William Faulkner Vs Annie Dillard Vs Frank McCourt

In William Faulkner's speech, he discusses the "author's duty to society," the need for authors to exemplify the matters of the heart: courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice. Frank McCourt and Annie Dillard show prime examples of this in Angela's Ashes and An American Childhood, respectively.

In the former, McCourt tells the anecdote of his experiences working with Mr. Hammond on the coal cart. He details his excitement for finally being able to work, wishing that he could leave school altogether and be able to support his family. On page 261, as Frank is walking home, people on the streets give him strange looks, mocking and belittling him. But as he says, "They're ignorant. They don't know I spent the day delivering hundredweights of coal and turf. They don't know I'm a man." Though the world is against him, he rises above and acknowledges the idea that it shouldn't bother him; they really don't know what they're talking about. He continues to allow himself pride: pride at working for himself and his family, and not an addiction; pride at being trusted to work, even though he hasn't finished school yet; pride at being able to do something -- anything -- to help his current situation. He allows himself these prides, even though everyone around him is just scrambling to snatch them away.

In An American Childhood, Annie Dillard continually shows her excitement and enthusiasm for the world around her. From page 160 to page 162, she shares with us the story of the crippled Polyphemus moth, a creature that, as she says, "turned me to books; it turned me to jelly; it turned me much later, I suppose, into an early version of a runaway, a scapegrace." The story, in short, explains how she had seen a moth break free of its cocoon within