William Faulkner's Life Within Oxford, Ms

For this research paper, the topic that was chosen is to relate William Faulkner’s writings to his life within Oxford, MS. The main story that will be discussed is “Ambuscade” by William Faulkner. There will also be five more sources to look back at in this paper in order to back up how William Faulkner provided little details that represent his life within his texts. William Faulkner’s life in Oxford, MS brings life within his stories, and within those stories there are key words that help define the truth.

 William Faulkner was originally born in New Albany, MS on September 25, 1897, and soon after his birth, his family moved to Oxford, MS. He was the oldest of four brothers, from two parents who were reduced to the poverty of the Civil War. In “Ambuscade”, he based one specific character of his grandfather that fought within the Civil War, and the character that he is basing his grandfather off is Colonial Sartoris. Within his life in Oxford, MS, he went to Oxford High School but did not graduate, instead he dropped out within his tenth grade year. After his life at Oxford High School, he tried to join the army, but was denied because of his height.

William Faulkner started dating Estelle Oldham when they were teenagers. While they were seeing each other, she was also seen others which included Cornell Franklin a lawyer, she would soon marry and bore two kids. Estelle divorced Franklin and married Faulkner and be together until his dying day. On January 13, 1931 Faulkner’s first daughter was born and named Alabama Faulkner after Williams Aunt. She was born two months premature and died a few days later. Faulkner would go on to have one more daughter named Jill Faulkner (Kazek).

During William Faulkner’s lifetime, he changed the spelling of his name in order to join the Royal Air Force and trained in Canada, but he never left for battle. He lied to the community about him being an air force veteran by buying a uniform. The only way that he was able to attend Ole Miss was on a Special Service Man Scholarship. Soon after he started Ole Miss he failed to graduate because of his grades. This then led to him to New York to become a post officer.

He started writing short stories and poems within a young age. Within writing his first few stories, later in life he developed serious writings. Throughout his writings, the story “Ambuscade”, was based in the town of Yoknapatawpha. The fictional town that the story is based on was based off Lafayette County, MS. He also based one of his towns called Jefferson off Yocona, which is a little community based in Oxford. Local people of the town say that he based it off that community because he visited the local bootlegger to provide his alcohol, so rumor has it. Yoknapatawpha was the name before Yocona because it came about from the Indians that lived there before in Oxford, MS.

William Faulkner based his stories of the Civil War to help create a time stamp, which helps us to understand the different aspects that were happening within that time period. The story “Ambuscade” brings a lot of this about and to our attention within this detail. The story says, “that even if he was her son, she would have to be white a little while longer” (Faulkner 21). This section that William Faulkner has written describes the racism that was brought about in the Civil War time.

Within these past few paragraphs, we have discussed William Faulkner’s life in Oxford, MS, the meaning behind a few towns in his stories, and the characters that he has created. The way that William Faulkner has developed his stories to create a fictional definition of the rough times that have happened during the Civil War. In his stories he hides different definitions to help create the effect of the story.

William Faulkner died of a heart attack on July 6, 1962 after falling off a horse. Before he died, he said himself that he was a failed poet, but he has more books and stories written about him than Shakespeare does. He has won the Noble Prize in Literature within his lifetime, and he won The Pulitzer after he died. William Faulkner has had many achievements within his lifetime. Though he lived an eventful life, people from Oxford, MS still tell about how he was as a person.