Faulkner, more than most men, was aware of human strength as well as of human weakness. He knew that the understanding and the resolution of fear are a large part of the writer's reason for being (Steinbeck). In Faulkner’s nobel prize speech, he explained that good writing reaches beyond the surface, leaving nothing but the “old verites and truths of the heart.”
It is ultimately up to the reader to interpret a piece, and the writer can not control the reader’s opinion. However the writer has the ability to create a mutal connection with the reader by letting go of ego so that the collective concious can express itself as he explores his own personal truths. In order to fulfill this, the writer must analyze himself, critically examine the past, and show the way a character changes throughout the story. As personal truths are created, the writer begins the shift of writing from the heart, rather than just the glands (Faulker 871-872). The writer must reach self acceptance before they prevail.
Nick Bantock explores the concept of analyzing himself in his work, The Forgetting Room. Armon was given his grandfather’s house in Spain, and went to visit in hopes of selling the place. Throughout the nine days Armon spends there, he begins to question himself and begins to wonder if he should actually sell the house. He is introduced to the concept of duende in a poem he finds by Garcia Lorca. “Duende is a power… a struggle not a concept” (qtd. in Bantock 84). Armon truly begins to embrace this on his own path to self acceptance. As these words rang in his head, he realizes that his grandfather had truly known the “essence of existence” (Bantock 84) called duende, and he had purposely lead him to begin to learn it. Previously Armon had blamed his father for the fact that he lead a passive existence. His father ran a cardboard box company and radiated the negativity from his life onto his own son. However, once Armon begins to learn the concept of duende he realizes that he doesn’t have to be lke his father as he is his own person. He stops blaming his father for his passive existence and accepts the fact that he did it to himself, and at least his father was staying true to himself. Yet Armon was not. He begins to learn who he is as a person and knows that he was meant for more than what he had previously believed. Once Armon realized that it was him who had “shied away from self expression” (Bantock 85), he begins to analyze this new spark of creativity and truly accept himself.
Furthermore, in order to reach self acceptance a writer must figure out their own personal truths. Every person in the world comes with their own unique “set of functionalities that make them who they are (Donne 596), and each person has their own personal truths that they believe in. When a writer creates a piece they must understand that the reader has the ability to create their own truths as well. Therefore, the writer should never hold back and must forget the fear of speaking on what comes from the heart as, “the basest of all things is to be afraid” (Faulkner #). A writer must not fear the judgement and critique of others, as in the end the only thing that truly matters is their own personal interpretation. A person should not write for others, they should write for themselves in order to achieve self acceptance.
Tim O’Brien devolops his own personal truths as he reflects on his time in the Vietnam war. Throughout his piece, The Things They Carried, O’Brien tells an array of stories that explore his own conflicts with himself as he fought. He tells the stories with such detail, the reader has no idea that some of these stories are not even true. He admits that it is “difficult to separate what happened from what seemed to happen” (Obrien 67), but continues to tell these stories according to his own personal interpretation. Through all of the chaos O’Brien was faced with it was difficult to remember every small detail that happened, especially looking back decades later. However his stories are told as they seemed in that moment which is his own personal truth. Some of the stories O’Brien tells never happened at all. For example, he writes about killing a man, yet he never actually did. He described the man’s body in such grotesque detail, creating such detailed imagery for the reader that there is no choice but to believe him. But shortly after telling the story he admits that it was completely made up. He does this in hopes of making the “reader feel what [he] felt” (O’Brien 171). O’Brien emphasizes that he truly did feel like he killed a man, and that this was more true than the actual truth. As a soldier he saw a lot of death, and at the time he was afraid to even look. But as he looks back he feels the guilt and responsibility for it as if he is still living through it. His guilt for his sole presence in the war make his stories his own personal truths. Yet, telling these stories as if they are true allow O’Brien to reach self acceptance as he embraces his own guilt.
Tim O’Brien also shows the progressive shift of his character by examining the past. He nostaligically holds onto the version of his younger self he calls little Timmy:
“I’m young and happy. I’ll never die. I’m skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dark and come down thirty years later, I realize it as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story” ( O’Brien 233).
His younger version of himself has not seen what Tim has seen. By continuing to keep little Timmy alive, O’Brien is attempting to revive his innocence that he once had. He wants to believe that there is still good in him, despite the guilt and responsibility he still feels years after the war. The contrast between O’Briens current and old version of himself allows him to realize what he still believes to be true. Although he is a different person, he is able to accept himself now knowing that he still holds on to what is most important to him- his own personal truths. O’Brien needed to keep little Timmy, Linda, and Ted Lavender alive the same way Armon needed to keep his grandfather alive- so that through their stories they could be immortalized even after the memory is gone (O’Brien 36). By examining the past a writer is able to bring memories into the present, paving the path to self acceptance.
As Bantock and O’Brien learn to embrace the struggles they face throughout their lives they step away from these problems to see with the minds eye. This reveals what they know to be true, rather than just what they think. As personal truths are developed the writer can step into the “collective conscious” of the reader, creating a mutal connection. Although it is impossible to control the reader’s interpretation, the search for self acceptance is a universal occurrence. Therefore, the writer shifts from the “I” to the “we” as individual stories are told. Readers are then given the opportunity to participate in the process of the search for acceptance. In order for anybody to truly prevail they must come to terms with who they are, embracing the struggles they face. It is the hardships that make us who we are, and we must learn to accept that.