While there are obvious varying differences between each any piece of literature, one commonality is constant between them: the writer has a duty to provide to his audience. Writers need to take risks with their writings to make their works memorable and complete the obligation a writer has to his reader. In William Faulkner’s Nobel prize acceptance speech, he clarifies that a writer has the “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 5). Two prime examples of books that attain Faulkner’s definition of the writer’s duty are Azar Nafisi’s memoir Reading Lolita in Tehran and Rebecca Skloot’s
…show more content…
Although many people, including many of her students, do not like the Western nations, Nafisi teaches many controversial, Western novels in her class including The Great Gatsby from which many lessons can be learned. Skloot was intrigued by the history and life of a woman whose cells were famous yet her life story was mostly unknown: Henrietta Lacks. Skloot’s quest for knowledge about Henrietta Lacks stuck with her throughout her life, and Skloot eventually sets out on a 10 year journey in hopes of telling Henrietta Lacks’s story, the woman behind the cells. Based on William Faulkner’s definition of “the writer’s duty” provided in his “Banquet Speech,” Skloot and Nafisi fulfill Faulkner’s concept because they both write of the complexities of the human soul and emotion so their readers can enlighten themselves and better their own lives. Faulkner, upon his acceptance of the Nobel prize in Literature in 1949, delivered a speech condemning the way young writers tend to write and providing the same young writers with what their works should be focussed around. ____________________Nafisi subtopic________________________. Skloot, in talking to Deborah Lacks, learns not only about who Henrietta was as a woman, but also the internal struggles that Deborah faces as the daughter of …show more content…
He wants to address a problem that appears to come up constantly, especially with new young writers; he wants to define what the duty of a writer should be and explain how future writers can accomplish this duty. Faulkner believes that “there are no longer problems of the spirit” (Faulkner 2) being written about. Instead of writing about, “the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself,” writers write stories and poems with unmeaningful plots that do not focus on the human spirit or better the lives of their readers. Faulkner explains that, as a writer, “the poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail” (Faulkner 5). Faulkner insists that a writer needs to provide his readers with qualities and lessons that will help the readers prosper in their own lives. Faulkner wants writers to pursue stories that emphasize of the courage or a character or the sacrifices a character needs to make; readers of such stories can then better relate which can only add to the effect of the story. Faulkner wants future writer to write of the complexities of the human soul because that, and that alone, is worth writing about
Although many people, including many of her students, do not like the Western nations, Nafisi teaches many controversial, Western novels in her class including The Great Gatsby from which many lessons can be learned. Skloot was intrigued by the history and life of a woman whose cells were famous yet her life story was mostly unknown: Henrietta Lacks. Skloot’s quest for knowledge about Henrietta Lacks stuck with her throughout her life, and Skloot eventually sets out on a 10 year journey in hopes of telling Henrietta Lacks’s story, the woman behind the cells. Based on William Faulkner’s definition of “the writer’s duty” provided in his “Banquet Speech,” Skloot and Nafisi fulfill Faulkner’s concept because they both write of the complexities of the human soul and emotion so their readers can enlighten themselves and better their own lives. Faulkner, upon his acceptance of the Nobel prize in Literature in 1949, delivered a speech condemning the way young writers tend to write and providing the same young writers with what their works should be focussed around. ____________________Nafisi subtopic________________________. Skloot, in talking to Deborah Lacks, learns not only about who Henrietta was as a woman, but also the internal struggles that Deborah faces as the daughter of …show more content…
He wants to address a problem that appears to come up constantly, especially with new young writers; he wants to define what the duty of a writer should be and explain how future writers can accomplish this duty. Faulkner believes that “there are no longer problems of the spirit” (Faulkner 2) being written about. Instead of writing about, “the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself,” writers write stories and poems with unmeaningful plots that do not focus on the human spirit or better the lives of their readers. Faulkner explains that, as a writer, “the poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail” (Faulkner 5). Faulkner insists that a writer needs to provide his readers with qualities and lessons that will help the readers prosper in their own lives. Faulkner wants writers to pursue stories that emphasize of the courage or a character or the sacrifices a character needs to make; readers of such stories can then better relate which can only add to the effect of the story. Faulkner wants future writer to write of the complexities of the human soul because that, and that alone, is worth writing about