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"That Evening Sun"

William Faulkner in "That Evening Sun" depicts a world of violence he shows to be a legacy of the slave era, showing how the evils of the past persist in the present and shape the lives of all classes in society, and in this story he creates an image of slavery transferred from society at large to an abusive marital situation much like those described today. The Compson family represents a form of local Southern aristocracy, while the sometime maid Nancy and her husband represent the poor blacks in that society. The two groups need one another, but there is also tension between them. In addition, underlying each group is a degree of interpersonal violence that is also a legacy of the slave era.

As noted, the Compson family may consider itself more enlightened than its neighbors, but members of the family also have to live with the legacy of slavery and the past. Nancy is the black woman they hire when their own maid, Dilsey, is ill, and her growing fear of her husband becomes an ongoing point of tension in the Compson household. There is no social justice in the world that the slave era has left behind. Nancy tries to kill herself in her jail cell, and when the guard cuts her down, he also beats her. She is arrested, and when she challenges a local white man for not paying her for her sexual favors, he beats her as well. The black women in the community seem to do all the work, while the black men have been emasculated and left to their own devices. Jesus is such a man, and his name is an ironic comment on his demonization by Jason Compson and others in the community, as well as by his wife. Jesus seems to be the devil incarnate, and he has Nancy so frightened she first cannot move without protection and then seems to give up and await her fate with the door open. Husband and wife are at each other's throats in both the white and the black world, but in the black world this leads to physical violence, while in the white ...

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"That Evening Sun". (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:21, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1681249.html