William Faulkner's "Dry September" is somewhat of a confusing title. Upon reading the first paragraph, we realize that 'dry' refers to the consistent southern heat. But as we continue to read, we realize that there is so much going on in this story. Just in the beginning paragraphs we get great, lengthy descriptions of the town and the people. Faulkner puts much effort into his descriptions. Reading his story, I got a vivid image of the heat that surrounded the people and the town.
I think the heat plays a very important role in this story. These people have gone for over sixty days with no rain. All these people were focused on the heat, that is until the story of Willie Mayes made its way around town. I think the heat and the weather are parallels in this story. The heat and Willie Mayes' accusation surrounded the people.
This story is typical of small town life. Generally, there is little excitement in a small town, but when there is, people jump on it. As Faulkner described, the rumor spread "like a fire in dry grass." Gossip and rumors are usually the focus of small town life. (I know this from experience!!)
One thing I noticed about this story is we never witness Willie Mayes' death. There is much hype and drama leading up to it, but it never happens. In the end, the focus is turned back to Minnie Cooper and we don't hear about Willie Mayes. I think Faulkner did this to focus on the circumstances surrounding the death of Willie Mayes: the accusation, the threatening, the torturing, and the reactions of the people. I think Faulkner left out the actual death so we realize that it is much more than hanging the person.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
8 comments:
You really had to break down the title of the story in order to see how exactly it related. Just looking at the title "Dry September" and knowing the story is about racism and white men killing a black man it does not make any sense. But Faulkner also put a lot of focus on the weather and the town. The word "dust" was also mentioned numerous times throughout the story. The town had gone sixty-some-odd days without rain and it was the end of summer so it was already hot out and being in the south just made it that much hotter. I know when it gets really hot out I get irritable. I think everyone in the town was feeling this way. Maybe if the weather had been different the behavior of the white men would also have been different. Being in such a racist area I think Willie would still have been given a hard time but there might have been a different outcome.
I have to agree with you that the heat does play a large role in this story. It is almost like the heat was playing tricks on the people and making them do things. It was as if the heat was manipulating the pieple into doing things that weren't in there nature. I find that even though the incident called for villigante justice in the eyes of all the white men, the heat was what urged them on to do this.
I think Faulkner left the death for other reasons. First off would you as a reader want to read in great detail what happens to Willie or would you rather leave it to your own imagination? Second put yourself in the place of the writer would you want to really write that?? Myself I would rather not read about what truly happened to Willie nor would I enjoy writing about it. Did you notice that the characters danced around the word rape in the beginning and the act was not described much like the Lynching.
I like this Faulkner piece although he describes the town I felt that he seemed to focus on more on what was important to the story the characters. When reading the story the way he started the dialogue between the characters I knew these were the point of the story unlike "Shallow Barn" which started off with the house which gave you more of a sense that the house was an extremely important piece of the equation.
The heat was definitely a metaphor for what was about to happen and gossip defiantly spread like wild fire.
I like your assessment of Faulkner's fear of commitment to a climax in his stories. He builds up to Will Mayes' death with a car chase and everything and then he doesn't even tell us about it. He does the same in "An Odor of Verbena," with Bayard acting like he is going to duel and then goes up unarmed. It's hard to understand why an author would do this, but as we noted in class, Faulkner's style is very unique an original.
Wow i never thought of the title and how it related to the story untill you mentioned it. The heat could have been the factor in all of what happened in the reading. The heat can drive people to do things that they normally wouldnt do. Faulkener out alot of hints toward weather andn i feel as the weather got dry and hotter it made people crazy and irritable. Maybe thats why so many people died at the end.
I also noticed that the story left out the details of Will's death. The people in the town talked about what happened, but we don't really know the truth. Like you said, there is little excitement in the town, so rumers are going to be a big part of entertainment for the towns people. I thought you made a good point when you mentioned that Faulkner left out the death so we would focus more on the circumstances surrounding Will's death.
First of all, i really like the title of your blog entry. You are absolutely right that there is so much more going on in the story than just talking about the atmosphere. I somewhat disagree about the descriptios though. Faulkner doesn't describe the setting as well as he describes the characters, its as if the setting doesn't play as a big of a role in the story, but we all know that the setting is important. I didn't think about the whole small town aspect. You are right though, in a small town usually its quiet but when something big happens everyone tries to get involved and it is evident in this story. People in small towns can get very nosy and completely involved. As the white men in the story did. I really liked some of the points that you made.
Post a Comment