stream-of-consciousness: uses various techniques
to represent the consciousness of a character or characters. It is associative in
character. It suggests the following:
- That internal human mental and emotional processes are significant,
perhaps even more so than external activity.
- That this is a disjointed, even illogical, existence.
- That because it is associative, it follows a seemingly random pattern
of free psychological images and emotions.
(taken from Harmon and Holman, 7th edition.)
How does Faulkner use a quasi-stream of consciousness style
to represent the struggle and determination of Ike to uncover, resist, and reject the sins
of his ancestors?
Faulkner's Use of the Sentence
- The long sentence is built up through colons, semicolons, dashes, and
parentheses.
- The vocabulary evokes an older morality and a realm of high romance.
- The allusions are to romantic episodes in history and literature.
- The sentence employs a negative or series of negatives followed by a
positive.
- Synonyms are built up through repetition.
- Words often have a symbolic or poetic extension.
- The passage reaches out for metaphors or similes which may be foreign
to the vehicle from which they originate.
- The sentence often breaks with standard grammatical forms; sometimes
solecisims.
- Paradox is often present.
- Adjectives are piled up.
- Two words often merge into one.
- A generous use of hyphenated words.
As William Van O'Connor notes, "For Faulkner the chief unit is
the sentence."
[Taken from O'Connor, William Van, "Style and Meaning in
Faulkner's Work."]
A Few Other Observations
- Faulkner seeks to be comprehensive, not only in his use of history,
setting, and characterization, but also in his themes, symbols, and emotions.
- He layers his associations so that one is not sure where to stop or
pause. Everything is connected with everything.
- His style gives us a sense that psychological time, as well as the
time inherent in cultural heritage, is more condensed than historical time.
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