This is a huge question that I can't begin to do justice
to here, but I can give you a place to start.
Faulkner's
heroes/protagonists are often unlikeable, even despicable characters, but he presents
them without apology and sometimes even with dignity. Abner Snopes in "Barn Burning" is
one such character.
Snopes is as unlikeable as unlikeable
gets. He abuses his family, looks for reasons to start his little wars, and burns barns
to get back at people who wrong him, as he sees it. I don't think he possesses one
obvious and normal positive character trait.
However, at
the same time, Abner Snopes is a poor man's hero, one might say. He, in a sense, does
what many powerless people would like to do, but don't. We are refined, we know
better. Abner does it anyway.
Abner holds on to his
dignity the only way he can. In his world (the South after the Civil War), he is dirt
poor with few opportunities to improve his lot. He is powerless, as twentieth century
thinkers realized most humans are in the face of overwhelming powerful economic and
social forces. Dignity is in short supply, as they say, for modern man. But Abner will
not give in. He will hold on to his dignity any way he
can.
If you want ambiguity, Faulkner's your man, and "Barn
Burning" is a good place to start.
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