Good Versus Evil in “Sweat”

Emily McLaughlin

Zora Neale Hurston was an African-American who wrote in the early 20^th century. One of her most famous short stories, “Sweat” portrays Delia as the good Christian woman dealing with an evil husband who dies as a result of his devilish ways. Although most readers feel “Sweat” by Zora Neale Hurston is simply a story about an abusive husband and his submissive wife, “Sweat” is also about good versus evil, or God versus Satan.

Delia represents a God-like figure. According to Margaret Wallace, who wrote “Real Negro People” in the New York Times Book Review, “In Delia, for example, readers are presented with an essentially good Christian woman who is capable of great compassion and long suffering and who discovers the capacity to hate as intensely as she loves” (13). She attends church regularly, and washes white people’s clothes, even though slavery is over. Delia washes white clothes, and the color white represents her saintly tendencies as she humbly tolerates Sykes’ torment. Delia can be seen as the giver of life in her house because she is the head of the household. The money she earns washing clothes helps to pay for the house that Sykes wants to give Bertha, his mistress. Delia endures an unfulfilling life of never-ending work and abuse from her husband Sykes. Delia, being Christian, is against divorce, and stays with Sykes even though he has a mistress whom he openly dates.

Sykes, on the other hand, represents the devil. According to June Jordan, who wrote “On Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston: Toward a Balancing of Love and Hatred” in Black World, “... in Sykes readers are shown unadulterated evil reduced to one at once pitiful and horrible in his suffering” (18). When their marriage begins to deteriorate, Sykes preys on Delia’s fear of snakes. With the intent to kill Delia, he places the snake in the laundry hamper, knowing Delia will open the hamper. Sykes wants to kill Delia so he can marry Bertha, but his plan backfires. Delia escapes, and the snake attacks and kills Sykes. According to Harold Bloom, who wrote Black American Women Fiction Writers, “The story has an ending that can only be described as self-indulgent. In the episode depicting Sykes’ ordeal, Hurston loses her composure and rejoices in the torture of her villain. ‘Sweat’ is thus reduced to a revenge fantasy” (56). Even though Delia symbolizes Christ, her actions at the end of the story are devil-like in that she desires revenge for Sykes, who relentlessly torments her. It is almost as if Sykes or the devil takes over Delia, the good Christian woman, for a moment before his death.

“Sweat” is an allegory for God and Satan in conflict. According to Thomas Stafford, who wrote Christian Symbolism in the Evangelical Church, “A serpent is the symbol of the fall of man through temptation by a serpent–the devil” (180). The serpent was wiser than any of the animals that were in Paradise, but the Creator cursed the serpent, and called him the devil (Pagels 120). In some ways Sykes is smarter than Delia because he knows the snake will terrify her, and bring her over the edge. According to Elaine Pagals, who wrote Adam, Eve, and the Serpent, “The serpent also tempts Adam with the seductive lure of liberty, much like Sykes, knowing Delia is terrified of snakes, tempts Delia with the serpent”(69). Sykes not only wants to kill Delia, but coerce her into harming him so that he will have an excuse to kill her. Sykes also tempts Delia when he uses a whip to scare Delia by rubbing it on her and making her think it was a snake. In almost all aspects Sykes is very much like the devil, and the evil antagonistic character.

According to Grace Ingoldby, who wrote “Multiple Echo” in New Statesmen, “He grinds her up, he wrings her, he concentrates on getting all that’s in her out– a process observed by the porch philosophers who comment that such men, ‘when deys satisfied dat dey is wrung dry, dey throws ‘em away’”. According to Bernard Bell, who wrote The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition, “In ‘Sweat’ Delia the washwoman, once a‘ right pretty li’l trick’ has been hollowed out by husband Sykes who has a charming way with women. ‘Tain’t no law on earth dat kin make a man be decent if it ain’t in ‘im’; Sykes treats his old lady like a chew of sugar cane. This story has a fairy-tale ending; Sykes gets killed. Joy bursts out of simple tales, sadness seeps” (371). It is the devil, not God, who gets killed. If Delia represents God, then the audience can assume from the beginning that God, in this case Delia, will prevail over Satan, which is Sykes.

The theme of God versus Satan also results in Sykes’ death. From another perspective, Sykes’ own abusive actions throughout the story results in his own downfall. While the snake that Sykes uses to scare Delia gets loose and bites him, the sun rises steadily during his dying process (Pagals 69). The sun rise is symbolic of the virtue of Delia being victorious over all the negativity and evil that Sykes represents. When Sykes is dead, the sun has finally risen, representing how the light of goodness shines the celebration of evil’s death (Pagals 70).

The God and Satan motif is also symbolic of the dichotomy between master and slave. In “Sweat” Sykes or the devil is the master, and Delia, the Christian, is the slave. Delia heads the household while Sykes cheats on his wife. The fact that it is Delia who supports her husband makes her a slave while Sykes does not bring anything to their marriage but abuse. Robert Bone, who wrote The Negro Novel in America, states, “In their central polarities between the cruel and powerful and the weak and oppressed, echoes of the master-slave relationships are unmistakable. ...in “Sweat” the deadly hatred nurtured in the hearts of the oppressed. The racial implications are effectively disguised by an all-black cast of characters, but the emotional marrow of these tales is a sublimated racial anger” (256). The dichotomy is even more apparent when both characters are African-American, and are essentially equal in society at the time.

Although most readers feel Zora Neale Hurston’s “Sweat” is simply a story about a marriage in turmoil, it is also an allegory about God versus Satan, and good versus evil. Delia represents the hardworking Christian woman while her husband Sykes, represents the devil. Both characters are in conflict, and symbolize a battle between good versus evil. Sykes, representing the devil, wants to kill his Christian wife, Delia, but his evil ways result in his own death. In “Sweat” the God and the devil theme also represents the dichotomy between master and slave. In “Sweat” God or Delia, is the slave while the devil Sykes is the master. Most readers overlook these fine details of Zora Neale Hurston’s story, and do not comprehend the biblical connotations Hurston seems to have deliberately incorporated in “Sweat”. Although some readers may be skeptical, there is evidence to support the good versus evil or God versus Satan motif in “Sweat”.

Works Cited

Bell, Bernard. The Afro-American Novel and Its Tradition. Amherst, Massachusetts: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1989.

Bloom, Harold. Black American Women Fiction Writers. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Chelsea House Publishers, 1997.

Bone, Robert. The Negro Novel in America. New York, New York.: Random House Publishers, 1958.

Ingoldby, Grace. “Multiple Echo.” New Statesmen. 114.2936 (1987): 29-30.

Jordan, June. “On Richard Wright and Zora Neale Hurston: Toward a Balancing of Love and Hatred.” (1974) Rpt. in American Women Fiction Writers. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Chelsea House Publishers, 1997. 18.

Pagels, Elaine. Adam, Eve, and the Serpent. New York, New York: Random House Publishers, 1988.

Stafford, Thomas. Christian Symbolism in the Evangelical Church. New York, New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, 1972.

Wallace, Margaret. “Real Negro People.” Rpt. in American Women Fiction Writers. Ed. Harold Bloom. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: Chelsea House Publishers, 1997. (1934) 13.

Sykes’ Struggle for Manhood

Julie Mason

Zora Neale Hurston’s story "Sweat" is not just a tale of Delia, the washwoman, who suffers abuse at the hands of her adulterer husband. It is a story about Sykes, the unsympathetic but pitiful husband who is stripped of his manhood and pride, and lives his life trying to regain this loss.

The story begins with Delia sorting some clothes on a Sunday afternoon when her husband, Sykes, returns home from a day of gallivanting with his mistress. The minute he returns home he begins to taunt Delia with a bullwhip she mistakes for a snake. He is delighted at her fear, and continues to harass her by kicking the sorted clothes back together. This just seems mean, but when Sykes refers to the "white folks’" clothes, we see his humiliation at not being able to support Delia as he should (26). The story takes place during the early 1900’s, and at the time, white society dictated what a man was and should be within the family unit, which was the provider, the controller, the one who dominated the family.

In his book, Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography, Robert E. Hemenway suggests Sykes’ feelings of emasculation drove him to prey on Delia’s obsessive fear of snakes. Sykes feels emasculated because Delia supports him by washing white folks clothes, and the clothes are a constant reminder of his inadequacy as a man and provider. As Delia so graphically points out when she says "mah tub of suds is filled yo’ belly with vittles more times than yo’ hands is filled it" (26), the clothes are what put food on the table, and a roof over their heads.

From the beginning of the story, Sykes’ tyrannical behavior is an indication of his attempt to regain some of the pride he lost as a result of the social and economic conditions which faced black people during the early 1900’s, black men in particular. Only two months after they were married, Sykes began to beat Delia. Although Delia was "young and soft" then, the economic conditions of the time still drove him to take his frustrations out on his wife (28). Delia is the sole breadwinner for her and Sykes which, in his mind, is not an acceptable way of life according to what white society dictated.

In the critical essay, "The Artist in the Kitchen: The Economics of Creativity in Hurston’s ‘Sweat,’" Kathryn Lee Seidel discusses the results of the poor economic situation during the early 1900’s. She refers to data collected by Jacqueline Jones showing that "in 1900, not long before the time of the story, 50 to 70 percent of adult black women were employed full time as compared to only 20 percent of men" (Seidel 170). In the story, Sykes is constantly reminded of his failure to support his wife by Delia’s repeated references to "her" carriage, and "her" pony, etc. Seidel also states "Delia’s sense of ownership is that of the traditional work ethic" where if you work hard, you can buy a home and support a family (171). This work ethic, though probably something Sykes would have otherwise admired and strived to achieve, has enraged him. The reason for his rage is because, due to the economic conditions and especially to racism, he is not allowed to be employed for any length of time, not to mention having the ability to develop any sense of work ethic.

During the story, the village men on Joe Clarke’s porch speak about Sykes’ poor treatment of Delia. Joe compares it to squeezing sugar from a piece of sugar cane. He states: "Dey knows whut dey is doin’ while dey is at it, an’ hates theirselves fuh it but they keeps on hangin’ after huh tell she’s empty" (31). This suggests that Sykes hates himself because he has squeezed the life out of Delia, and her withering appearance is a constant reminder of his inadequacies as a provider.

Seidel also suggests Sykes hates Delia because he feels she should be "desirable, not sweaty," and he prefers Bertha because "her fatness suggests an overly fed commodity" (173). Like a cow, Bertha has been fed "extravagantly beyond her needs." Sykes has a taste for the extravagant: he likes gambling, drinking, and other desirable things. He also enjoys being able to provide such things to women, and Bertha feeds his ego by sharing the same desires as Sykes. Sykes seeks refuge in a relationship with Bertha to regain his pride and to repress his feelings of uselessness and inadequacy. While at the town store, Sykes tells Bertha "Git whutsoever yo’ heart desires, Honey." He has also been paying her rent at the room where Bertha stays. Sykes takes her to "stomps" frequently, and shows her a good time often. While these treats make Bertha feel special, they do much more for Sykes’ ego, for he assures both of them, "he was the swellest man in the state" (33). This is one of the few ways Sykes attempts to regain the pride he lost. Throughout his life, Sykes is determined to prove he is still able to be a man of worth. Unfortunately, his efforts are futile because of the conditions under which he is forced to exist.

It is difficult to dispute the fact that Sykes is a despicable character, and he has no right to beat Delia or taunt her with the snake she so fears. From a woman’s perspective, it is easy to despise him, easy to hate him, and maybe even easy to rejoice at his death. Although Sykes is the "bad guy" of the story "Sweat," and he gets what he may deserve in the end, one still should be able to look at his situation with understanding, and even compassion. One should have compassion when a man, whose entire being is dictated by the way in which he is able to provide for his family, is unable to meet the demands of his family, his society, and most importantly the demands of himself. Throughout his life and even upon his death, Sykes was never able to regain his manhood and pride, which was so brutally stripped away from him by the society under which he was forced to exist.

Works Cited

Hemenway, Robert E. Zora Neale Hurston: A Literary Biography (1977). Rpt. Wall 149-152.

Hurston, Zora Neale. "Sweat." Norton Anthology of Southern Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews. New York: Norton, 1998.

Seidel, Kathryn Lee. "The Artist in the Kitchen: The Economics of Creativity in Hurston’s ‘Sweat.’" Rpt. Wall 169-181.

Wall, Cheryl A. Ed. Sweat. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1997.

Works Consulted

Jones, Gayl. "Breaking out of the Conventions of Dialect." Literating Voices: Oral Tradition in African American Literature (1991). Rpt. Wall. 153-167.

Patrice Brown

The Man Behind the Woman

In the short story “Sweat,” written by Zora Neale Hurston, Sykes, one of the main characters in the story, seems as though he gets easily upset with his wife Delia. Sykes takes his anger out on Delia by cheating on her, beating her, and making fun of her biggest fear, which is snakes. Even though Sykes’ behavior should not be condoned, he may have a psychological problem that is not addressed in the story. He probably feels threatened because Delia is the breadwinner of the household. Sykes needs to feel as if he is still in control so he tries to drag Delia down and make her feel inferior to him.

Sykes shows his need to be in charge at the beginning of the story. Delia is trying to begin her job washing clothes for white people. Sykes immediately begins to yell at her for working on a Sunday and for washing clothes for white people in general. Delia ignores his rants and continues to sort the clothes. Sykes does not like to be ignored, especially by his wife. He reacts to her silence by saying, “Ah aint gointer have it in mah house. Don’t gimme no lip neither, else Ah’ll throw ‘em out and put mah fist up side yo head to boot” (Hurston 408). Sykes is going to resort to violence because Delia will not do as he asks. By threatening her, Sykes feels as if he has the upper hand and is in total domination as a man should be.

Many women in this time period may have backed down after being threatened by their husbands. Delia did not back down however. She stood up to Sykes by telling him,

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“Mah tub of suds is filled yo’ belly with vittles more than yo’ hands is filled it. Mah sweat is done paid for this house and Ah reckon Ah kin keep on sweatin’ in it” (Hurston 408). Sykes does not like to be reminded of the fact that he has failed to take care of his family. Julie Mason says in, “Sykes’ Struggle for Manhood,” “In the story Sykes is constantly reminded of his failure to support his wife by her repeated references to ‘her’ carriage, ‘her’ pony, and so forth” (Mason 66).

When yelling and arguing fails, Sykes feels the need to resort to violence. He is always threatening Delia and telling her that he will hurt her physically in some way. Author of Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, Susan Meisenhelder, believes that, “Zora Neale Hurston uses phallic imagery of the whip to suggest a nation of masculinity expressed in soul crushing force and rooted in racial oppression” (44). This seems to imply that Sykes beats Delia because Sykes only knows of the kind of manliness that white men seem to portray. When the white males at the time beat the blacks, the white males were in total domination and were superior. Black men wanted this same feeling of domination and superiority so they demanded silence and respect in their homes. In the outside world they were denied respect so they demanded it at home to convince themselves of their manhood.

When the wives begin to talk back to their husbands, like Delia did to Sykes, the husbands had a surprised reaction. The husbands felt that because they were threatening violence against their wives, the wives should cower and be obedient to them. Cheryl A.

Wall says in her book Changing Our Own Words, “It is that act of speech of ‘talking back,’ that is no mere gesture of empty words that is the expression of our movement from

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object to subject—the liberated voice” (11). Delia wanted to let Sykes know how much he really needed her, so she raised her voice right back in response to him and threatened violence against him too.

Sykes also has a mistress named Bertha who he spoils instead of Delia. Having a mistress makes Sykes feel manlier because he figures with two women he will seem like he is more desirable. Sykes takes Bertha out to “stomps” and buys her anything she wants. He says, “Everything b’longs tuh me an’ you sho kin have it. You kin git anything you wants. Dis is mah town an’ you sho’ kin have it” (Hurston 411). By doing all of these things for Bertha and making her feel like a queen, Sykes regains his confidence and feels useful again. Someone is once again dependent upon him.

Sykes especially feels powerful when he uses Delia’s biggest fear against her. Delia is deathly afraid of snakes. Sykes uses Delia’s phobia against her tenfold. Towards the end of the story, Sykes lets a snake loose in their home. When Sykes first brings the snake into the house, Delia says, “Syke, Ah wants you tuh take dat snake ‘way fum heah. Ah put up widcher, you done beat me an Ah took dat, but you done kilt all mah insides bringin’ dat varmint heah” (Hurston 413). Delia feels that Sykes has committed the ultimate crime against her by bringing the snake in the house. This has hurt Delia more than the beatings and verbal abuse Sykes has placed on her. Delia cannot believe Sykes has stooped this low. Sykes keeps his nonchalant attitude, and says, “A whole lot Ad keer ‘bout how you feels inside uh out. Dat snake aint goin no damn wheah till Ah gits

ready fuh ‘im tuh go. So fur as beatin’ is concerned, yuh aint took near all dat you gointer take ef yuh stay ‘roun me” (413). This implies that Sykes wants Delia out of the house and

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he will go to any lengths to get this accomplished. Bertha will come and live with Sykes and in turn he will regain his feelings of adequacy.

Sykes definitely accomplishes his goal to scare Delia to death after Delia finds the snake in the laundry basket. Meisenhelder points out that although, “Sykes successfully scares Delia, …his conception of masculinity is ultimately destructive for him” (106). Sykes finally believes that he has the upper hand on Delia. This plan backfires on Sykes and he is bitten by the snake and dies. Even though Sykes treated Delia horribly, she felt a surge of pity for him. At this point in the story most people feel as if Sykes got what he deserved. However, Julie Mason suggests “one should have compassion when a man, whose entire being is dictated by the way in which he is able to provide for his family, is unable to meet the demands of his family, his society, and most importantly what he demands of himself” (68).

“Sweat” proved not only to be a short story about a man harming his wife to seem stronger and more in control, but a story about a struggle of a man to gain his rightful place in society. According to a literary criticism written by S. Jay Walker, “Zora Neale Hurston had the opinion that the struggle with racism is enough for blacks energies to the belief that the last thing needed by black men at this time is being put down by the black women” (241). So it seems that Hurston wanted readers of this story to see the struggles that Sykes was going through. He was denied by society and then he comes home only to be denied by his wife. Sykes, along with many other black men, was trapped by the expectations of the world, and were forced to come to terms with them.

Works Cited

Hurston, Zora Neale. “Sweat.” Norton Anthology of Southern Literature. Ed. William L. Andrews. New York: Norton, 1998.

Mason, Julie. “Sykes’ Struggle for Manhood.” The Making of a Southerner and Other Essays. Ed. Connie Bellamy. Norfolk: Virginia Wesleyan College, 2004.

Meisenhelder, Susan Edwards. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick. Tuscaloosa: The University of Alabama Press, 1999.

Walker, S. Jay. “Zora Neale Hurston.” Contemporary Literary Criticism. Detroit: Gale Research Inc., 1990.

Wall, Cheryl A. Ed. Changing Our Own Words. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1989.

Joshua Nixon

What Are They Saying About William Faulkner?

Religion and Morality in “Dry September”

William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897, in North Albany, Mississippi. Weaned on stories of the South and the Civil War, Faulkner absorbed the culture that would one day come to life in his novels and short stories. At his death in 1962, Faulkner had written a score of novels and many stories. He was also winner of the 1950 Nobel Prize for literature. Some believe he was “the greatest writer of the twentieth-century South” (Andrews 439).

Criticism of Faulkner delves into a wide range of disciplines and subjects. Warren Beck claims that “no other contemporary American novelist of comparable stature has been as frequently or as severely criticized for his style as has William Faulkner” (141). Otis B. Wheeler treats him as a folk humorist, contending that Faulkner exhibited an “early concern with incorporating in his art that humor which great many people besides himself have recognized as national and indigenous” (68). Other critics discuss Faulkner’s characterizations or mythology.

However, many critics have chosen to deal with William Faulkner as not only a literary stylist or a significant contributor to American literature, but also as a teacher and storyteller of moral fables. The beliefs of almost any writer are reflected in his or her works, but Faulkner’s beliefs are perhaps more apparent in his works than in the works of other authors. William Faulkner carries on the “tradition of darkness,” the problem of guilt and sin, in the footsteps of such American authors as Nathaniel Hawthorne. Despite his ancestral pride, he is aware of the “sins of the fathers” (Andrews 436).

As Cleanth Brooks tells us, “Faulkner is a profoundly religious writer; that his characters come out of a Christian environment… and that they are finally to be understood only by reference to Christian premises” (118). The struggles and moral failures of the characters find their depth in a Christian worldview. Brooks acknowledges the author’s concern for Christian values and ideas in his writing, but feels it incautious to label Faulkner as a Christian writer (118).

George Marion O’Donnell calls Faulkner “a really traditional moralist, in the best sense” (83). Indeed, Faulkner’s stories are filled with symbolic details and subtle nuances that reflect a thoroughly religious and moral thought process. His short story, “Dry September,” is a fitting example, dealing with a white woman’s dubious charge of rape against a black man and the racially prejudiced response of the townsmen.

Various critics of Faulkner explore the different avenues of morality and theology in his stories. In his essay, “William Faulkner, Vision of Good and Evil,” Brooks cites several of Faulkner’s works and their perspective on religious ideas. In discussing the topic of moral choice, he says that Faulkner’s view is not entirely Christian. While Faulkner seems to hold a belief of original sin and free will, “the concept of grace… is either lacking or at least not clearly evident in Faulkner’s work” (Brooks 119). In “Dry September,” the characters in the story are never given a chance to redeem themselves or plead for mercy, but are left in despair. Mayes, innocent, is lynched; Minnie Cooper loses her mind; and McLendon is left bitter and angry. The whole world, according to Faulkner, “seemed to lie stricken beneath the cold moon and lidless stars” (W. Faulkner 447). A possible exception to this absence of grace and mercy is Hawkshaw, the conscientious barber, and the “one character who manages to free himself from complicity in the crime” (H. Faulkner 44).

Arthur L. Ford develops this moral premise by discussing the symbolism of the dust Faulkner describes in the story. Ford argues that dust is a picture of guilt. Just as the dust permeates every corner of the town (and therefore the story), so guilt suffuses the townspeople and they are unable to escape entanglement in the injustice (Ford 40-41). In the scene where Hawkshaw jumps from the car, dust plays an important role. Not only does Hawkshaw land in the dust, but it surrounds the men who leave him behind. Faulkner tells us that the men in the car drove on, and “the dust swallowed them.… The dust of them hung for a while, but soon the eternal dust absorbed it again” (445). Ford interprets this as evidence that “the crime of the men and their guilt will be assumed and excused by their society” (41). Given the rest of the story, this is an accurate interpretation; the citizens allow the injustice to go unpunished, and none of the perpetrators are called to account for their crimes.

Dust is not the only symbolism in the story that critics use as an insight into Faulkner’s moral perspective in “Dry September.” One writer describes the imagery of the moon and the significance of its position in the story. Throughout the narrative, the moon’s light mingles with the dust, intensifying “the confinement in which the people of Jefferson live” (H. Faulkner 43). At one point in the story, the moon separates itself from the dust of the town—the point at which the barber leaves the lynch mob and wipes the dust from his clothes. Here the moon rises “high and clear of the dust at last” (W. Faulkner 445). This is symbolic of Hawkshaw’s separation from the others and their crime; although he is not completely guiltless, his final action allows him to rise above the dust of guilt that covers the rest of the town (H. Faulkner 44). William B. Bache suggests a different interpretation of the moon’s symbolism, preferring it to represent Mayes rather than Hawkshaw. He views the rising of the moon as “the moral ascendancy of Mayes over his betrayer and murders.” Bache takes this a step further, likening Mayes to Christ, who rose to Heaven following his crucifixion (39).

Another concept in this story is the “quest for justice,” as James Ferguson puts it (76). Ferguson asserts that Faulkner’s greatest stories—“Dry September” among them— “always deal with this fundamental human truth” (78). These stories give the reader a sense that horrible injustice has been committed, and according to Ferguson, the injustice is committed by the characters who fail to understand the “dignity and integrity” of those around them (79). In “Dry September,” the townspeople, particularly Minnie Cooper and McLendon, fail to understand that Will Mayes’ race has nothing to do with the quality of his moral character. This failure to understand other human beings results in the death of Mayes and a living, but hardly better, existence for both Minnie Cooper and McLendon.

Sexuality is another common moral factor in Faulkner’s works. Ferguson writes that they are “permeated by a very basic uneasiness about sex” (62) and betray a “relatively explicit concern with sex” (20). Perhaps Faulkner’s obsession with this topic is based upon the unhappiness of his own marriage (Andrews 438). Bloom refers to this marriage as “cheerless and strained” (11).

“Dry September” illustrates this problem perfectly, since a sex crime is a primary element in the plot. Minnie Cooper’s accusation of Willie Mayes is based upon her own sexual frustration. Minnie, feeling that her sexual attractiveness is decreasing with her growing age, claims a man raped her in order to reassert her own lost sexuality. She has reached “the end of a consistently unsatisfactory sexual trail” (Wolfe 42). And she isn’t completely unsuccessful. After accusing Mayes, Minnie walks down the street, “where even the young men lounging in the doorway tipped their hats and followed with their eyes the motion of her hips and legs when she passed” (W. Faulkner 446).

Minnie is not the only character in “Dry September” to experience this frustration. McLendon is obviously having serious difficulties in his relationship with his wife, as evidenced at the end of the story. Butch, the violent youth, appears to be single in the story, and perhaps he is sexually frustrated as well. Critics Ralph H. Wolfe and Edgar F. Daniels claim that the characters’ interest in the supposed rape is “in direct proportion to the degree of the characters’ own sexual maladjustment” (Wolfe 42). In other words, the characters with the most emotional interest in the rape are those who are most uncomfortable with their own sexual situation.

In addition to discussing the personal moral dilemmas of the characters in his stories, Faulkner deals with the moral dilemmas facing the American South as a whole. John K. Crane identifies three of these dilemmas: success in war, the purity of white womanhood, and acceptance of outsiders. Crane suggests that the South is weathering its own symbolic dryness (Crane 48). In “Dry September,” McLendon represents the dilemma of success in war, and Minnie Cooper the purity of white womanhood; the barbershop scene deals with the issue of outsiders and their acceptance, where one man says to another, “You better go back North where you came from. The South don’t want your kind here” (W. Faulkner 440).

Considering the bulk of Faulkner criticism available today, Brooks’s reference to Faulkner as “a profoundly religious writer” rings true (118). It is certain that Faulkner leaves the reader with much to think about. Despite the passing of time, the characters of Faulkner’s fiction face the same religious and moral crossroads that the people of the American South—and the world—face today.

Word Count: 1543

Works Cited

Andrews, William L. et al., ed. The Literature of the American South. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998.

Bache, William B. “Rumor in ‘Dry September.’” Ed. Harold Bloom. William Faulkner. Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. 39-40.

Beck, Warren. “William Faulkner’s Style.” Faulkner: 4 Decades of Critcism. Ed. Linda Welshimer Wagner. Michigan State University Press, 1973. 141-154.

Bloom, Harold, ed. William Faulkner. Chelsea House Publishers, 1999.

Brooks, Cleanth. “William Faulkner, Vision of Good and Evil.” Faulkner: 4 Decades of Critcism. Ed. Linda Welshimer Wagner. Michigan State University Press, 1973. 117-133.

Crane, John K. “The Metaphor of ‘Dry September.’” Ed. Harold Bloom. William Faulkner. Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. 47-48.

Faulkner, Howard. “Guilt in ‘Dry September.’” Ed. Harold Bloom. William Faulkner. Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. 43-44.

Faulkner, William. “Dry September.” The Literature of the American South. Ed. William L. Andrews, et al. New York: W.W. Norton, 1998. 439-447.

Ferguson, James. Faulkner’s Short Fiction. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1991.

Ford, Arthur L. “The Dust of ‘Dry September.’” Ed. Harold Bloom. William Faulkner. Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. 40-41.

O’Donnell, George Marion. “Faulkner’s Mythology.” Faulkner: 4 Decades of Critcism. Ed. Linda Welshimer Wagner. Michigan State University Press, 1973. 83-93.

Warren, Robert Penn. “William Faulkner.” Faulkner: 4 Decades of Critcism. Ed. Linda Welshimer Wagner. Michigan State University Press, 1973. 94-109.

Wheeler, Otis B. “Some Uses of Folk Humor by Faulkner.” Faulkner: 4 Decades of Critcism. Ed. Linda Welshimer Wagner. Michigan State University Press, 1973. 68-82.

Wolfe, Ralph Haven and Edgar F. Daniels. “Sexual Frustration in ‘Dry September.’” Ed. Harold Bloom. William Faulkner. Chelsea House Publishers, 1999. 41-42.