Divorce In Naples Essay

Submitted By ChrisRyder
Words: 718
Pages: 3

Gauss 1

Chris Gauss
Mrs. Kneznekoff
ACC Introduction to Literature
24 April 2014
Sex in Naples
People started to try new things in the 1920
'
s especially in the field of sexuality .
People were growing and prospering and they needed an escape for a sexual release
,
so they tried new things
.

People were actually starting to move away from their homes and attend colleges
,
especially young women
, as people actually had time and money with the economy booming as it was
.


In fact
,
the decade that witnessed a wholesale movement toward early sexual experimentation was not the swinging sixties but the roaring twenties
.

And it wasn ' t rock and roll
­
originally a term for the sexual act
­
but jazz that got the young people all worked up and in need of erotic release


(
Sexton
). As people started trying new things and experimenting sexually
,
people started talking about it .
William Faulkner was one of the writers who made it one of his topics
.
In

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Divorce in Naples
,”

William Faulkner uses the characters to address and state his disapprovement on the changing sexuality of the 1920

s
.
In

Divorce in Naples”
,

Faulkner specifically focuses on the issue of gay relationships .
He uses the character Carl to represent the clean
,
innocence in the world .
He uses the character of George to show the changing in sexuality
.

George had been a man of gluttony and prostitutes all of his life
,
but the times are changing , and the new George is thriving for the young pure and innocent Carl
.
He dances with his love every night
,
and they share everything that lovers share
,
except they never consummate their love
.

George continues to pursue his life of wrong as Carl stays on his ship and learns the bad things of hederosexuality from his crew mates, but stays physically pure
.


William Faulkner grew up and began his writing career during a time of great cultural upheaval
,
especially in the realm of sexuality
,
where every normative notion of identity and relationship was being re­examined
” (
Trefzer
).
Criticizers of this short story classify this text as

gay fiction

and call it what
Faulkner encountered on his first trip to Italy and how he spoke if the new

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experiences in which he encountered
.
Other disagree as
Faulkner talks of sexuality in several others of his writings and writers talk of this and how it was influential in his life in a book named
Faulkner’s Sexualities
.

Criticizers also take in the fact that Faulkner was a quoted Christian
,
“ That I’m probably
– within my own rights
.

I feel that I’m a good Christian
­
whether it would please anybody else’s standard or not I don’t know
.” (
Faulkner
) and why would he continue to talk of such a controversial issue of the day
.

(
Vickery
)