What is Kept too Long

There are largely two kinds of rule-breakers or convention-shakers in the world, those who are too ahead of their time, and those who are too behind. In A Rose for Emily by William Faulkner, it's the story of a person stuck in the past, which causes problems with modern convention and reality. Miss Emily lives unbound by rules of current society. She doesn't want to pay her taxes because she hadn't had to before: "I have no taxes in Jefferson. Colonel Sartoris explained it to me. Perhaps one of you can gain access to the city records and satisfy yourselves." She says with a stern, dry voice. The mention of the city records implies that this was a long-ago established write-off, probably not one that exists for her anymore. She doesn't even consider the town Sheriff really the Sheriff. She probably only associates the job title with the previous Sheriff, the Sheriff of her prime. Miss Emily refuses to comply with convention not because she believes there needs to be a change, but because she hates the change that has occurred.

Emily hides from life after the death of her father and the mysterious "disappearing" of her sweetheart. She locks herself in her house, a relic in itself of the past, and clings to whatever memories she has stored in there, whatever routines, untarnished by the slowly modernizing outside world. In her neighborhood, which was once the finest neighborhood, only her house remains among the newly sprouted gins and mills. This historic, immaculately built place is isolated, cut off from the surrounding town. It's arrogant in this way, but also sad, lonely. Like Emily herself, who refuses to conform. The house being a manifestation of her ideals, she has chosen to remain standing immaculate among the newness, as an old relic.

Faulkner then takes this motif and puts a spin on it. If we are to see Emily's house as a manifestation of her ideas, than we have to take note of that hideous smell, the product of a dark secret. We find out that Emily has kept her "sweetheart" in her house rotting away for years. Perhaps she didn't want to be alone, maybe she was obsessed, but either way, there's a body in a bed in a room that hasn't been opened in forty years. Two old relics, Miss Emily and her home, are the keepers of a dead man; the cradlers of death itself. Sure, the house is filling up with the stench of a dying body, but Faulkner wants to imply that so is Emily. This obsession that has led Emily to keep the body in a locked-off room, is the same obsession that keeps her from interacting in a forward-moving world. There's not just a hint of Emily's past life within her, it's dead inside her, and she reeks of it.

This all may sound disgusting, and Faulkner probably intended it to in some way, but in another, we have to take note that this "stench" is not coming from someone who was an evil person in Emily's eyes, it's coming from a body that held a soul that Emily loved. In some way, we all hold on to some form of nostalgia. Some people talk about "the good old days" some talk about "the glory days" some talk about college days, some about childhood, but whatever the day or moment of life or time period people subscribe to, they are ignoring the present. The constant ignorance of present only leads to stagnation, to decay, wether or not the love for it is sweet and true.

Dry September

The first five words of this story really struck me: "Through the bloody Septmber twilight..." How beautiful. The sentence continues, of course, but those first words were really striking to me. The first and the last: The last line from "Dry September" was also very striking: "The dark world seemed to lie stricken beneath the cold moon and the lidless stars." Wow! It seemed to really sum up this whole story. Cold, always watching the dark color of the skin... "...lying stricken" seemed to show what happened to Will Mayes, even though we never really get closure on that. I enjoyed this story as well as "A Rose for Emily" even though it made me tense and sad. The language was so remarkable-- these short stories have been very strong, in my opinion.

The barber shop dialogue was really captured real tension between the men. The horrible McLendon and his getting the whole horrible mess going... I thought it was interesting that Faulkner never gives any details about what actually had happened between Will and Minnie. And that her being older and unmarried would be a reason that she would create stories about men. Minnie was an intriguing character and I would have liked to have gotten to know her a bit better than was offered. Same for Will. We don't really get into their lives very much, moreso Minnie's. This, though, kind of steered the story to excentuate the innocence of Will, I thought, and the injustice and prejudice of many whites in this time period. A white woman's word was more valuable than the life of a black person's life. People who didn't even really know her were willing to murder just because she said something happened. This really brings home what, or maybe what Faulkner thought, was a likely scenario. Maybe?

Since there is such a lack of information on Will's life and Minnie and Will's interaction, there is still a question left in the mind of the reader as to what really happened. Did Minnie lose it because something terrible happened or because she had lied about it? Faulkner leaves the conclusions to the reader, but I felt it was a bit leaning more toward Will being innocent.

The last scene showed McLendon in a really poor light, and continuing in the mind of the reader uncalled for brutality that he was capable of. His wife stayed up past a certain hour and she gets smacked... That's pretty ridiculous. Faulkner seems to zero in on the characters that are supposed to be disliked, like Jason in Sound and the Fury and Popeye in Sanctuary, and I think he really didn't want the readers to like McLendon from the beginning.

I enjoyed this story and it, along with "A Rose for Emily" was less Faulknerian than his novels, in my opinion, and a lot more accessible.

A Rose for Emily

"A Rose for Emily" brought me back to grade school. We read this at some point either in seventh or eighth grade and I didn't realize until I began reading that I had read it before. The curiosity of the neighbors-- the nosiness-- immediately conjured memories of the first time I had read the story.

I enjoyed this story a lot. It was the first I read of the series of assigned short stories, and I was struck by how different it was from all of the Faulkner we had read thus far. It was very accessible-- so accessible that it was assigned reading at a Catholic grade school.

After reading, however, I wondered who the narrator was and why the story was called "A Rose for Emily" when I don't recall a rose being mentioned. But maybe it passed me by and I didn't realize. A rose offered to Emily, I guess, would have been when one was courting or when she was dead, as a sign of respect. I was confused about that as well.

The character of Emily brought to mind the character or Flannery O'Connor's Joy in "Good Country People," although Emily was far less gruff, I thought. Faulkner really illustrated the character of Emily pretty clearly, and did so in such a short story that it really showcased the depth of his abilities.

Another question I had after reading was how did the grey hair get on the pillow next to the dead man if the room had been sealed for so many years? Did I miss something here? He said there was dust everywhere... How did she get in? And did her negro house man know what was going on? He bolted pretty quickly after the people were let into the house, so to me, that said that he was aware of Emily's bed partner. But how did she get in?

This was a really great story but it left me with many questions for Faulkner.

Who are you Mr. Compson?

"That Evening Sun Go Down" follows the same fractured time frame as Faulkner's other works, in particular, that unique and often dizzying timeline that is employed in all tales of the Compson family. The story begins in the present, which is not a place the reader returns to. The title refers to an evening which we find out later on is in the past, yet the title itself could allude to the future or the past. The setting goes back and forth like the sun goes up and down, the present exists and then doesn't, the past exists and then doesn't. Similarly other elements in the story exist and then cease to exist. Immediately I knew that this was an important theme in this short story. In several instances Faulkner describes things as being and not being, such as, "she said she was ... she said she wasn't" or "it was like singing and it wasn't like singing." The theme uniting the aforementioned provides a circular realm wherein the story can take place. Perhaps it is even linear, yet, in a nonconventional way. In this story, if we were to perceive it as employing a linear pattern in the way that I am speaking of, the pattern is one that goes back and forth, i guess slightly similar to that of a ping pong game. The back and forth motion can be representative of two opposing forces, that of good and that of evil--both inherent in human actions and intentions. The characters in this story walk the line between, under, and above these realms, wobbling from side to side. Each character is distinguished by their placement amid the good and evil forces. I believe that Nancy, a "hell-born" Negro, is representative of this struggle. Her character embodies fear, unease and anticipation. Caddy, particularly when persuaded by Nancy, demonstrates human weakness in the face of temptation whereas Jason's character mimics both Caddy and Nancy at the same time. He is both fearful and tempted to act in discordance with his intuition because of Caddy's heckling. Jubah, is the devil waiting outside, whether there or not there his presence does not cease and it is feared by all characters except for Mr. Compson whom I have yet to fully comprehend in terms of my analysis thus far.

I am interested to see how people viewed Mr. Compson.. That is, what role does he play in this story? What is he representative of in your perspective?? Does he contribute to my argument?

Hold On, Nancy

William Faulkner’s short story “That Evening Sun Go Down” is a chilling thriller set in his iconic Yoknapatawpha county. We are once again privy to the lives of the three Compson children, Caddy, Jason, and Quentin, our narrator. At this point in the children’s lives they are seven, five, and nine, respectively. In this story we are introduced to a new character, Nancy, a black servant to the Compson family. Nancy is a troubled individual, dabbling possibly in alcohol, prostitution, and cocaine. For the second half of the story she lives in fear of her delinquent husband who she thinks has returned to cut her with a razor. Though Faulkner leaves the biggest and most important leaps entirely up to the reader, he succeeds in creating the atmosphere of fear and depravity that Nancy herself lives in.
Nancy is an interesting and complex character. She serves as a foil to the Compsons’ usual housemaid, Dilsey, who is sick at the time of the story. Nancy’s rowdy and debauched life is strikingly juxtaposed with Dilsey’s diligent servitude. Dilsey is the typical submissive black servant of the South, calling her employer master and fawning over her children. Nancy, on the other hand, is rebellious of her job and refuses to be governed by her skin color. At the beginning of the story she refuses to get up and make the Compsons breakfast because she has to “get her sleep out.” Nancy is a prostitute, having sex with the white Mr. Stovall. Nancy’s rebellious nature is also seen when she attempts to escape from prison, hanging naked out of the window holding onto nothing but her dress. Nancy and Dilsey are two sides of the same coin, though, as they are both African American women in 1920s Deep South. They are both at the lowest of the chain, being both females and blacks. It is interesting to see this difference, though, and I think that Faulkner did a nice job depicting these two sides to black womanhood in the south.
The thriller element in this story is a new one, at least in my Faulknerian experience. Parts of “That Evening Sun Go Down” seemed more like Poe than Faulkner, but this simply proves that Faulkner is more diverse than I once thought him to be. The suspense in the second half the story over whether Jubah was really going to kill Nancy or if it was just her crazy imagination reminded me of “The Telltale Heart.” I found myself reading faster through Nancy’s walks back to her cabin in order to get her home safely. I think Faulkner masterfully crafted this story, and has once again hooked me into his writing.

Did you Hear?

"Well," He said, "Are you going sit there and let a black son rape a white woman on the streets of Jefferson?"

This line exemplifies what, to me, Faulkner is trying to communicate in this short story. It is clear to any Faulkner reader that he's mostly writing about issues of race, wealth, the idea of the "Old South", and the potent characters within this realm. However, we should not let this specific placement (Jefferson) and particular time period cloud the fact that these issues of rumor and prejudice are eternal and all-encompassing. From the time of the ancients to the time of Shakespeare and even in popular culture of the present, these themes permeate our thoughts and actions.

The rumors surrounding this black man and white woman in Dry September reach beyond this specific racism. Faulkner is highlighting all forms of prejudice, subtle and overt. When Shakespeare wrote Othello, a story with a similar predicament, he was not just writing about the personal struggle between two people of different races in love, but the complex, constructed laws of humanity. It's important to remember that when we are reading Faulkner, we aren't just reading about the South, we are reading about the world—ancient, modern, eternal.

That being said, Will Mayes (black man) is suspected of raping Miss Minnie (white woman), and the outcome is never revealed in order to show the reader that the actual rape the least important thing surrounding all of the anxieties, questions, and thoughts that it spawned. The rumor lingers in front of the reader's face to show that wether it happened or not is unimportant. What really matters is that it's a huge, penetrating situation that occupies the thoughts and conversation of an entire community.

"Are you going to sit there and let..." Yes. That's exactly what happened in this city of Jefferson. They talked, spread rumors, and in that occupied all of their lives with the mere idea of a rape that may or may not have happened. Storytelling is a big part of human interaction, but add discrimination of any kind, and soon enough the stories turn into harmful, snowballing lies.

Rape is a terrible thing, and I'm not saying this is not to make light of it. But it's suggested that Miss Minnie may well have created the story as a scapegoat to keep her name which is described as "not the best people in Jefferson" but a family that's "good enough". This is also a common occurrence among women. Some people even suggest that the Virgin Mary may have created such an elaborate story about conceiving the son of God so as to not be called impure. Just as permeating as the discrimination between races is that double-edged sword of sexuality between men and women, where the woman is usually always to blame.

This world of rumor is created out of the struggle to maintain socially constructed racism and discriminations. Faulkner wants to show that nothing worthwhile is created from letting socially constructed and destructive boundaries between race, gender, and class get to you. As soon as a person puts faith in the system, they have to become a slave to that system, and that's always been a vicious cycle of misunderstanding among us.

Did He? Or Didn't He?

The major premise of William Faulkner’s short story “Dry September” revolves around the question of whether or not Will Mayes, a black man, raped Minnie Cooper, a white woman. This question is never really answered, at least not outright, and I, at least, was unable to deduce the truth from the context. The way I look at it, Mayes could have raped her, or Miss Minnie could be lying, but in the end, it doesn’t really matter either way.
In the first scene of the story, several men are discussing what has happened in a barbershop. One of the barbers defends Willie Mayes, saying “I know Willie Mayes,” and claiming that Willie is a good man who wouldn’t hurt anyone. The other men in the shop disagree, calling the barber a “niggerlover” simply because he wants to collect the facts before making any judgments. One man, an ex-soldier known as McLendon, joins the discussion and is outraged by the barber’ “niggerloving.” McLendon hurls accusations as the barber and it is implied that McLendon challenges the barber to a duel outside. McLendon is incensed by even the thought of giving Willie Mayes the benefit of a doubt or the chance to prove himself. While the barber believes in Mayes’ innocence, or at least his right to proven himself so, McLendon has already convicted Mayes in his mind; Mayes is guilty not matter what. These two men represent opposite ends of the spectrum of beliefs in the town, two extremes. While most people believe Miss Minne’s story that Mayes raped her, several times throughout the story it has been suggested that she has maybe made it all up. One of her old classmates and friends ask another woman “Do you suppose anything really happened?” There is always an element of doubt lingering the air, though most people, like McLendon, are quick to judge Mayes harshly because of the color of his skin.
One of the scenes, when taken a certain way, may add credence to the idea that Miss Minnie Cooper made her rape story up. One night after the story has circulated town, Minnie and her friends go to the movies, but before the show even begins Minnie begins to laugh uncontrollably, continuing all through the night. Nothing can stop her, and it appears that she has lost her mind. These hysterics seem to suggest that there is something nor right about Miss Minnie; something is driving her to insanity. It is possible that the rape has sent her over the edge, but, to me, it seems more likely that she is hiding something, and the guilt of lying is eating away at her. It is also peculiar that she is laughing. This might suggest that she thinks it is funny that she has fooled the town with her story, or that she finds the attention on the wrong rapist amusing in a sick and twisted way.
In the end, it does not matter whether Willie Mayes raped Miss Minnie or not. “Dry September” is less about this incident and more about the nature of people and racism in the South. Miss Minnie is an example of fading old money, a spinster who is “forced into” adultery. Willie Mayes is a black man, but not matter how a good a man he is, how kind and honest, he is still persecuted for a crime he may not have committed. The final scene, where McLendon comes home late, suggests that something sinister has happened, and the reader is left with the sense that Willie Mayes has paid his dues, time after time, done his sentence, but committed no crime.