Temple Drake

Temple Drake brought about a lot of what happened to her. While we might want to feel sorry for her by the end of it all, we do not simply because she put herself in that situation eventually. By being flighty, and noticeably so, she aroused the attention of Popeye and Van at the Goodwin house. Even though she was forewarned to try and keep out of sight by Ruby, she did not listen and instead returned to where the men drank and left and came back over and over. She enticed both Popeye and Van to react, and the eventual consequence was quite obvious.
Temple Drake herself is enticing simply in her name. Her first name being Temple is a location, a place of worship and respect. At the same time, it is a place that people should not touch, should not taint, although they might want to even if it is wrong. Temple, the girl, can be considered as something that people want simply for the sake of telling the story after it is done. The same goes for her, in the sense that she was raised with money and in a high-class world. She was curious about the lower class, although it put her at great risk that came to fruition with Popeye.
Personally, I was able to get through this story easier than the others, but that says little for the storyline itself. The plot mixed innocence and guiltiness in its characters, but at the same time showed several characters who were unwilling to make any steps necessary to fix things, or would do worse and take steps to push things in the opposite direction. Faulkner did well to show the many weaknesses of the Southern society when putting an almost foreign power, Benbow, who was idealistic, honest and just with the rest of the group. His sister tried to set up his downfall to continue the marriage and to keep her name from being tainted, for example. Besides that, however, this story feels a bit shallow. Characters did not seem very human, especially in their “conscience.” There were very few moments of regret for some actions, and it only appeared to get worse as the book went on.