Sanctuary and Speech

The dictionary definition of the word endure is “to carry on through, despite hardships, or to bear with tolerance”.  I first saw the word endure when I was eight years old in a video game, using “endure” allowed the player to survive the next turn, regardless of the onslaught that he or she would receive. When asked to describe the Compson family, Dilsey said that “they endured”. I do not think that Faulkner made that choice to use that word not only at the end of one of his most famous novels and in his speech as mere coincidence. Faulkner said in his speech that he believes man will not endure, rather he will prevail, yet most of his stories do not contain a Deux Ex Machina or any type of prevailing force. Especially looking at just Sanctuary, Benbow fails the trial and does not prevail; Temple survives her hell through Popeye and the brother, but instead of allowing justice to take place, she lies and disrupts the entire process. Justice could not prevail in this story, but do we count Temple getting away as a type of prevailing? I suppose that would depend on whether or not you can call Temple a hero in this story. The first two characters that we meet are Benbow and Popeye, and Popeye is the clear villain, but can we be so quick to place Temple in that “damsel in distress” trope? She goes through a lot of changes throughout the story, but does she became better for it? I would argue that she becomes a foil to Benbow, making justice unable to prevail.

So with all of these characters unable to be completely pure, why does Faulkner believe that man will prevail? Out of all of the stories that we have read from him, who is to say that any of them contain a prevailing force? I think that Faulkner’s stories, while not Happy-Go-Lucky in the least, can provide an opposing thought to the life he wants us to live; by showing us tales of enduring, he hopes that we will always prevail.