Corruption In William Faulkner's Go Down, Mosess

One of the most illustrious authors of the early twentieth century, William Faulkner used the land of Mississippi as the groundwork for a majority of his novels. In his novel, Go Down, Moses, Faulkner glorifies the sacredness of the American land as an attempt to depict the dream that humanity will overcome their corruptions in Europe. This “sacredness” is dependent upon the character of Isaac (Ike) McCaslin and the journey that he follows throughout his life. Faulkner starts by detailing Isaac’s youth where he is becomes immersed into the wilderness and the hunting ritual. This immersion transforms Ike into an adult who separates himself from his lineage’s tradition of owning the land. By the time Ike is an old man, all sense of the wilderness

However, the mythic framework becomes apparent in the first lines of this story: “At first there was nothing. There was the faint, cold, steady rain, and gray and constant light of the late November dawn, with the voices of the hounds converging somewhere in it and toward them” (Faulkner 157). This passage directly correlates to the opening lines of Genesis in the Bible. Faulkner is using this story to represent the Old Testament and signify that Ike plays an integral part in the myth. Author and researcher Anette Kolodny interprets Faulkner’s opening as a way to show that American land represents “Paradise” or a “Second Eden” for humanity (Kleppe 365). However, the readers soon learn that the land has been corrupted and Ike is the “savior” whose is supposed to bring it to unity. Faulkner parallels the corruption of the land to the original sin commited by Adam and Eve. This “sin” is traced back to Sam’s father, Ikkemotubbe, and his decision to assume ownership of the land and sell it to Ike’s grandfather, Lucius McCaslin. This original sin causes the fall of the land in America just as the “Paradise” in Eden was lost through Adam’s sin. Slavery and segregation are each an extension of this original sin commited by Ikkemottube. Sam knows Ike is the chosen one and is immersing

Ike is going to visit his younger relative, Roth Edmonds, who is now the owner of the plantation. Ike is disgusted by Roth and devastated to realize that he is no different than old Lucius Quintus Carothers McCaslin, who bought the land form Ikkemotubbe and had incest with his African daughter. Just like Lucius, Roth has an illegitimate relationship with a black woman and gets her pregnant. Roth asks Ike to give the woman an envelope of money to deal with the baby. Even though Ike is heartbroken he gives the woman the money and states “Marry: a man in your own race. That’s the only salvation for you – for a while yet, maybe a long while yet. We will have to wait. Marry a black man” (Faulkner 346). Since Ike never shot the bear, the black and white races are not in unity and in fact are even more divided at this point in history. This is why Ike tells the woman the best way to make it through life is to marry another black man. Although Ike saved himself from the original sin, he still has to witness the increasing extension of the sin in society. The last line of this story is very sad and lives Ike stranded in this corrupt society. After hearing that Roth killed a buck outside he states, “ ‘It was a doe’ ” (348). During this time period, it was illegal to kill does. This statement by Ike displays his knowledge that the wilderness