubled when he spoke to the man named Harris: "Do you want me to question this boy?" But he could hear, and during those subsequent long seconds while there was absolutely no sound in the crowded little room save that of quiet and intent breathing it was as if he had swung outward at the end of a grape vine, over a ravine, and at the top of the swing had been caught in a prolonged instant of mesmerized gravity, weightless in time (Barn 10).

Further episodes of stream of consciousness in the story depict the boy's thoughts as he is abused, considers his father's barn burning, and thinks about family ties.

Through this use of stream of consciousness, Faulkner emphasizes the importance of the presence of the past by obscuring time. That is, by using stream of consciousness, the past and the presence are merged together so that the reader cannot tell where one has begun and the other ends. This is most clearly true in as I Lay Dying.

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Dawson suggests that use of stream of consciousness is such that "something of an extraordinary madness hangs like a red mist over [the novel]" (67). Part of that madness is the organization through which the present and past merge. Because of this, Addie's recollections of her father's adage that "the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time" (as I Lay 169) are as fresh as when they were first said to her. In the confused time zone of this stream of consciousness, the Bundrens' past, present, and futures exist at once. The past cannot be disregarded because it occurs at the same time as the present. In many ways, the past cannot be extracted from the present. In "Barn Burning" the same occurs, although to a lesser extent. Young Colonel Sartoris is haunted by not only the presence of the past, but the presence of old blood. That is, the young boy is haunted by his family ties. In this short story, Faulkner uses stream of consciousness to allow the reader to see into the boy's head during short bursts, the bursts when the boy feels the most frustration or makes the decisions that his family requires him to make. In one spectacular example, Sarty's father, Abner, is setting out to burn a barn when Faulkner uses stream of consciousness to suggest Sarty's decision to either vanquish or succumb to the call of "old blood" or his family heritage. Thus, Faulkner uses stream of consciousness, in this instance, to suggest the presence of the past.....

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