Critical Essays on William Faulkner: The Compson Family by Arthur F. Kinney (review)
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Studies in American Fiction241 In the essay on Pylon, Ruppersburg is so eager to support the idea that Laverne is a sacrificial heroine that he undercuts much of his presentation about the role of narrators and the absence of an authoritative authorial voice. "External narrative," he states, "free of biased character perspectives, portrays Laverne objectively." The "'real' Laverne" is presented to us in chapter one as a traditional woman with "numerous 'feminine' traits: modesty, neatness, cleanliness, for example." Because she has a "conventional desire for hearth and home," eventually she "nobly gives up her son to Roger's parents so that both he and her unborn son can be properly provided for" (p. 70). Those many of us who believe that Laverne gives up her son so she can be free to go off with Jack have been misled by narrators who misunderstand her. Laverne, too, participates in this deception of the unwary reader. Her own judgment of herself "that she was 'born bad and could not h
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Studies in American Fiction241 In the essay on Pylon, Ruppersburg is so eager to support the idea that Laverne is a sacrificial heroine that he undercuts much of his presentation about the role of narrators and the absence of an authoritative authorial voice. "External narrative," he states, "free of biased character perspectives, portrays Laverne objectively." The "'real' Laverne" is presented to us in chapter one as a traditional woman with "numerous 'feminine' traits: modesty, neatness, cleanliness, for example." Because she has a "conventional desire for hearth and home," eventually she "nobly gives up her son to Roger's parents so that both he and her unborn son can be properly provided for" (p. 70). Those many of us who believe that Laverne gives up her son so she can be free to go off with Jack have been misled by narrators who misunderstand her. Laverne, too, participates in this deception of the unwary reader. Her own judgment of herself "that she was 'born bad and could not h
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