Analysis Of Lanterns On The Levee By William Alexander Percy

William Alexander Percy captured a realistic view of life as he saw fit, while major changes began to fall upon the Southern realm surrounding him. In the authors, William Percy, writing, Lanterns on the Levee, Percy manages to capture life in the Mississippi Delta, not only in his hometown of Greenville, Mississippi, but also in the surrounding areas of the south. William Percy demonstrates the contrast of two different periods in Southern history, the declining aristocratic 1800’s and the mid 1990’s. William Percy shared his most influential ideas in his work, Lanterns on the Levee, discussing the social relations along class and racial lines, political control and authority culture, and the art of living well during the transitions of the

In Lanterns on the Levee, Percy is not delusional to the ability of appreciation for the qualities that were bestowed upon him. William Alexander Percy understood, as a boy, the different levels of authority each man held in political matters. The author continued to develop an idea that government can be good, only when good men are behind it (Percy 73). William Percy asserts that the political public is cynical, and in the changed world, a man of honor is rather like the Negro- there is no place for him to go (Percy 72). For example, the political control displayed in Lanterns on the levee was prominently shown through the senator election that Percy’s father lost in a bitter and cold election. Percy states that his father was not a good loser, and especially hated losing an election (Percy 151).” Not only was the Percy family disappointed at the loss, “but good men all over the South were heartbroken (Percy 153).” Lastly, General Ferguson, a man of integrity supposedly caught stealing public funds, caused uproar at a dinner William Percy was

Southern culture consists of gender differences, racial inequality, and early religion teaching. Continuing on Southern culture, Aunt Fannie denied prominent planters to attend her newly wed house-warming, which stood out to Will because he was raised around planters in the Southern realm. Continuously, Percy states, “Mur being more typical than Aunt Fannie, more illustrative of the class to which she belonged (Percy 9). Unlike Aunt Fannie, Mur opposed the secession and the union. In the southern culture women are valued by charm, and Percy states, “and whether that world was delightful or vulgar depended on whether or not the women were ladies (Percy 10).” Also, Men were thought to have an obligation to go to war. Continuously, William Percy attempts to retrieve the gratitude of women by saying, “There should be a monument to Southern womanhood, creator of the only American cuisine that makes the world a better place to live in. instead you will find in any Southern town a statue in memory of the Confederate dead (Percy 11).” Percy was certain that the Confederate monuments were not well deserved, and continued to come across distasteful to the author. Consequently, the author prolongs to explain the art of life throughout his entire writings. For example, there is an idea William Percy makes dominant throughout the writings,