Red Leaves

I was first a bit confused about the meaning behind Red Leaves and why Faulkner wrote it, but as I completed the story I gained a greater appreciation for it. Instead of reading about racial relationships between people who are black and white, as in Faulkner's past novels, this novel deals with race relations between Native Americans and African Americans. The way in which they interacted and the level that the Indians understood the African Americans was very strange. At a certain point, it became funny despite the cannibalism. It was really funny that the Indians believed black people enjoyed sweating and had dark complexion because of the sweating. The tribal rituals including killing a dead leaders possessions once he died was also very interesting. This is actually a common factor in Egyptian history, but it is depicted in this novel.

The element of the story that stood out the most to me was the scene when Issetibbeha's servant was bitten by the poisonous snake. He says, "It's that I do not wish to die." After running from the Indians in fear of being eaten, his life is cut short by being bitten by a poisonous snake. His statement really stuck out to me because it seemed to sum up in one statement the feelings of other African Americans who found their lives cut short after fighting so hard to simply live. Even though this story does not include White Americans being harsh to African Americans, African Americans are still given the same position of lowly servitude. However, the Indian Americans in Red Leaves were very nice to the black male servant.

This story was a big breathe of fresh air from Faulkner. He never really seemed able to fully tackle racial subjects concerning white and black Americans, but he did a good job in this story with the Indian and African Americans. He did a great job of making fun of how African Americans are understood by an outside race and culture.