Examples of Preassessment for Faulkner Speech
Ex 1---This is a 3- in analysis
The Cold War is going on as William Faulkner presents his speech. Some people may curl up with
a good book to escape their sadness, fear, and hardship caused by the war. But do they really escape
their realities? According to William Faulkner, the answer is no. They do not get a glimmer of hope in
novels, but instead they get more fearful. William Faulkner realizes that it is the sole responsibility of
writers to offer hope in a time covered in fear because that is the only way the human race will survive.
The whole world won’t die because of the fear they feel. It is more metaphorical. The soul of
man will die because man will no longer have any hope of survival brought on by the fear that comes
from the war and lack of hope. William Faulkner has great hope in the survival of man as he clearly
states, “I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail” (Faulkner). However, Faulkner also
states in his speech that writers must write of hope instead of fear. For they are destroying the soul of
man and making him die in fear. The war is adding fear to the lives of the world everyday. Books should
uplift their spirits. So, William Faulkner says to his fellow writers, “It is his [writers] privilege to help man
endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and
compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past” (Faulkner). William Faulkner
realizes more hope is needed in the world and he believes writers can bring that to man.
Writers themselves are living in fear. Man must not do that. Man must hope and think positively
if he wants to survive the hardships around him. As Franklin Roosevelt said, “The only thing we have to
fear is fear itself”. Franklin Roosevelt and William Faulkner are on the same page. Fear will consume the
life of man and eat man’s soul if we let it do so. Man mustn’t. Man has to hope that their will be a better
tomorrow. That is the only way man will survive.
Ex 2—This is a 3 in analysis.
In 1949, Faulkner won the Nobel Prize in Literature. However, his acceptance speech wasn’t
what others would have expected. He graced it with no thank you’s, no dedications, virtually nothing
about what this award meant to him. Instead, William Faulkner took advantage of this moment to
address all of the up and coming writers about a universal epidemic that has affected most writing ever
since that explosive end to WWII. This is how he opens his speech, establishing the fact that he doesn’t
write for fame or money, stating that his work is, “not for glory and least of all for profit” (Faulkner).
Instead, Faulkner writes for the sake of humanity. In the final paragraph of his speech, Faulkner states
that “The poet’s, the writers’ duty is to write about these things.” “These things” refer to the soul and
will of the human spirit. Our soul is what allows us to endure and prevail, and it is the job of the writer to
understand this built-in bravery and remind us of it. Because of the importance of the writers in
association with the human spirit, Faulkner goes on to only address the young writers and assist them in
discovering the human spirit for themselves and being capable of writing about it.
In the next two paragraphs, Faulkner talks about what has gone wrong with writing. The
memory of the atomic bomb remains deep inside the minds of every citizen. Nuclear warfare is now
realized as a potential end to the world, and that idea has caused everyone, even the writers, to be
stricken by fear. However, fear is usually a good thing for writing. It is of the most important emotions,
one that is so easily misunderstood yet so necessary to achieve. The problem with fear now is that
people have become too used to it. Everyday people are worried about if they will wake up alive or
incinerated the next morning. These external fears in all citizens have forced us to forget about the
internal struggles of the human spirit. And so, man, specifically, the writer must relearn what it is to
really be afraid. Because without it, writing lacks true human emotion, or as Faulkner puts it, “He writers
not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, of victories without hope and,
worst of all, without pity or compassion.” Without the true nature and emotions of the human spirit,
writing can’t relate to anyone, can’t affect anyone, can’t leave any scars to help non-writers remember
these lessons of the human spirit. That is the problem; that is what fellow writers must fix in Faulkner’s
eyes. Without fixing it, writing is “not of the heard but of the glands” (Faulkner). There isn’t true human
emotion, no soul, no pity or comparison or sacrifice. However, until now writers have fooled themselves
into believing their writing is from the heart but they misunderstand it just as foolishly as another
mistaking the heart for just another gland in the body.
Finally to wrap up his speech, Faulkner encourages the young writer by stating how he knows
that we can achieve great writing once again. He refuses to accept his vision of the end of man, “when
the last dingdong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the
last red and dying evening” (Faulkner), complete with the final, dying, miniscule voice of humanity. He
refuses to accept this as the end of man merely because he knows that there can’t be an end. Our soul,
our spirit, whether we understand it or not, is extraordinarily brave. Man will endure the end of time,
but not only that. He will prevail. We won’t be weakened by the end, not succumb to the effects of
enduring such a hopeless time, but we will come out on top as we always do. These aspects of the
human soul make it ever more important for the writer to understand and become capable of writing
about it. “The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of it” as Faulkner states. It must be made of
the reason what we are capable of achieving what we do despite all odds.
It must be the voice of our human spirit.
Ex 3—This is a 4 in analysis.
Throughout this piece William Faulkner wraps his speech around the “human spirit.” He uses
the “human spirit” as a symbolic tool to represent the true soul of a person and how a good piece of
writing is a work that contains the qualities of the “human spirit.” Faulkner is using this opportunity of
being recognized for such a high achievement to inform the young, society’s next generation, of the
importance of being able to incorporate the “human spirit” into their pieces. That they must be able to
dig past the physical and surface like works to find the key that releases the provoking thoughts and
ideas and emotions into a literary work.
Faulkner has this speech during the 1940’s, a time when WWII had just ended and the Cold War
is about to begin. He talks a lot about the conflicting physical and spiritual aspects of writing. He says so
in the second paragraph how many people have forgotten how to write with the spirit because of all the
work being written with the constant fear of dying.
William Faulkner talks about the downside of writing without the human spirit By using “He,”
Faulkner is speaking almost directly to the youth. His diction in the third paragraph is very apparent
especially in using the word “universal.” William Faulkner is discussing about how being universal and
having compassion will help a writer and reader gain perspective of certain issues. “The old universal
truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed- love and honor and pity and pride4 and
compassion and sacrifice…grief grleves on no universal bones, leaving no scars” (Faulkner). Faulkner
uses repetition when listing the qualities of the human spirit as a way not only to signify the importance
of the line “love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice,” but to also use the word
“and” in this quote to show equality between these adjectives instead of the usual comma, Faulkner
levels the playing field and shows how each quality of the human spirit is important. Faulkner includes ,
without using every quality of the human spirit together, people are not able to come together and gain
perspective from each other. When Faulkner talks about how a person writing without a human spirit
has “griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars,” this choice of diction comes into important
play especially by using “universal bones” and “scars.” Not only is Faulkner making a connection
between the physical side of the human, but Faulkner is saying how writing a good piece is a global
connection. By choosing to use “universal,” Faulkner opens up the window to state how there are
connections with the people of the world through writing with compassion because these qualities of
humanity are found deep inside everyone. That is because without writing with a human spirit, that
global connection cannot be made. By using “bone,” he is pitting the usage of the human spirit as a sort
of structure, a base, a foundation that holds society together through showing feelings of compassion,
pity, and sacrifice. By saying how a person who “griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars”
(Faulkner), Faulkner uses scars as a way to represent the impression that literary work can have on
people. By saying how a piece that doesn’t contain the qualities of the human spirit leaves “no scars,”
Faulkner is saying how a piece of literature without the deep emotions of humanity does not clear an
imprint or mark anyone’s lives. A scar is something that is physically permanent as well as something
that can represent a story. The “scar” is used as a way to convey how a piece of literary work that has
the “human spirit’ can indeed leave a scar on a person because of find the “universal bone” that
connects all of society together.
The human spirit is also in the fourth paragraph of Faulkner’s speech. His usage of repetition by
repeating the qualities of the human spirit “courage and honor and hope…” (Faulkner) emphasizes the
importance of using the human spirit in writing. He emphasizes the importance of the human spirit to
the youth to help ensure that society will be able to connect not by emotions that will only have us
enduring just enough to survive, but to prevail. To be able to find the deep emotions and connections
that help everyone come together and not only survive but be victorious. To survive with the wonderful
feel of glory by encouraging the human spirit, a piece of work would be able to raise its “puny voice” and
have it shine out amidst the red scare, or the end of a war which was subtly mentioned in the quote
“the last red dying evening” (Faulkner). Faulkner uses symbolism once again of the “human spirit” as a
pillar that would be the support and foundation of what helps people endure and prevail. His purpose of
informing the future generation of being victorious is connecting with the other people by using the
human spirit.
Ex 4—This is a 4 in analysis.
Many might see literature as a way to fill spare time. Others may think that poetry helps us to
understand ourselves. William Faulkner, however, takes this idea one step further. In his famous “Nobel
Banquet Speech”, he stresses that literature is of paramount importance because it is a building block
for a fully developed and satisfied soul.
Everything in his speech − structure, syntax, diction, and imagery −̶ all work towards proving his
theory on the importance of literature. For example, when analyzing the structure, the reader will see
that the purpose of the second paragraph is to introduce the bleak reality of the 1940’s and 50’s. The
cold War has prompted fear without the vast patriotism of WWII. Faulkner states, “There is only the
question: When will I be blown up?” By beginning his speech with this, he is confirming the mood of the
people and connecting their emotions to his point. People of course want to move away from fear, so
since he has the attention of the people, he now can move to his message. Their attention to the next
paragraph will be heightened due to this structural technique. The next two paragraphs serve as advice
and future plans; the purpose is to persuade. By using this structure, in his speech, Faulkner is able to
alert the reader to the dreaded problem with raw emotion AND then deliver his hopeful solution, which
of course, involves literature.
Faulkner also utilizes syntax, diction, and imagery to stress his message that literature is the only
way to reach human fulfillment. In terms of syntax, he expertly uses punctuation and complex sentences
to stress his points. For example, the third paragraph demonstrates a parallel technique. He introduces
what the writer/poet must do with a short declarative sentence, and then he follows that up with a long
complex sentence that touches on human condition or as he calls it “universal truths” (Faulkner).
Faulkner writes, “He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be
afraid; and, teaching himself that…” By stating rather simply what the author must do, he stresses the
importance of his/her job. In addition, the next sentence with the repetitive “and” multiple commas and
semi-colons forces the reader to read the sentences like a list of instruction. He stresses the emotions
each person must have during this list like sentence. All the while, he is using this writing technique to
define the J.O.B. of the author.
Likewise, diction and imagery are used throughout the last paragraph, which paints the picture
of a weak “creature” with an “inexhaustible” voice and a strong “immortal” man with “soul…spirit”
(Faulkner). By creating this either-or scenario, the reader will obviously want to be the strong prevailing
man and not the “puny” person screaming in the darkness. For example, Faulkner carefully chooses
words such as “worthless,” “faded,” “dying,” and “puny” to reiterate the man who simple endures
through a difficult existence. This use of negative connotation sets up the idea that the man is unfulfilled
and unattractive. Next, he gives his theory about literature by stating that the man that prevails and is
“capable of compassion sacrifice and endurance” only when he uses literature as a “pillar” to help him
(Faulkner). The second man is like a beacon of light in the darkness; he makes this man desirable. Like
his use of structure and syntax, Faulkner is able to use these literary techniques to persuade the reader
that literature is not only helpful it is the answer for the modern prevailing man.