William Faulkner (1897-1962) was the fourth American to win the Nobel Prize for literature (the others were Sinclair Lewis, Eugene O’Neill, and 　Pearl　 Buck). His best work bears out the Nobel citation which praised “his powerful and artistically independent contribution to the new American novel.”　　

In his novels and stories, Faulkner is more often than not concerned with the ugliness of life. His central theme, as he put it, is the universal theme of “the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself.” And the style in the novels, while immensely powerful, is often difficult for the reader because of the complicated symbolism and the “stream-of-consciousness” technique which he uses.　　

In its six hundreds words, the speech has all of the characteristics an essay should have: perfection of style, clarity of thought, and personal quality. In addition to its technical mastery, it is a wonderful statement of faith in a bewildered world. 　　

Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech

by William Faulkner

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man but to my work – a life’s work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust^[1]. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate^[2] with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle^[3] from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail^[4], among whom is already that one who will some day stand here where I am standing.

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up^[5]? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.

He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid; and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities^[6] and truths of the heart, the old universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral^[7] and doomed – love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so he labors under a curse. He writes 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. His grieves grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

Until he relearns these things he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal simply because he will endure; that when the last ding-dong of doom^[8] has clanged^[9] and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet’s, the writer’s, duty is to write about these things. It is his 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. The poet’s voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars^[10] to help him endure and prevail.

1.   What are the really lasting values on the earth? Can they often be found in great literary works?    

2.   Study the last paragraph of the speech. Do you agree with the writer?　　

3.   State the idea of this speech in one or two sentences.　　

1. in trust: in safe care for another      

    e.g. He is holding the property in trust for his nephew.

2. be commensurate with: be in accord with; corresponding with  

    e.g. His salary is commensurate with his ability and experience.

3. pinnacle: highest point; summit

4.   travail: n. toil; hard work

5.   be blown up: be torn up

6.   verities: n. (formal) important principles about life, the world etc, that are true in all situations

7.   ephemeral: a. temporary; short-lived

8.   the last ding-dong of doom: the last sound or curse of doom

9.   clang: vi./vt. ring loudly

10.pillar: n. support; mainstay