A Shelter for the Disabled: Relational Asylum for the Mentally Disabled Characters in William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31185/wjfh.Vol22.Iss2.1738Keywords:
Keywords: disability studies, asylum, guardianship, William Faulkner, John Steinbeck, mental disability in literature.Abstract
This paper explores how a modern asylum is portrayed in the novels The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner and Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, depicting characters who are marginalised due to mental disabilities. Through the analysis of the characters' experiences and the settings in which they find refuge, this paper highlights the role of the "relational asylums", presenting a form of shelter that is rooted in interpersonal guardianship not institutional confinement. Drawing on ideas from disability studies and the works of Michel Foucault on madness, and by placing the Foucauldian confinement in mid of dialogue alongside disability studies' critique of normativity, this paper demonstrates how the novels replace the institutional exclusion with fragile care of relatives. Faulkner and Steinbeck, hence, critique the formal institutions' failure, while offering a substitute for care, which is based on the human connection.
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Copyright (c) 2026 Sarah Faisal Madhlum
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