the physical fear wrought by World War II. In light of this physical fear that overwhelms other struggles, young writers have forgotten "problems of the spirit," such as love, passion, sacrifice, or endurance. He suggests that, in order to overcome this forgetfulness, writers must be able to look past their physical fear. He writes that they must forget being afraid in order to look to "old verities and truths of the heart."

William Faulkner won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949, just four years after the end of World War II, when the Atomic Age was in full swing and the Cold War was a deep red sunrise on the horizon. In this war-ravaged era of anticipatory fear, Faulkner laments in his speech that “There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only the question: When will I be blown up?”  The youth of the age had been forced outside themselves - due to the political and moral conflicts of their era, young people’s emotions and struggles, and their relationship with these things, were all coming from an external place. The state of the world they lived in overshadowed anything that could have been going on within them, and this loss of introspection – fear, perhaps, of introspection – had led to young writers forgetting where good, honest writing comes from – within. 

Faulkner says this quite plainly in his speech: “The young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat.”

He goes on to say that these inner conflicts, those which alone make writing worthwhile, do so because they alone are universal – the internal trappings of man, emotions which stem from a place deep within the individual, are what resonate with readers. And by ignoring these things in their writing, young people are creating empty fiction, words without truth – because it is these human truths that have permeated literature for centuries. The age-old tales of valor and bravery, of fear and sacrifice and love – what are these things without their human elements? And how can one write about them if one cannot understand their effects within oneself?

Faulkner says of the writer that “it is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart….” And harkening back to the old adage, write what you know, the young writers he is addressing must first re-learn what it means to examine the self and the conflicts found within, before being able to commit these truths to the page. 

In my mind, the overwhelming message Faulkner gives to young writers is to remain true in depicting the human predicament.  The idea that within this condition is a notion of suffering and endurance is something that Faulkner, himself, believed and about which wrote extensively.  It is also something that he believes must be the underlying essence of all literature.  In depicting what it means to be human, Faulkner implores young writers to continue to write and articulate this condition where suffering on the part of human beings leads to eventual triumph through perseverance and endurance.  It is a powerful message to young writers, who might be lured by material success to write about trivialities and elements that do not speak to what it means to be human and the writer's obligation to speak about such a condition.

When Faulkner presented his speech in 1950, much of the civilized world was involved in the Cold War, and all were living in a nuclear world. Children regularly participated in bomb/air raid drills in school; people in much of Europe and the Soviet Union could not travel freely, and most wondered what new conflict the next day would bring. Because of this stark reality, Faulkner claims that writers have become too focused on all of these external conflicts and that they no longer write about universal truths; they had forgotten about "the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself."

Faulkner uses his Nobel Prize platform to express the power that writers possess. In his view, they don't simply remind mankind of its past glories and goodness; rather, they should use the pen to be a pillar of sorts for man to prop himself up on and endure. Thus, Faulkner wants young writers to avoid the temptation to write only of the "end of man" or the dark, current times in which they were living--to avoid being mere recorders.