The short story, "Dry September" by William Faulkner tells of an investigation taking place due to a supposed rape that occurred. The reader is first introduced to the woman, who claims she was raped, but the reader never actually hears her voice. The men in this story take control of the case, and accuse Will Mayes of raping her. There is a certain group of men, led by John McLendon, that organize and successfully kill Will Mayes. There was no proof that Will Mayes raped the woman, but due to the time of the incident and the amount of hatred between whites and blacks, Will Mayes was without a doubt in these men’s minds, guilty. Will Mayes was a black man that had no chance of getting out of this case a free man, due to the amount of racism. The odds were most definitely not in his favor. As well, the reader never actually hears Mayes’s voice in this story. The story is based on the planning, capturing, and killing of Mayes, not the actual raping. This was blamed on Mayes because he was a black man and McLendon and his men knew that if they said he did this then it would automatically be deemed as true. During this time, the amount of racism and inequality was so severe that the black man had no chance.
I felt as though McLendon took his personal problems out of Mayes. McLendon was not happy at home with his wife and it seemed as though there was no love there. McLendon knew that he could get away with the murder of Will Mayes, and never looked back in the process. The barber knew that McLendon was a disturbed man, and knew that McLendon could get away with the murder as well. This being true, the barber wanted no part in the killing of innocent Will Mayes. When he told McLendon he did not want any part in the killing of Mayes, the barber was automatically considered a “nigger lover.” He was called this name over and over, until he finally left the car on the ride to Mayes’s death. There were very few people like the barber at this time and because of this, Mayes was killed. There was no one willing to save Mayes, even though everyone knew that he did not commit the raping.
I feel as though she said she was raped to get attention. She was described in the beginning of the story as something similar to a southern belle. She was loved by everyone and was very well known in the community. With age, she lost the attention of many and was not marveled like she used to be. She miss eth way she used to be noticed, and knew that if she made something up such as being raped, everyone would aim their attention to her. I feel that she did this to get attention and be noticed again like she was when she was younger. I found this to be pathetic and disgusting, especially because an innocent black man was killed in the act of all of this.
There was not much of a clear ending in this story. The reader had to pay attention to every detail of the story to understand the point. I reread the same lines many times, but still had a lot of unclear ideas to the story. Once I finished reading this I had a lot of unanswered questions because there was no clear ending that said “this is exactly what happened and this is why.”
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3 comments:
I agree with you in the assumption that Minnie Cooper did make all of the accusations up in order to gain the missed attention that she so desperately had been craving for so long. It is pathetic and disgusting, and sadly there are women who honestly do this type of thing, which makes it even more upsetting. I also agreed with you about the ending, I don't like that you have to come up with your own interpretation, I'd much rather have the author spell it out for you, or at least be a little less vague than Faulkner.
Will Mayes did not even have a cance to defend himself due to him being black. They didnt even want to hear is side of the story. It did not matter becuase they looked at him as a black man which to them he was guilty. You are right, we as a reader really never heared Mayes's voice in the story. I agree with you, I would have rather been told what happened at the end of the story, than be left with many questions.
Kathryn,
I definitely feel as though this event of the lynching of Will Mayes could have been avoided if Minnie could have just accepted the fact that she was getting older and that she would no longer receive attention like she used to. I also agree that this was very pathetic on her part to pull a stunt like making up the rumor. The killing of Will Mayes, I feel was also entirely unfair and unjust because if it had been a white man that was accused of rape, then the men would have taken the time to get the facts straightened out beforehand before killing the man. Since Mayes was black however, he was not treated as equal or worthy of their extra time. I feel that Faulkner left the readers with this ambiguous ending for a reason. Although it does not answer the questions that you would like it to, it shows that McLendon was a disturbed individual. McLendon had some personal issues and aggressions that he not only took out on Mayes but also his wife. I feel that Faulkner left off the story with McLendon standing alone in the dark because he was reflecting on the day’s events and what he had done. It is almost a symbol that he is standing all alone in the end, no one there to support him or to tell him that he did the right thing by killing Mayes. I feel as though he almost needs that mob around him for his source of pride, power, and a sense of self-worth. Without anyone around, he is lost and realizes that he has done something very wrong.
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