The Sound and the Fury (1929) is Faulkner's first extended attempt at the stream-of-consciousness narrative techniques that he successfully employs in As I Lay Dying. Both novels also concern familial relationships and include penetrating psychological portraits. Many critics note similarities between Quentin Compson and Darl as well as the idiot Benjy Compson and young Vardaman.

Faulkner's The Hamlet (1940) is the first in a trilogy of novels that chronicle the rise of the "poor white" Snopes family.

Tobacco Road (1932), a novel by Erskine Caldwell, depicts a poor family that overcomes extreme hardship in order to survive. Caldwell's characters are noted for their ignorance and often primitive reactions to situations.

George Washington Harris's Sut Lovingood stories, published in periodicals from 1843 until 1869 and collected in Sut Lovingood's Yarns (1966), are comedies in the tall tale tradition, featuring an incorrigible narrator and outlandish escapades. Faulkner professed...