Page "belles_lettres" Paragraph 174

Faulkner traces, in his vast and overpowering saga of Yoknapatawpha County, the gradual changes which seep into the South, building layer upon layer of minute, subtle innovation which eventually tend largely to hide the Old Way.

Thus Faulkner reminds us, and wisely, that the `` new '' South has gradually evolved out of the Old South, and consequently its agrarian roots persist.

Yet he presents a realm of source material which may well serve other writers if not himself: the problems with which a New South must grapple in groping through a blind adolescence into the maturity of urbanization.

With new mechanization the modern farmer must perform the work of six men: a machine stands between the agrarian and his soil.

The thousands of city migrants who desert the farms yearly must readjust with even greater stress and tension: the sacred wilderness is gradually surrendering to suburbs and research parks and industrial areas.