Dry September

Faulkner begins this piece by using really good imagery to set up a scene of violence and tension. This helps the reader by foreshadowing the horrible act of violence that is about to happen. This appears to be a recurrent theme in many of the stories we have read in class this semester. For example, Poe uses a lot of imagery when describing the house to set the reader up for the strange events that are about to occur. Many other authors who’s work we have read use imagery not to foreshadow violence. In fact I cannot recall a piece of work we have read this semester that did not use excellent imagery. Sometimes it was even too good, like in Douglass’ narrative. So if I had to make a conclusion about southern literature right now, I would have to say that imagery is a really important tool that the authors use.

Faulkner’s “Dry September” does an excellent job at demonstrating how lynching and such violent acts were a public affair. These horrible acts were used as social control to keep the African Americans scared and in line. For example, when Miss Minnie Cooper went out with her friends and they were walking: “There’s not a negro on the square. Not one.” That shows that this threat of violence was enough to scare them out of the streets, so therefore it was accomplishing its goal.

Not only does Faulkner show that these violent acts are a social event, but he also shows that there is a lot of male pride and pressure involved, and how irrational people can become. The barber was concerned with getting all of the facts and being rational about the situation, but he was ridiculed by the other men. McLendon was the least rational, and most influential and pressuring about the situation. “Happen? What the hell difference does it make? Are you going to let the black sons get away with it until one really does it?” Moments later McLendon is cursing the others who will not join him until they do.

I think that Faulkner is trying to show how irrational and out of control this violence was. If this is what he was trying to do, in my opinion he did a really good job because that is exactly the idea I got from reading “Dry September.”