Narrative Recollection in Faulkner’s The Unvanquished :: Unvanquished Essays

Narrative Recollection in Faulkners The UnvanquishedThe narrator in William Faulkners The Unvanquished is an adult looking back on his childishness experiences. This is a powerful technique, because the subscriber can receive two sets of images through one voice in this case both the impressions of the young Bayard Sartoris as advantageously as his older (and perhaps wiser) adult self. There are several ways in which the author makes this known, the starting being Faulkners use of first person, but in the past tense. In the opening scene of the book Bayard and Ringo are playing behind the smokehouse. The past tense of the verbs make it apparent that the attain has already been done, (ex. Ringo and I had a living map, and To Ringo and me it lived. Bayard indicates several times that this narrative is a recollection. One example is in the first chapter, even though you do look bigger (to twelve, at least, to me and Ringo at twelve, at least. (p.12). Then later, But we were just t welve we didnt listen to that. (p.15). These passages contain a contrite quality that implies that Bayard knows better in survey. Like memory, the narrative moves in skips and jumps, rather than an exactly linear plot. The next time the reader is told Bayards age is in the second chapter, but the he is near fourteen now. Uncle Buck asks him, How old are you, boy? to which he replies, Fourteen, and Ringo interjects, We aint fourteen yit, (54). Then later, when Bayards grandmother becomes ill Faulkner writes, I would be sixteen years old before another year was out, yet I sat there in the wagon, crying. (152). So how does this narrative strategy affect the representation of southern masculinities? It allows the reader a glimpse of how this particular southern male Bayard Sartoris becomes the man that he is. It allows the reader to see this process in action. It visualizes the relationships with other southern men, including and especially his father. It actualizes the disillusionme nt that can so often shape childhood, but is often easier seen in retrospect that at the time of occurrence. A poignant example of this is in the third chapter when Bayard is questioning the veracity of his elders war stories old men had been revealing young men and boys about warsand fighting before they discovered how to write it down