From Faulkner to Faulkner

As we move into our third full Faulkner novel, I’ve begun to see a distinct difference from the inexperienced and naïve Soldier’s Pay and Mosquitoes to the more skillfully written As I Lay Dying. Different though they may be, they are all markedly Faulkner. Faulkner maintains his characteristic writing style through all of his writing. And although many people might claim that Faulkner’s later works are better than his first novels, I’m not entirely sure this is the case.
One of the characteristically Faulknerian attributes that has persisted throughout all of the novels we’ve read is the lack of coherent punctuation. The longstanding joke that William Faulkner didn’t know how to use a comma has fairly factual roots. Fame did not improve his mechanical skills, and so dedicated fans can count on the confusions from his early novels. Faulkner’s penchant for repetition has also survived. Though more subtle than the repetition in Soldier’s Pay, Faulkner’s use of the same words and phrases over and over are still a part of As I Lay Dying. The difference in later Faulkner is that the repetition is more judicious and discerning. When something is repeated it is important and it makes a certain impression.
Perhaps the most characteristically Faulknerian attribute that has survived from Soldier’s Pay through to As I Lay Dying is stream of consciousness writing. William Faulkner is known for this writing style. Stream of consciousness writing is a style in which a character’s thoughts and emotions are revealed in a continuous flow as if the reader were actually privy to the character’s inner most thoughts. J.D. Salinger, Kurt Vonnegut, and Virginal Wolfe are all examples of some of the most famous stream of consciousness writing. William Faulkner has all but perfected this technique. First seen in some sections of Soldier’s Pay, most notably in the scene in which Mahon’s plan goes down, stream of consciousness writing has marked all of the novels we have read so far. The Sound and Fury, one of Faulkner’s most famous novels, is pretty much entirely stream of consciousness.
As I Lay Dying is not quite as stream of consciousness as The Sound and the Fury. Some of the sections—character perspectives or points of view—seem to be more disjointed than others. In particular, Vardaman and Dewey Dell’s narrations are very stream of consciousness. The novel is written in sections, each section narrated by the different characters. Some of the sections are more structured than others, but those narrated by Vardaman and Dewey Dell are especially piecemeal and characteristically stream of consciousness.
Many people will say that Faulkner’s later works are better than his earlier ones. I disagree. Not only did I find Soldier’s Pay and Mosquitoes easier to read, I also enjoyed them much more. Faulkner’s early novels are more interesting than his later ones. For some reason I feel like I have the type of story in The Sound and the Fury or As I Lay Dying before. Faulkner’s earlier writing was more interesting to me than his later novels have been. Maybe I’m just jaded, or maybe I’m just being difficult, but as of yet, I have not been impressed with “Faulkner” as the masses know him.