Universal Truths In William Faulkner's Coming Home Again

Superior Essays
In William Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Award Speech, Faulkner reflected on how a young writer needs to learn the true concept of the universal truths. Faulkner believed that if a story does not include the use of these truths, it is essentially doomed (Faulkner 872). They have been around since the beginning of the existence of humans, and they will continue to endure until the end. Writers have created stories throughout history, and these evident universal truths have and will stay the same from century to century. Although, each new generation is drastically different from the last, when the layers are stripped away what is left is an interconnectedness between us (Bantock 102-5): a sameness of generations who all share the struggle to comprehend the meanings of the universal truths. Throughout history, humans have adapted and transformed, yet the universal truths have remained constant and keep the past, …show more content…
He uses his imagination to make up stories for people such as the man who never was- a young man who O’Brien possibly killed in Vietnam- and Linda. In the aftermath of their deaths, O’Brien struggles to comprehend what had happened, and when he puts them into stories it helps him understand the reality that they are dead. The concept of death is a universal truth. In Chang-Rae Lee’s “Coming Home Again” he creates a story with his mom to help him deal with her death. He feels shame about the way he treated her before she died. Chang-Rae Lee, like the other authors, is also affected by the death of a person close to him (Lee 3-11). The universal truth of death in the story allows the reader to relate and understand to what they are reading; at some point humans will all realize death is inevitable. (Woolf 1108) This realization creates a shared acceptance of death. Our fear of death and the unknown connects us to each other and our ancestors who struggled in similar ways our generation does

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Death Of A Moth Analysis

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Death is inevitable. It is an inescapable, daunting, truth which most living species dread in life. The feeling of uncertainty and pain evokes fear among people. Two similar essays, “The Death of a Moth” and “The Death of the Moth” both accurately depict the nature of life and death in a descriptive and detailed manner.…

    • 528 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In A Lesson Before Dying,an African American man is wrongly convicted of murder. Jefferson's attorney completely dehumanizes Jefferson in order to use reverse psychology on the jury. This was unnecessary because during the 1940’s people of color were never declared innocent even if they were. Basically if you were black no justice would be served. Furthermore, the attorney makes it clear that Jefferson is no where close to being a man and therefore shouldn’t be killed.…

    • 873 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Poverty In Angela's Ashes

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When faced with extreme poverty and hunger, people adapt and develop new traits to survive. Whether it be drinking to escape reality or stealing food, destitute living conditions force kids to mature and develop unorthodox solutions to the struggles they face. In Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt, young Frank does not understand the concept of death. It is not until his sister dies that he is exposed to it, and from then on death is an overlaying presence in his life.…

    • 964 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    However, history is interpreted differently and perspectives are changed as each generation…

    • 1508 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    (11) O’Brien was taught by his fellow troops how most of them were able to keep a level head through all of the death they encountered every day. O’Brien tells a short anecdote in “The Lives of the Dead,” to explain how he was taught to keep death away from his emotions. (12) O’Brien states the way that he was able to cope when he says “Stories can save us.” (pg.213) (13) With this short sentence, O’Brien is able to show us how telling stories about a dead man’s life can bring them back to life in the heads of the troops. Stories help the men imagine that the dead were still alive.…

    • 1092 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Although all of the horrific things are in his past, he is haunted by his own thoughts and memories (O’Brien 186). O’Brien is uncomfortable with his thoughts, most likely because what he saw in the Vietnamese War was horrifying. While he was leaving he was thinking of the things that he learned from the war. Some of the things that he learned in his time of duty were, that war was not all that bad, but it does not make a man out of boys.…

    • 1036 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When, at the end of the “How to Tell a True War Story” section, O’Brien says that their experience in Vietnam “wasn’t a war story. It was a love story. It was a ghost story”, he is explaining the Vietnam experiences as kind of ghost that every soldier lives with for this entire tour, and even after this tour and return to “the World”, that the ghost is still with him, Just like how the war had a forever lasting effect on these…

    • 1032 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical analysis of “The Death of the Moth” by Virginia Woolf “Where there’s life, death is inevitable and the greater fear of death, the greater the struggle to keep on living”, an idea well represented in Virginia Woolf’s “The death of a moth” (Mo Yan Quotes). In Woolf’s book, she describes a moths struggle to hang on to its life before accepting its fate and allowing death to take its last breath away. The longer the moth tried to stay alive, the more it endured. The cycle of life is depicted, showing that no matter how much we try to avoid it, it is inevitable, a part of everyone’s life. Woolf portrays this idea, the struggle between life and death by using rhetorical employing an emotional appeal, visual imagery, and anthropomorphism.…

    • 831 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The Things They Carried took place during the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War was made up of two sides. One side was the communist ruled Government of North Vietnam, China, Soviet Union, and other communist countries. While the opposing side fighting against them were the United States, South Vietnam, Philippines, and many other anti-communist countries. When the war start it was February 28, 1961 and officially ended on May 7, 1975.…

    • 1091 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Ulysses S. Grant once said, “Hold fast to the Bible. To the influence of this Book we are indebted for all the progress made in true civilization and to this we must look as our guide in the future.” In his novel, The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck uses the universality of the Bible to make the account of the migrant’s plight applicable and understandable to all readers. By using Biblical references, Steinbeck is able to put the major themes and motifs of his novel into a framework to which all can relate. Steinbeck uses allusions* to the following: biblical characters, such as Jim Casy as a Christ figure, biblical events, such as comparing the migrants’ exodus to the exodus of the Jews, and teachings found in the Bible, such as the brotherhood…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Loss of life, something that everyone must face, many short stories have dug into this topic such as Gwilan’s Harp by Ursula K. LeGuin, The Washwoman by Isaac Bashevis Singer, and The Last Leaf by O. Henry. The climax of each story comes when an important character dies, forever impacting the surrounding characters. In Gwilan’s Harp, Gwilan endures the loss of her husband Torm and of her beloved harp, but finds fulfilment in her god given talents. The Death of the washwoman in the aptly named Washwoman explains a difficult yet important lesion regarding the importance of a strong work ethic. In the last leaf we see death in a more heroic light when Mr. Behrman uses his last ounce of life to save his dear neighbor Johnsy.…

    • 885 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    World War II and Civil War brought the most horrifying time in American History which killed countless people with nuclear gas and atomic bombs. There was one author who wrote about this time. He was William Faulkner, who also won the noble prize at the time for his outstanding and unique contribution to the American literature on December 10,1950. Faulkner addressed his speech in Stockholm, Sweden to the guests, the nation and his fellow writers that he believes will one day stand where he is. William appreciated the award and gave his opinion on what it means to be a talented writer.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    William Faulkner is regarded as one of the greatest writers of all time. When he received his Nobel Prize for literature in 1950, the world was yet reeling from the horrors of the two world wars, both of which suffered many casualties. He had stated "I believe man will not only endure, he will prevail," (Banquet Speech, 2015) and by this statement, he meant that he truly believed humanity could overcome the horrors and fears of war. And in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, he speaks of writing to rekindle emotions that were lost during war and he insists that man 's spirit and soul will result in the endurance of humankind, and that he believes writers and poets have a huge role in influencing all of humanity to see that there is still…

    • 1193 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Literature has proved to have very skewed opinions of death and the journey after. In some cases, writers portray a journey that is filled with coldness, regret, and sadness and in others, writers create a sense of warmth, reflection, and gratitude. Emily Dickinson chooses the later when she wrote the story that would later be titled “Because I could not stop for Death”, a story that depicts the journey that Death takes the speaker on towards the afterlife and immortality. From the very first line of the poem, readers understand that the poem is about death. The speaker notes how though she could not stop for Death, “He kindly stopped for me” (2).…

    • 803 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Later in the book, O’Brien shares a story about a situation in My Khe, where he kills a young boy in Vietnam. He felt guilty about killing the boy because O’Brien could have let the boy pass. Instead, he threw a grenade and took his life. He stares at the boy’s corpse and wonders what would have happened if he let him go. “His life was a constellation of possibilities… He devoted his life to studies.…

    • 809 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays