[3] It is, however, widely agreed upon that not only its setting, but also its content clearly reference Faulkner's personal involvement in the New Orleans creative community where he spent time before moving to France.

Beginning and ending in the city, the story follows a diverse cast of artists, aesthetes, and adolescents as they embark on a four-day excursion aboard the motorized yacht, the Nausikaa, owned by a wealthy patron of the arts.

The artist works around the chatty Talliaferro, indifferently agreeing with every claim and question, yet declines the offer to attend an evidently aforementioned boat trip hosted by the wealthy Mrs. Maurier.

Leaving the apartment to get a bottle of milk for Gordon, he meets Mrs. Maurier, the hostess of the upcoming yachting trip, who is accompanied by her niece, Pat.

Though Gordon maintains a distant and uninterested aura, it becomes evident through the stream-of-consciousness passages that follow that he is at odds with himself over his sudden attraction to Pat that changes his mind about the trip.

The first day on the yacht concludes with a minor cliffhanger when Mr. Talliaferro makes it known that he has his sights set on one of the women on the ship, but only speaks her name behind closed doors.

Similar conversations among the men over drinks continue, but the second day of the trip becomes largely defined by interactions between pairs of characters that result in misguided sexual tension that is fostered between them.

The only openly reciprocal feelings that seem to develop over the course of the day are between Pat and the nervous steward, David West, who she goes to meet for a midnight swim after her intimate encounter with Jenny.

Two scenes diametrically opposed conclude the chapter as David West and Pat return in youthful joy from a midnight swim off of the now marooned boat, while Mrs. Maurier lies in bed sobbing in her loneliness.

The chapter cuts back and forth between the characters on the boat and Pat and David as they make their way through a seemingly endless swamp to their intended destination.

Where there are many instances of implied homoerotic, and more specifically lesbian, feelings and actions, these excised scenes most likely stretched the taboo displays of sexuality too far to be published in the 1920s.

By grounding the repetitive activities of the characters in concrete temporal divisions, Faulkner gives structure to what might otherwise seem to be an endless stream of conversation and interaction between various combinations of the yacht's passengers.

By trapping his characters on the Nausikaa for much of the book, Faulkner establishes a means of exploring a wide variety of sexual relationships[22] as well as a way of questioning heterosexual gender roles.

Some ascribe the explorations as merely a poeticized documentation of the various character types he witnessed during his time in New Orleans' bohemian community, a "site of flamboyant sexual masquerade and activity of all sorts.

"[23] Scholars like Minrose Gwin, however, believe that this exploration had a deeper connection to Faulkner's personal experiences, arguing that he wished to put in question the period's culturally compulsory heterosexual norms.

Combined with the discussions of sex and sexuality, the reader notes that each of these men begins the novel inhabiting very distinct and disparate ways of interacting with the creative world: the quiet self-absorbed artist, the cynical critic, and the talkative author respectively.

These changes mark Faulkner's more honed view of determining what it means to be an artist, simultaneously dedicated to his work, critical of his abilities, and engaged in the world outside his writing.

[25] Mosquitoes did not receive notable critical response at the time of its publishing, but following Faulkner's rise to a place of prominence in American Literature, the book has garnered a significant body of reviews, interpretations, and analyses.

[26] Following this observation of Mosquitoes' imitative qualities, the book has also been considered by many to represent a period in Faulkner's life where he begins to cultivate, though not yet successfully, the personal literary style for which he later becomes famous.

Like Hepburn, his argument does not try to boost the novel to acclaim as a great work of literature, but rather argues for its foresight into the rising discussions of cultural politics at the time.