That Evening Sun

I just read some of the other posts about this story and there are some differences in my text. First, it's only called "That Evening Sun," and second, the man who Nancy is hiding from is named "Jesus" in my book. Those seem like some major differences. But all that aside, this was my favorite of the short stories assigned. I was excited to see that it was about the Compsons, and at a time when they seemed to be doing okay, not clashing and fighting or obsessing about what Caddie was doing. Was this narrated by Quentin? I couldn't really tell. I thought it was but I was not totally certain.

This story allowed the readers to get a view of the Compsons as children, moreso than in that first really difficult of Sound and the Fury. I was particularly interested in the character if Jason, because of how he was in the novel. He seemed like a normal kid. I wasn't sure how old they were supposed to be in this story.

The character Nancy was mostly the focus of this one, though, and her constant moaning or whatever she was doing was kind of creepy. Or, at least it gave me the creeps. That, coupled with the lurking Jesus outside, hiding in ditches ready to kill. And her ultimate fate, too. I think Nancy was pretty mentally unhealthy and Mr. Compson seemed to kind of pick up on this. He never seemed to anger with her, and was very patient. This was nice. I liked the character of Mr. Compson-- I pretty much liked all of the characters except for Jesus, of course. I tried to understand that watermelon/vine brief conversation that Nancy and Jesus had in front of the Compson kids, but I didn't really get what he meant. I guess he was threatening her?

This story was so dark feeling. I really liked it a lot and it made me wish that there had been a whole series of short stories dealing with the Compsons as children, so there could be more insight to their lives and all.

Faulkner's short stories, the ones we read, were all pretty good, but this one was, in my opinion, the best of them.