Reflections of the South in Literature
From the Early 1800s
William Faulkner and Richard Wright were authors in the early 1800s who focused on the traditions and lifestyles of people who lived in the south. Their stories depicted fictional characters that represented some of the struggles that the south faced after the Civil War. Both authors depicted the traditions and cultures of the south as a thing of the past, a concept or set of ideals that was being overrun in the pursuit of progress. In the stories, A Rose for Emily, Barn Burning, and The Man who was Almost a Man, the authors used the characters and the plot to reflect the essence of the south. Faulkner’s short story, A Rose for Emily, is a melancholy and thought-provoking piece. The plot of this story focuses around Miss Emily Grierson, an elderly woman who never married and whose father is deceased. There are
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In his story, The Man who was Almost a Man, Wright depicts a young man, Dave, who desperately desires to be considered a man by his peers and family. In attempting to prove his “manhood” Dave makes a grave mistake and mistakenly kills another man’s mule. Similar to the other stories, Dave feels his father does not give him the respect that he deserves, as a result, Dave rashly attempts to prove that he is worthy of his father’s respect. Another example is the way in which the characters in this story talk. Their dialect is distinctly southern and almost like another language. This represents the African American people in this time period. All African Americans were desperately yearning to be free from the oppression and slavery of the Americans in the south, yet most African Americans had no means to provide for themselves after they were granted freedom. Just as young Dave had no way to pay for the mule that he killed in his eagerness to be a