Racism in Faulkner’s Dry September
When summer turns into autumn everyone knows that changes will occur. People start to wear heavier clothing, the leaves change colors and the most noticeable difference is the weather transformations. Dry September is a fitting title to this short story because numerous changes happen throughout the story as well as during the season.
The imagery created provides a solid background for a reader to understand exactly what is going on during this time period. Racial tensions were obviously prevalent and disrespect towards black people was an everyday occurrence. “You damn niggerlover!” (170). The “n” word is used repeatedly used to describe Will Mayes and other black folks living in this town. From what I gathered, Mayes did not do anything to the white men; however, they demean his reputation and name.
What exactly does the moon have to do with the story? On many occasions, a reference to the moon is made: “Below the east was a rumor of the twice-waxed moon,” and “The dark world seemed to lie stricken beneath the cold moon and the lidless stars” (175, 183).
In the first quote it seems to me that the word “twice” is important. “Did it really happen…this ain’t the first man scare she ever had, like Hawkshaw says. Wasn’t there something about a man on the kitchen roof, watching her undress about a year ago” (171). The men in this town seem to think that Minnie Cooper is either lying or making the whole thing up. From reading about her background it seems like she never had any real, true friends and since she wasn’t married maybe yearns for a partner.
The relevance of weather keeps popping up in the men’s conversations. “It’s this durn weather…it’s enough to make a man do anythin...
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... barber again and again says that he knows Will Mayes and he would never do such a thing against a woman like Minnie Cooper, or anyone for that matter. If anything went wrong back during this time when racism was at its peak, a white man ALWAYS blamed a black man. White men had so many stereotypes and misconceptions about black people that it baffles me today. Just because someone is of a different color than you, why must a person insist in degrading and humiliating that person? The world is a very different place since this story was written however; sadly some people still believe that blacks do not deserve to have all the freedoms that they enjoy today.
Dry September was a wonderful short story that included Faulkner’s many favorite subjects; racism and prejudices, colorful, outspoken characters and a storyline that keeps the reader attentive and interested.
.... “The Strange Case of Marlise Munoz and John Peter Smith Hospital.” n.p.. 28 Jan. 2014. Web. 08 Feb. 2014.
The stories that the author told were very insightful to what life was like for an African American living in the south during this time period. First the author pointed out how differently blacks and whites lived. She stated “They owned the whole damn town. The majority of whites had it made in the shade. Living on easy street, they inhabited grand houses ranging from turn-of-the-century clapboards to historics”(pg 35). The blacks in the town didn’t live in these grand homes, they worked in them. Even in today’s time I can drive around, and look at the differences between the living conditions in the areas that are dominated by whites, and the areas that are dominated by blacks. Racial inequalities are still very prevalent In today’s society.
In Maycomb and Alexandria, the whites in the community do not treat the blacks respectfully. When Coach Boone first arrives into town from North Carolina the white residents responds to the sight of a black man saying, "Why aren't outside with all your little friends hollering," as well as, "are those people the movers?" The whites create a stereotype about Boone stating that since he is black he is like all the other rowdy blacks. This stereotype is false since Coach Boone is urbane and reserved, not wanting to cause a riot on his first day in town. Additionally when the town assumes that all African-Americans are "the help" shows that the whites see themselves as superior than blacks. During the 1930s in Maycomb, Mrs. Dubose says to Scout, "Your father is no better than the niggers and trash he works for" (102). Mr. Dubose, being prejudiced saying whites or above blacks, also shows how the town in both stories is prejudiced towards the minority of blacks. So because the blacks are not seen as equal, the development of the story is played out to show how the African-Americans respond to the whites racial discrimination. When the football team is returnin...
Mapes, the white sheriff who traditionally dealt with the black people by the use of intimidation and force, finds himself in a frustrating situation of having to deal with a group of black men, each carrying a shotgun and claiming that he shot Beau Boutan. In addition, Candy Marshall, the young white woman whose family owns the plantation, claims that she did it. As each person tells the story, he takes the blame and, with it the glory.
In the novel, A Light in August, William Faulkner introduces us to a wide range of characters of various backgrounds and personalities. Common to all of them is the fact that each is type cast into a certain role in the novel and in society. Lena is the poor, white trash southern girl who serves to weave the story together. Hightower is the fanatic preacher who is the dark, shameful secret of Jefferson. Joanna Burden is the middle-aged maiden from the north who is often accused of being a “nigger-lover”. And Joe Christmas is the epitome of an outsider. None of them are conventional, everyday people. They are all in some way disjointed from society; they do not fit in with the crowd. That is what makes them intriguing and that is why Faulkner documents their story.
When a book uses the "N-word" 213 times (Carey-Webb 24) and portrays the African American characters as inferior to their white counterparts, it becomes easy to assume that the book’s author Mark Twain is using this novel, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, as a form of racist propaganda to display upon America in the late 19th century post-Civil War Era. By the late 19th century slavery had finally ended across the United States, but racial tension, discord and discrimination were still very much at large. For those opposed to slavery in its original iteration, and, therefore, opposed to its continuation in this form, the only thing left to do was to continue fighting the battle for equality and rights in any way they knew how.
Three key elements link William Faulkner's two short stories "A Rose for Emily" and "Dry September": sex, death, and women (King 203). Staging his two stories against a backdrop of stereotypical characters and a southern code of honor, Faulkner deliberately withholds important details, fragments chronological times, and fuses the past with the present to imply the character's act and motivation.
The story is set in a rural community in turn-of-the century Iowa. This time-frame is one where women did not have the freedom they have today, but were instead seen as wives, cooks and housekeepers. This is the basis for Minnie’s isolation, her place in the society of the day. This is also compounded by Minnie’s husband, John Wright, who makes her more isolated than many other women of the time. We see that Minnie is isolated from love. Her husband is not an affectionate man and she has no children. In the story, we are told that after her marriage her only friend was “solitude.”
Racism presents itself in many ways in the town of Maycomb. Some are blatant and open, but others are more insidious. One obvious way that racism presents itself is in the result of Tom Robinson’s trial. Another apparent example is the bullying Jem and Scout had to endure as a result of Atticus’s appointment as Tom Robinson’s defense attorney. A less easily discernible case is the persecution of Mr. Dolphus Raymond, who chose to live his life in close relation with the colored community.
Ickstadt, Heinz. “Emily Dickinson’s Place in Literary History; or, the Public Function of a Private Poet.” The Emily Dickinson Journal 10.1 (2001): 55-68.
Emily Dickinson was America's best-known female poet and one of the foremost authors in American literature. She was born in1830 in Amherst Massachusetts and died in her hometown in1886, at the age of 56, due to illness. Emily was the middle child of three children. Her father, Edward Dickinson, was a prominent lawyer and one-term United States congressional representative. Her mother, Emily Norcross Dickinson, was a housewife. From 1840 to 1847 Emily attended the Amherst Academy, and from 1847 to 1848 she studied at the Mount Holyoke Female Seminary in South Hadley, a few miles from Amherst. During her lifetime, she published only about 10 of her nearly 2000 poems, in newspapers, Civil War journals, and a poetry anthology. Most people believed that Dickinson was an extreme recluse, but this is not entirely true. Although it is true that Emily never married and became very selective about the company she kept. Emily was far more sociable than most descriptions would have readers believe. She frequently entertained guests at her home and the home of her brother and sister-in-law during her 20's and 30's. Also, Dickinson kept up a huge correspondence with friends and family. Only recently are biographers beginning to recognize the role of Emily's sister-in-law, Susan Dickinson, in Emily's writing. They lived next door to each other for over 35 years, sharing mutual passions for literature, music, cooking, and gardening. It is rumored that Emily and Susan where secretly lovers. Emily sent Susan more than 400 poems and letters, twice as many as she sent to any other correspondent. Susan also is the only person at whose request Emily would actually change one of her poems. Evidence has also surfaced that Susan par...
On December 10, 1830, a cold winter day, Emily Elizabeth Dickinson was brought into the world. Emily lived on Maine street in a lovely brick home, which they called the “Homestead.” Emily had an older brother named Austin. She also had a younger sister, who was born three years after her, her name was Livina. The first school that Emily attended was a school right down the road from her house. This was the first education that she received. This was the school that her father wanted her to attend. This is also where Emily’s writing career began (Borus: 9-14).
“Major Characteristics of Dickinson’s Poetry.” Emily Dickinson Museum. Trustees of Amherst College, 2009. Web. 23 January 2014.
Poets such as Elizabeth and Robert Browning, John Keats, William Wordsworth, and William Shakespeare all helped mold the style of Emily Dickinson’s poetry (“Emily Dickinson” 3). However, unlike these famous poets, Dickinson opted to write her own style of poetry and experimented with new ways to write poems. Unlike her predecessors and contemporaries, Dickinson did not write her poetry in iambic pentameter; instead, she modeled her poetical format under something known as hymn form. Hymn form, which is also known as common meter, was used in the majority of Emily Dickinson’s poems. She modeled her poetry after the New England Congregationalist hymnologist, Isaac Watts (Leiter 334). Dickinson’s application of hymn form is what makes her poetry so avant-garde, but scholars are confused as to why she used it in the first place. Linguistic scholar Cristanne Miller suggests that Watts may have attracted Dickinson with his frequent use of irregular rhymes and harsh-sounding phrases (Leiter 334). Some feminist scholars have claimed that Dickinson’s refusal to use iambic pentameter in her poetry suggests that she was “deliberately rejecting the established norms of patriarchal literature” (Leiter 334).
Emily Dickinson was born at 1830 in Amherst, Massachusetts in a wealthy family. She attended an Amherst Academy, which was founded by Emily’s grandfather Samuel Fowler Dickinson. In 1847, she went to Mount Holyoke Female Seminary where she spent a year and decided to withdraw. After returning from the seminary, she only traveled to Washington DC and Philadelphia at 1955, and remained in Amherst for the most part of her life. In 1960, she became very introverted and the only connection with world were her letters that she wrote to her friends and family members. Her alienation from the world and her refusal to get merried made her to become a legend in her town and because of that she received a title of “The Myth” and ‘New England Nun”.