Faulkner's literary children

the long version

One of William Faulkner's myriad artistic strengths was his ability to create memorable child characters. Faulkner's Literary Children focuses on the development, or misdevelopment, of Joe Christmas, Quentin Compson, Thomas Sutpen, and Isaac McCaslin in childhood and adolescence. This book draws upon the Bildungsroman tradition and twentieth-century theories of human development in an attempt to better understand Faulkner's "dysfunctional" children in his major earlier novels as well as his creation of two "normal" youngsters, Chick Mallison and Lucius Priest, late in his career.