The William Faulkner’s short story Dry September, published in 1931, takes place in a fictional residence of Jefferson, which is located somewhere in the southern community. Faulkner wanted to release something that will stretch our truth-sorting muscles, because this story is a story of rumor. Rumors are part of our society, and they seem to be part of our lives too because it is always been very difficult to clear out the truth of any situation. So, all the situations we are going through could be a part of a rumor’s factory.
Two main characters that the rumor is about are helping Faulkner’s story; the Nigger called Will Mayes, raped a white woman, Minnie Cooper. The rumor, the story, pops up through the ‘’bloody September twilight’’. The barbershop is a place where it all begun. When it comes to such things, when the story becomes a main discussion, we got to choose, will we accept thing as true without any proof, or will we base our conclusion on facts? So, this story is about how the main characters, as barber Henry, McLendon, youths from the barbershop who are representing the southern community, investigate a rumor.
It is ‘’Bloody September night’’ and a crew of both young people and strangers are taking a discussion in a barbershop owned by Henry ‘‘Hawkshaw’’ and some other barbarians. They were discussing a rumor, which owns the day in Jefferson residence. Is Will innocent or not, many of them where already sure of that, because how could it be that a nigger’s word is taken before a white woman’s? Not a speak.
![](https://paperap.com/wp-content/themes/theme/img-rh/star.svg")
4.7 (235)
“ Amazing writer! I am really satisfied with her work. An excellent price as well. ”
The fellows agree that the young will had done something wrong without investigating the problem. Then, John McLendon, who commanded troops at the front in France, show up to collect the fellows to punish the nigger for the crime he had done.
His bad attitude rapidly affects other people’s attitudes in the shop and they leave the room with a lot of hate inside themselves. But not all of them think Will is done something bad, Henry defends him by saying to his fellows that he knows him personally, and that that couldn’t be him. Even if he tries to show them that the town isn’t just ‘’black’’ and ‘’white’’, and that they should seem happy by having such ‘’good’’ kind of niggers in there, the people ignore him. He leaves the shop in hope to stop and persuade them not to hurt him because of his innocence. He gets in car.
They got the confused Will, handcuff him and put in the car too. Suddenly, Henry says he got sick stomach and wants out. But McLendon says that he could jump out because he isn’t stopping the car. That’s what he does. He jumps out and hides in dust-sheathed weeds. Afterwards, McLeadon is going home, arguing with his wife who was waiting for him even if it was midnight. He lays his gun on the table beside the bed, and there was no sound, the dark world seemed to lie stricken beneath the cold moon and the lidless stars. Minnie Cooper is a 40 years old unmarried woman.
She is haggard looking, exhausted, always wearing bright dresses. At the end of the story, she has a collapse, she screams and laughs in the middle of the cinema. Her ‘’friends’’ lead her home, wondering Will really attacked her or not. I found some symbols, which may refer to some of society’s main characterisations; characters’ minds are locked up due to surroundings and they can’t let their passion and interest see things in a different way than in a violent. So, wrong attitudes, can never lead us to a problem’s resolvability, but unfortunately, the residence of Jefferson has to deal with that kind of problem.
McLendon’s gun could symbolise the authority, threat of violence. And that is also one of the story’s main themes. People don’t really care about what is true or not, they’ve been lead by some bad values, which had been a consequence of racism. Ice manufacturing plant where Will works as a watchman, is a symbol of town’s needs. Jefferson is covered with dust, caused of sixty-two rainless days. Atmosphere is violent, always the same, nothing is being based on facts, and people get to face something new, rain maybe, some changes, hopes or innocence.
This town is in a really bad condition; stale breathes, durn weather, flat and dead air with a metallic taste, haggard-looking people, and days die in a pall of dust. And then, McLendon’s house could be seen as symbol of hierarchy. Everyone is caged within the heat and dust. He hurts his wife, showing his authority, as he earlier had showed in the barbershop where he doesn’t want to discus the problem and will rather use violence to resolve it, and outdoors when he in some way punishes Will. When we are told that there are only four men in the car, and Butch was not on the running board, it seems like the narrator is talking.
This might be important for the story, because, not all the facts are being representing by the characters themselves, but the narrator takes their places wisely, so we don’t even realise that. The intention could be that someone who wants to give us a message spotlights the whole Jefferson situation, and gives as the opportunity to see this situation from more perspectives. McLendon is maybe a man who is caged and can’t behave in own way just because of the people and habits, which were developed many many years ago in that area. So no one is capable of being different and think in different or correct way.
Everything is based on rumors, which are swinging around the town, and everybody is looking into other’s lives. The gun at the end of the story could be a sign, which leads us to an open ending. Was Will killed by John and the other man or not, the question is now. But, as I mentioned before, we only have two choices; to conclude something based on facts, or just pretend that the truth is obvious and attempt to say that McLeadon has killed the poor Will. And is it right to call Will a ‘’poor’’ one? This shows us that people must not be motivated by prejudice, because nothing else is more correct than facts.
There are more themes in this story I want to deal with, because all of them are relevant to the context of the Faulkner’s short story ‘’Dry September’’. William Faulkner’s ‘’Dry September’’ considers a problem still present in contemporary American society: crime and violence motivated by racism. What could be a difference between a good nigger and a bad one? Are they just saying that all the black people are bad, but Will is just an exception? That statement is describing that the community of Jefferson and the whole southern population is covered by racism. ‘’I know Will Mayes, he is a good nigger. ‘’(Part 1. aragraphs 2). This sentence is said by Henry Hawkshaw and shows us that he might think that Will is innocent, but that doesn’t mean that he is innocent of racist attitudes. He attempts to make a cooler atmosphere in his barbershop but refusing to agree with his fellows. And that they really want to look after some trouble, can show us the quote in part 1 and paragraph 37: ‘’Are you going to let the black sons get away with it until one of them really does it? ’’ McLendon seems to think Will is innocent, but who cares, someone always got to be an example, and the poor Will is an unlucky one to be taken as a victim of a rumor.
When taken away and put in the car, Will is speaking to them with some king of respect, and his addressing, ‘’captains’’ (part 3, p. 17) could refer to something higher, better and worthier. Is Will putting himself at the bottom of the hierarchy or is he forced to do that? That is just the consequence of the racism. The town is absent of black people when Minnie and her friends walk through it and this shows how terrified black population is. And racism’s mission is complete now. Denigrating language is also affecting the story, because this is showing us how low the black ones are concerned.
Henry’s incomplete sentences can reflect his nervousness about his incompetence to communicate with the other men of the town. Two different ways of thinking can lead to a conflict of communication. Their abuse of language is also seen in many paragraphs. This may allude to what kind of population is acting in the story. So, the conclusion is that the provincial ones can’t fight the stupidity and what a feeling of racism brings with it. People are ruled by it, and don’t care about the consequences of bad things they have done. How can people sometimes be in a position of judging someone and first of all not knowing anything about that? ’That’s the one: see? The one in pink in the middle. ’’(Part 4, paragraph 3) And just because of that, people often choose to be lead by their individual opinions. They find it unacceptable to conclude something based on true facts. And that could be just because they are afraid of not having right on that, because, then, their lives will maybe change, and they will be supposed to learn what tolerance and respect is, which is impossible. Those persons are mostly afraid, that’s why they put aggression in front of tolerance. And weakness is a perfect attribute, which easily can be owned by immorality and malevolence.
There can we put Mr McLendon, because he is seen as a source of badness. He doesn’t care about the facts, ‘’Happen? What the hell difference does it make? ’’ Well, it makes. A bit more difference, because he expands a maybe wrong story, which can end in wrong way and hurt innocent people or make someone suffer. So, Minnie and Will are both judged cruelly by those people, and these judgements are based on irrational prejudices concerning race. Fortunately, the population in Jefferson isn’t so monochromatic. Already in paragraph 19 we meet the courageous barber who is making a first step in proposing a esearching of the problem. When Will swears to God that he hasn’t done anything wrong, people around him don’t care about that, because they don’t care about the case at all. The rumor was just a reason to kick a nigger and punish him, or as McLendon says, he doesn’t need to have a reason for kidnaping him. The black population needs an example, and this is the perfect time to make it. It is hard to say why did Henry jumped from the car, but I will think that he had no more influence on them, he had done what it was in his capability, and he saw that as a finished job.
The only way to save his own life was to escape, so he acted like a coward, refusing to help Will, which also shows us that he wasn’t so innocent in his racial attitudes. In this story, I don’t really see a clue of justice. The ‘’innocent’’ Will is punished, the ‘’poor’’ Minnie is physical and physical harmed. Is there any justice? I don’t think there is, and even if those events that happened at that Saturday night could be called as acceptable ones, so will the word justice never exist.
And Minnie could also be taken as a person involved in a wrongdoing, because she could stand up and say the rumor is wrong understood, but she was acting like a victim. Conclusion would be that people are capable of doing terrible things just because of not knowing anything about the problem that pops up in our society. Instead, they let their weakness rule, and so they can’t even think or analyse the reasons of the problem. More and more are willing to choose the violence rather than tolerance, and history had showed us that the bad nature and value is spreading quicker than a good one.
Dry September in Jefferson. (2017, Dec 09). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/paper-on-dry-september-443/
