William Faulkners Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech & Its Relevance William Faulkners Nobel Prize acceptance speech is a dynamic statement that challenges the writer and man to not simply sit around and watch the end of man, but to help man endure and prevail. Faulkner refuses to accept the naturalists theme that human beings are dominated, controlled, and overwhelmed by their environment and nature. He does not accept the end of man, but rather says that man will prevail. Though many have accepted the easy way out by saying man will simply endure because one can hear his soft, inexhaustible voice even after death, Faulkner also refuses this. He says man will not only endure, but he shall prevail or triumph over death. Man will prevail because he has a soul and emotions unlike other creatures. Towards the end of his speech, Faulkner challenges the poet and writer to help man endure and prevail by lifting up his heart and express mans soul and emotions. Faulkner strongly disagrees with the naturalist theme, which states that man is controlled by nature and he believes man shall endure and prevail over nature and fate.An author of the American literature who would agree with Faulkners ideas is T.S. Eliot. Eliot wrote about mans effort to transcend the force of time and mans effort to achieve the timelessness of the eternal. His writings reflect his own personal themes and direction of his life: the quest for eternal salvation. He believes one can endure and prevail as Faulkner does as evident in The Wasteland. The Wasteland emphasizes the decay of the western civilization, yet there was hope and courage in the writings. Eliot joins William Faulkner in the argument that man controls his own destiny.Along with many other authors, Stephen Crane would disagree with Eliot and Faulkner on their views because he was a naturalistic author. Crane saw human beings as wholly controlled by their environment and their heredity. The Open Bo...
