Sunday, October 17, 2010

Survey of Author's and Secondary Sources

  1.   Author: William Styron                                                Title: Sophie's Choice
  2.  What made me interested in the author:                                                                                What made me interested in this author was not the author itself. The summary of the book caught my eye at first, as I read more about the book it became a choice for my novel study. William Styron seems to have very complex and developed ways of writing, as well as vocabulary. He presents a challenge to me right off the pages and makes me think of what is being said. The ideas that he brings forth are very  weel thought out and true to the times.  
  3. Background: 
    • Date of Birth: January 11th, 1925
    • Place of Birth: Newport News, Virginia, United States
    • William attended Davidson College and then went to York University, where he soon left to be a service in the Marines
    • Returned to Duke in 1945 after the war, he then became interested in writing short stories
    • Some other major pieces of writing that he is known for are: Lie Down in Darkness,The Long March, The Confessions of Nat Turner, and this book 
    • William wrote to with the intent of the major themes of war, slavery and madness
    • William took a job at McGraw Hill where he felt that copying manuscripts drained his creativity, he was fired sometime later because of reading the New York Post and he would not wear a hat
    • After these turn of events, with the encouragement and financial help, William was able to publish Lie Down in Darkness
    • For the success of his first achievement and book, William won the  Prix de Rome of the Academy of Arts and Letters.
    • William married Rose Burgunder in 1953, whom he met in Europe
    • Sophie's Choice was made into a blockbuster movie in 1982, starring Meryl Streep
    • William has also written a play that ran at Yale, among other things
    • There are some critics that see his works as religious
        • Retrieved from:  http://www.bookrags.com/biography/william-styron/
  4. Other Published Works:
    •  Lie in the Darkness- 1952
    • The Long March-1956
    • Set This House on Fire- 1960
    • The Confessions of Nat Turner- 1967
    • Clap Shack- 1972 (a play)
  5. Influence on the Author
  • World War II
  • William Blackburn was a great role model and figure in his life
  • Bout with depression
  • Salvation- a religious salvation
6. Themes Favored:
  • slavery
  • war 
  • madness
7. Other Author's Compared to...
  • Compared to playwrights such as Ralph Ellison and John Updike for his playwright skills
8. Critical Source #1
  • Bertram ,Wyatt-Brown. ""William Styron's Sophie's Choice: Poland, the South, and the Tragedy of Suicide"." Gale Literary Databases- Contemporary Literary Criticism . Southern Literary Journal 34 , N/A. Web. 17 Oct 2010. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/GLD/hits?r=d&origSearch=true&o=DataType&n=10&l=d&c=5&locID=stc23378&secondary=false&u=CLC&t=KW&s=3&NA=William+Styron&TI=Sophie%27s+Choice>. 
 Critical Source #2
  • Barbabra ,Tepa ,Lupack. ""Sophie's Choice, Pakula's Choices"." Gale Literary Databases- Contemporary Lierary Criticism. Bowling Green State University , 1994. Web. 17 Oct 2010. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/GLD/hits?r=d&origSearch=true&o=DataType&n=10&l=d&c=5&locID=stc23378&secondary=false&u=CLC&t=KW&s=3&NA=William+Styron&TI=Sophie%27s+Choice>.  
        • In this critic's essay I personally liked the fact that the author included the criticism between the movie and the book. As well as the other books that William Styron has written
Critical Link #3
Franz, Link. ""Auschwitz and the Literary Imagination: William Styron's Sophie's Choice"." Gale Literary Databases- Contemporary Lierary Criticism. Jewish Life and Suffering as Mirrored in English and American Literature, 133-43. (Gale Literary Databases), 1987. Web. 17 Oct 2010. <http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/GLD/hits?r=d&origSearch=true&o=DataType&n=10&l=d&c=5&locID=stc23378&secondary=false&u=CLC&t=KW&s=3&NA=William+Styron&TI=Sophie%27s+Choice>.  

          • In this essay the historical element of Auschwitz was used and I personally thought that it added to the overall theme and explained the critics thinking a lot better in regards to the book. 

  • The pictures at the top are of a World War II automatic rifle and of the late William Stryon

3 comments:

  1. Elaborate on your thoughts on theme. Also - find quotations which link to your themes. Refer to the author by his last name.

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  2. I'm not entirely sure but was thinking his reoccuring theme of slavery is probably because oh when and where he was born in the world? Maybe? LOL :)

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  3. Yea this could be lol i dont know yet it didnt talk much about the characters background we may see more of it as the story moves forward :P

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