Faulkner uses strong gender stereotypes in "Dry September." The men are super-macho, quick to judge, irrational, defensive, and insecure, and the women are cruel, gossipy social climbers with "feverish, glittering" eyes.(445) Most of these traits are common gender stereotypes. The men are all led to capturing Willy by a couple of bully's in a barber shop talking about sheer rumors based on no evidence whatsoever. McLendon goes so far as to say it doesn't matter if Willy did do it or not. It's a pre-emptive strike. "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?" He peer-pressures the men into following him, and they comply, like sheep.
I think the men share this trait with the women as well. With the exception of a couple of standouts (Hawkshaw, Minnie, Willy), the men and women all just seem like mindless hordes of people that do whatever they are told to do. I take this as Faulkner telling the reader what he thinks of social hierarchies and societal norms and rules. I'm not sure if that's why Faulkner made it really difficult to keep track of the characters.
I was left feeling really unsatisfied at the end. Faulkner chose not to explain anything about Minny or Willy, so we will never know what really happened. I still don't really understand Minny's laughing attack. I really wanted to know whether she made the whole thing up for attention, or if she was having a consensual relationship with Willy, or whether he did do whatever he was accused of. In the wake of the Duke "rape" case in Durham, NC the story is clearly still relevant today. There are still serious racial tensions in our country. That particular case is alarmingly similiar to one possible interpretation of "Dry September," except the players don't get killed, but their reputations are damaged forever, and 8 out of the 9 seniors lost their first jobs coming out of college, even though none of them were charged with a crime.
9 comments:
Yeah, the stereotypes in Faulkner's writing were very blunt for the most part. One thing that also is kind of stereotypical was the whole "damsel in distress" kind of situation. A local white girl was attacked or raped or maybe annoyed by a local African American boy. All the men felt that it was their duty to stop this and be the heros. Although they never even found out if the rumors were true they weren't going to lets any "black son" get away with this. I aslo found it annoying that we as the readers never found out the whole truth, but were left with Minnie's laughing. I thought that was kind of weird and I suspect that she was laughing because her plan to get attention worked, but I dont' know.
I really glad that you brought up the connection to the Duke rape case. Like Faulkner's story the Duke rape case is a modern day lynching. The students at Duke were the Willie Mays of today. The prosecution was the lynching mob. I think that Dry September could be an allegory for many modern day "lynchings". The jumping to conclusions and the overall speed to convict may often lead to the wrong victim. I think that Faulkner was commenting on stereotypes but could he have been commenting on human nature’s need for a scapegoat?
I believe the same thing too Matt. I'm actually very frustrated that Faulkner did not include any information of Minny's input, about whether the inccident had actually happened or not. As an African American, I was really looking forward (whether good or bad) to knowing that one detail, but Faulkner never mentioned it.
The story made me a little disappointed that everything was all riled up in the beginning, I guess you could call it "unpeaceful" and than a probably innocent man is murdered and nobody cares( except for maybe the Barber) and everything is peaceful again. Almost as if that event brought everybody's life back to order.
Matt,
I really liked that you pointed out a theme that was less discussed: the gender stereotypes. Honestly, when I read “Dry September” the whole gender issue was not one that I considered as much. But after reading your entry, I realized how strong these stereotypes really were in Faulkner’s writing. Also, I too, felt really frustrated with Faulkner’s ending to “Dry September.” It left me pretty confused and a little disappointed. The whole story revolves around this one incident, and then Faulkner leaves you without ever revealing what really happened!
I agree that Faulkner was pretty blunt with all of his stereotypes of the characters in this short story. He was really harsh to the men and women of the town. Stating like you said that they were all irrational and gossip queens. I especially saw the gossip stereotype when Minnie walks through town and everyone already knows what happened to her and in the barber shop when the men are discussing the crime. I too was upset with the ending. I really hope that Will Mayes doesn't die, even though I'm pretty sure he does, but I can dream.
I agree with you in that gender roles and sterotypes clearly stnad out in this story. It seems that the women should only be pretty, proper, a "southern belle". When like in this story the women are also gossipist, are can be very cruel. The men are ment to be the strong one, who protects his family and the women. It is interesing how this is still in some ways still thought of today, only not thought of as strict as back then.
The title of your blog is what really caught my attention to read what you wrote. I found this very interesting, and I agree with the points you made throughout your blog. I don't like reading stories such as Faulkner's where there is no clear ending, especially since the story was so long and I was wondering all throughout it what was going to happen in the end. Whether or not Faulkner intended for his readers to wonder why, and not give a clear ending that says "this is what happend" is beyond me, but I hate reading stories that end this way.
Im laughing hysterically because you said " knitting" haha!
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