William_Faulkner-Dry_September威廉福克纳_干旱的九月_英文版

VIII.Dry September:
William Faulkner’s short story "Dry September" deals with a lynching of a black man, Will Mayes, wrongly accused of attacking a white woman, Minnie Cooper. But Mayes is not the only victim in this short story. Minnie Cooper is also a victim in "Dry September." Minnie is as much a victim of the social standards and practices of southern society as Willie Mayes is. ?While "Dry September" may seem to be just a story about how a black man is wrongly condemned to death, it is also about the moral and social demise of a woman who is no longer valued in society. Minnie Cooper lives in a society that has no more place for old maids than it has for black men, and that makes her just as much a victim as Willie Mayes.
Minnie had no choice but to create a lie because, "Minnie’s world, offering no alternatives, encouraged Minnie to consent to, even create, her own victimization in the interests of consolidating white control" ?The structure of the story itself points to the importance of Minnie Cooper. She is dealt with more in the text of "Dry September" than Willie Mayes is. "Dry September" is divided up into five sections. The first section takes place in the barbershop, where the men decide to get Willie back for "raping" Minnie. The second section deals directly with Minnie, her life, what she does, and how she is being ignored by society. The third section deals with the lynching of Willie. However, in this section Willie‟s thoughts and feelings are not made known to us. Instead the readers get an account of what happens up to the point where Hawshaw jumps out of the car. The fourth section again deals with Minnie, how she is acting, what she is wearing, and how people act toward her. The fifth section deals with McLendon beating his wife, which not only mimics the violent death of Willie, but also suggests the helplessness and vulnerability of women in this white, male-dominated society.
Minnie Cooper clearly is an important character due to the amount of material written about her. Two fifths of the story deal directly with her. Only one fifth of the story deals directly with Willie, and in that section his character is not developed at all. Minnie is a victim in this story because there are two sections of the story explaining what her character is like and why she is ?suffering so much. Minnie is a victim of her gender, while Willie is a victim of his race. Noel Polk in Faulkner and Gender, states that, "Dry September" is "more centrally concerned with gender than with race". It is obvious that Willie is a victim, for he is the one who is murdered. But Minnie is also?a victim; although she does not die physically, she has for a long period been dead to society.?"She was the last to realize that she was losing ground. One evening at a party she heard a boy and two girls, all schoolmates, talking. She never accepted another invitation"
We are told that there was a short time in her life when she was part of society—part of the crowd: "When she was young she had a slender, nervous body and a sort of hard vivacity which had enabled her for a time to ride upon the crest of the town’s social life ?Since being sexually attached or sexually a ttractive was so important to women, Minnie‟s diminished status is clearly revealed when she is no longer able to hold any man‟s interest.
This feeling compels her even more to falsely accuse Willie. After Minnie accuses Willie of
rape, she receives attention from the men in the town again.
/dry-september/
William Faulkner
A man who live through the Realistic Period and Modernism Period, and “the man himself never stood taller than five feet, six inches tall, but in the realm of American literature, William Faulkner is a giant.” He‟s known as a Mississippi writer by his works.
William Faulkner is recognized by many as America‟s greatest writer of prose fiction of the 20th century and he‟s also a Nobel Prize-winning novelist of 1949. He was born on September 25, 1897, in New Albany, Mississippi. He was named after his grandfather William Clark Falkner who was the auth or of a popular romantic novel called “The White Rose of Memphis. Faulkner grew up in an old southern family, just before his fifth birthday, his family moved to Oxford, Mississippi, during that time, he met his childhood sweetheart, Estelle Oldham, and his lifetime friend Phil Stone who encouraged him to write. At the Oxford High School, he played the football as a quarterback and suffered a broken nose. And soon, he dropped out of school at age of 15. Later, he tried to join the U.S Army Air Force but was denied because he was too short.
In July 1918, impelled by dreams of martial glory and by despair at a broken love affair, he joined Canadian Royal Air Force. On his application to the RAF, he lied about a few things, including his birth date, place, and added a “U” to his real last name “Falkner”, believing it would look more British. During the World War I, but he never fought. After the war, he returned to Mississippi as a war veteran and enrolled at the University of Mississippi under a special provision for war veterans. Even though he had never graduated from high school, his first published poem “L …Apres-Midi d‟un Faune” appeared in The New Republic. His writing career started to turn around since then.
William Faulkner was a very indifferent student in high school, and that determined his talent and unique writing style. His writings are mostly longer, and quite hypnotic, and his writings often have highly emotional impacts and complex, or sometimes even Gothic. He and Ernest Hemingway are considered two greatest American novelists of his era. Faulkner was also a prolific short story writer, many of his short stories and novels are set in Mississippi, and his most celebrated works include “Barn Burning” and “Dry September”.
The story “Barn Burning”, narrated in the third person, was set in the imaginary Mississippi country Yoknapatawpha, where a ten year-old little boy Satoris Snopes faced a major decision in his life, which is either going alone with the views and actions of his father or to do what he innately senses is right. The story opens with the protagonist Sartoris Snopes in the court, and hoping that he will not be testify for a case against his father, even though Sarty knows the fact that his father is absolutely guilty for what he did. Sartoris‟s father Abnernathy Snopes has a habit that he likes to burn a barn of whomever he is angry with. His father once said to him: “You got to learn to stick to your own blood or you ain‟t going to have any blood to stick to you.” His father threatened him to be loyal to his family no matter if the family is right or wrong, or else he‟d have no place to live or no help from relatives.
After being …kicked‟ out by many towns, Sartoris finally realized that there‟s something wrong with his father psychologically. When they arrived at the plantation of Major de Spain, Sarty felt that everything is fine and his father would be safe, “People whose lives are a part of this peace and dignity are beyond his touch, he no more to them than a buzzing wasp: capable of stinging for a little moment but that's all, - the spell of this peace and dignity rendering even the
barns and stable and cribs which belong to it impervious to the puny flames he might contrive . . .” However, Sartoris didn‟t know t hat his father can just easily bring down such a big plantation with his metal problem.
The theme of Faulkner‟s “Barn Burning” is Sarty‟s desire to break away from his family. It is easy enough for us to say what‟s right and wrong, but, for Sartoris, it‟s not simple as right and wrong or peace and dignity, it is between blood and justice. As the beginning of the story, Sartoris did what his father told him to do, to stick with blood. He would probably defend his father anyways because the son always sticks with his father. But in the end, Sartoris warned Major de Spain that he father would burn down his plantation, even though such an action will cause his father and his family, or even worse that he would have no place to go. But, the ten years old Sartoris was able to make his own decision between family and morality.
“Barn Burning” is a tale of a southerner, a man who is forced into a role by society. The main character Abnernathy Snopes, is a sharecropper of a poor family. He and his family had to share half or more than half of their harvest with the landlord. Two of Snopes‟s daughters have to stay home and help out their parents in the field. And about Sarty Snopes, the ten years old boy, there is significant fact about him. Although he knows that his father is a barn burner, Sartoris fought those boys who called his father a “barn burner” to defend his father‟s integrity. “Maybe he's done satisfied now, now that he has ... stopping himself, not to say it aloud even to himself.” Deep inside of his head, he doesn‟t want to face the truth that his dad is a barn burner, a person who caused the family to move so many times. “Likely, his father bad already arranged to make a crop on another farm before he ...” And here again he stopped his thought. At the end of the story, Sarty made his decision and the “pull of blood” was not strong enough to corrupt his mind. It is understandable of what he did. It was a choice between family and morality. Nevertheless, he was probably too young to understand his father. He was not able to see through him, and the family‟s poverty condition, because the route he wants to travel is nothing like his father‟s path.
“Dry September” was in Faulkner‟s first short story collection. The story is told in five parts, and the author presented a vision of Southern life during reconstruction. The setting is a September day, “Sixty-two rainless days.” The story deals with a lynching of a black man, Will Mayes, wrongly accused of attacking a white female, Minnie Cooper and condemned to death. The opening of “Dry September” focuses on the oppressive heat and sets an overwhelming setting for the story along with the townspeople and has fueled Miss Minnie‟s accusation that she was raped by a black man, Will Mayes. “Dry September” touched a s ubject that many Southern authors like Faulkner would mentions, the relationship between black people and white people. The setting and characters also show the conflict and race relations that among the story.
The story begins in a barbershop, where is located in a small town. People within the barbershop started an argumentative conversation about the crime of Will Mayes. Whoever is supporting Mr. Mayes are to be called the “niggerlover” by other. One of them is a man named Hawkshaw, he insists that for those who want to get the man guilty should find out the facts before even rushing into judgments. Also, throughout the whole story, the weather has been mentioned several times. "It‟s this durn weather. It‟s enough to make a man do anything," one of the ba rber comments. Especially the hot weather and temper on the dry September day. The story is divided into five parts. Part one is basically the argument over Will Mayes, part two is a flashback to Minnie‟s life. In part three, we‟re back to the barbershop, and a gang was formed this time. Part four and five kind of give us a little more details about Minnie and McLendon.
William Faulkner gave his story the perfect title “Dry September”. It fits well because there are numerous changes in the story as well as during the season, just like when summer turns into fall, everyone will notice the differences and changes, and not just the weather changes, so do the people. For a story from the old South, this story has all the factors: a crime of passion, racism, and violence. This story shows us how we can affect other‟s lives. And violence is not the solution to everything, because violence can only cause more violence. “Dry September” also shows how difficult it was to be a black man to live within in a entire white population, it is a passionate story that truly open our field of vision.
“Dry September” and “Barn Burning”, two stories have a almost identical setting, they both are stories during 1930s in Mississippi, which both contains a common decline of the old social Southern theme. Faulkner uses his stories to call out and challenge people to change and awaken to the race, class, and economic turmoil. Both stories have very one thing in common, that is they all have a final unanswered question. In “Barn Burning”, Little Sarty left his family, and in the end of the story, …He did not look back.” Faulkner did not tell what happened to him and what his future is. In “Dry September”, the whole story is concentrated on a black who is accused of attacking a white female, but the narrator did not give us an answer for Will Mayes but only said that he is condemned to death.
“Barn Burning” was a story during the ebb of the 1930s while the “Dry September” was a story about a black man who lived in the old South. The main character of both stories seems to have a similar but very different bitter experience. Abnernathy Snopes, a white sharecropper who has to pay more than half of his harvest to his landlord and always burn down their barns as return. Will Mayes was wrongly accused of attacking a white woman, what he was going to face is a serious consequence of attacking a white person –guilty to death. The whole story is full filled with racism, the …n‟ word is used repeatedly used by many white man who‟s living in the town.
William Faulkner once said: “He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion.” In other words, a writer should write story with lust, and passion.
It is remain an unsolved myth that whethet Minnie is raped by the nigger, or whether she is raped at all. But the old maid and the nigger are both the opperessed and humiliated onesin the story.
Minnie is always seen as an joking object by the others. They humiliate her, look down opun her for her failiure in love, and dig out her miserable past, finding pleasure in doing so. They do not care her emotions and mind. Their seemingly tenderness is actually colder than indifference.
The nigger is punished for what he may not have done. The men in the twon do not care whether he did it. They actually do not care Minnie too, but between a white woman and a nigger, they choose to believe in the white. What they seek is not truth or fact, or justice. They get some fun from the seemingly "protection" of the whites, and the dry wether add to their fury.
In the story, the descrimination is shown between sex, and races. The white male is the dominant force of the world. They can abuse white women, as well as black men. And Mclendon is the typical representor of the brutle white male.
Q: the dry weather symbols what in the story?
"Dry September," is a novel about racism in the south by William Faulkner. In a small southern town of Jefferson , an aging and sexually frustrated white spinster starts the rumor that the black
man has attacked her. A group of men, led by a former war hero, murder him before they proves his guilt.
McLendon, is one of the main characters in this short story. It is him who raises the mob against Mayes and in the end of the story, he strikes his wife very badly, when he cannot endure her accusing eye. It seems that he is a person of violence.
So , my question is : what is the author‟s aim to establish an imag e like McLendon?
The story is about the position of woman in society, the racism, and the violence around these questions. The plot is divided into five sections: Sections I and III show the town‟s reaction to the rumor that Miss Minnie, a spinster, has been attacked by Will Mayes, a black man; Parts II and IV familiarize us with Miss Minnie‟s history and give us an inside view of her emotional state; and Section V provides us with a glimpse of McLendon‟s home life and the hints of his violence to Will Mayes.
Miss Minnie Cooper, a southern aristocrat, “was of comfortable people--not be the best in Jefferson, but good people enough”. She is driven to desperation by her “idle and empty days”: She has no occupation, no social position, no intellectual interests, and is trapped by her advancing age. Her desire of being accepted surpasses her morality. The society has pushed her so much that she finds it hard to accept herself and what the society thinks about her. When her friend's children call her 'aunty' she objects and insists on being called cousin. She wants to change their impression of her and in doing so she wants to be liked by them, hoping that the mere hint of rape will prove her still sexually desirable. Miss Minnie is the symbol of the decline of southern aristocracy, which was aging, rotten, lifeless, and deserted.
The horrible racism is clearly showed in Dry September. Will Mayes is the most innocent victim, the only character who evokes our complete sympathy. He does no harm to Miss Minnie.
H e is obedient, When Mclendon force and order to him, he even doesn‟t do any resistance. “The Negro did not not move. …What you all going to do with me, Mr. John? I aint done nothing. White folks, captains, I aint done nothing: I swear fore God‟ “. Poor Wil l! Who would listen to him?
Although everybody knows what happens, nobody prefers to believe him. Will is accused of guilty, just because he is a black man, and they prefer that a Southern lady could never tell lie. Poor and defenseless Will Mayes is murdered in spite of his innocence.
As a Southern writer, Faulkner draws upon the mores and prejudices of his own regional culture to create unforgettable characters and settings for his novels and short stories. “Dry September,” short though it may be, addresses many aspects of this Southern culture. Rather than emphasize the violence of Will Mayes‟ death, the story focuses on the causes leading up to that violence and the mentality that breeds such monstrous behavior.
My question is: Why does Faulkner treat many of his characters as victims of various social forces?
A strong curiosity drove me to finish this story without neglecting a small clue, and yet I haven‟t found a clear answer even in the end of it. Like many other stories, its open ending leaves a large space for the readers to practice their imagination. Maybe whether the woman was raped or not, or by whom was she raped is not important at all, because after all it‟s the dark side of human nature that the author wanted us to focus on.
Here in this story, the main character Minnie Cooper is a typical southern lady, and the author spent the whole chapter in describing her (Chapter II), from which we know that she is already an outdated and unappealing spinster. My question is, since she is “relegated to adu ltery by public opinion” and “men did not even follow her with their eyes anymore”, why people make such a fuss about her claiming to be raped? I think those people only use Minnie Cooper as an excuse to lynch Will Mayes rather than really care about her.
"Dry September" is a short story by William Faulkner. When seeing the title, I didn‟t really know what the story is about. In the beginning, a lot of characters pop out (which almost confused me) and their dialogue drag the story out, then I started to have a clue. I was mostly impressed by the dialogues between different characters, it is actually what they say that reveal their nature. The perspectives of the mob and the rumored victim are all revealed this way.
In Chapter III, I notice that the image of moon appears once and again: “Below the east was a rumor of the twice-waxed moon”, and “Below the east the wan hemorrhage of the moon increased ”. So I wonder is moon here a metaphor? What‟s its connotation?。