This study will briefly describe the plot of William Faulkner's story "Delta Autumn" (which is actually a section of the novel Go Down, Moses), and will then in greater depth examine the story's theme, characters, structure, symbolism, language, and related literary elements. The study will focus on the meanings of the various uses of the metaphor of hunting in the story.
The story is about Isaac ("Ike") McCaslin and a hunting trip he and his companions take. On the way to the hunting grounds, which are far from their homes, various subjects of conversation arise in which Ike is portrayed as an idealist who bemoans the valuelessness of modern times longs for the old days when solid ideals reigned. Roth Edmonds, Ike's cousin, has had a child by aa African-American woman. At the camp, Roth asks Ike to give a final message to the woman when she arrives. Despite Ike's idealism, he is revealed as a racist in his encounter with the woman, although he does redeem himself to some degree with an act of generosity.
Little action takes place in the story, especially in terms of the expectations established by the opening scene of Ike's thoughts about the past and about his feelings about the hunting trip:
In fact, each time now, on that first night in camp, lying aching and sleepless in the harsh blankets, his blood only faintly warmed by the single thin whiskey-and-water which he allowed himself, he would tell himself that this would be his last. But he would stand that trip--he still shot almost as well as he ever had, still killed almost as much of the game as he ever killed; he no longer even knew how many deer had fallen before his gun--and the fierce long heat of the summer would renew him (Faulkner 636).
A story which has such foreboding lines in its early stage, and which features guns and hunting and the suggestion that this hunting trip would be the protagonist's "last"--such a story will likely be seen by the attentiv...