Poor Nancy

That Evening Sun Go Down seemed to contain many allusions to mysterious fears. The dark ditch in which the man is supposedly hidden, for instance, seems to be symbolic of faceless fears in the dark.

I say “faceless fears” because I was not fully convinced that Nancy was hiding from Jubah. Perhaps there was a lack of reader comprehension on my part, but it did seem that Nancy considered Jubah a good man in her life: “Jubah always been good to me…Whenever he had two dollars, one of them was mine.” I wondered if Nancy was more afraid of the white man, the Baptist deacon. Perhaps it was the deacon hiding the razor “on the string down his back.” Perhaps it was the deacon who gave Jubah his scar. Or maybe, once again, I simply did not fully understand this short story.

Whether Nancy feared Jubah, the deacon, or Jubah’s reaction to her pregnancy (presumably by the deacon), what I took from the story was Nancy’s helplessness and the lack of support she received from the white community, specifically the Compsons – the people she believed could truly help her.

In the novel, it is repeated, by Caddy and especially Jason, that Nancy is a “nigger.” Dilsey and Jubah are also labeled as such, repeatedly. It is interesting that Faulkner includes this, and it seems to speak for the fact that white people define black people by this word and all of the connotations implied therewith – being a “scairdy,” for instance. Not only are the young children aware of this term, in tune with the involved stereotypes, and constantly using it to describe their black acquaintances, but Nancy herself seems to view herself as such as well (“I ain’t nothing but a nigger”). Interestingly enough, when she relays the story of a woman crossing a ditch to get home, she describes a queen.

Nancy’s fears do not seem to be taken seriously. At one point Caddy tells Jason that he was “scairder than niggers.” It therefore seems that a stereotype associated with black people is superstition or irrational fear. Nancy is a woman living alone without a husband. When the evening sun goes down, she is alone in the dark. So she seems to gravitate toward the light – staying by the fire, leaving it burning once the Compsons leave her alone. Perhaps I am mistaken, but it seems Faulkner wishes the reader to sympathize with Nancy, to see past the outlooks of young Quentin and his siblings and view Nancy as a justifiably scared woman, desperate enough to seek comfort in children. To me, it was very sad how she had to bribe young, helpless children as a means of achieving perceived protection. How she was ultimately left alone by Mr. Compson and the younguns.

This story seems to contain a theme of change. The town used to be one way, until it changed into another way. Nancy herself was once steady, carrying a bundle on her head that “never bobbed nor wavered.” By the end of the story, she is unsteady. She is described as being outside of herself. Her hand seems to be detached from the rest of her body. She is frightened out of her skin.