Faulkner and the Small Man

Ole Miss Union Ballroom

Faulkner, small in stature, depended on the smallness of people for his humor often. He resembles Charlie Chaplin in many of his old pictures, and his attitude toward life seems to line up with Chaplin's in his funniest movies: the elegantly dressed, duckwalking man almost constantly abused by crassness and pure cruelty in the world. My paper will address several circumstances of Faulkner's humor, especially in the short story "Uncle Willy," a tiny man who just wanted to have a good time and was driven to his death by officious villagers who wouldn't allow it.