The Physical Atmosphere in Faulkner’s Dry September :: Faulkner’s Dry September Essays

The animal(prenominal) Atmosphere in Faulkners Dry SeptemberAn anonymous athletic supporter in the barbershop at the beginning of Dry September get ats one of the tell apart statements in the short story Its this durn weather. . . Its enough to make a man do anything (170). The patron sees the heat and drought as having possibly driven a black man to attack or offend a white woman. The idea that the weather has an effect on the townsfolkspeople is echoed at the end of the story when McLendons wife says, I couldnt sleep. . .The heat something (182). In both examples, the climactic conditions and external surround be seen as affecting the town dwellers behavior. The physical atmosphere, however, seems to be more a reflection of the emotional atmosphere of the townspeople than the cause of their agitation, as the barbershop patron would have us believe. In particular, the dust that pervades the story terminate be seen as a reflection of the dried-up, monotonous, and lonely exist ence of Minnie Cooper. She lives with devil old women, her sick mother and her sallow, unflagging aunt, and Minnies age are typically filled with nothing more than eating, napping, and going to shops in town to meet with other women haggling over prices for the fun of it (173). Minnie does not blush have genuine friendships to enliven her idle and empty or dry out and dusty days (175). Instead of establishing a female camaraderie in the midst of characters, Faulkner portrays relations between women as marked by tension and trickery one of those bitter inexplicable (to the man mind) amicable enmities which occur between women (156, Absalom, Absalom). As Minnies presumed friends during girlhood become women, they take pleasure in the fact that Minnies transition to womanhood marks the end of her days as a social butterfly Faulkner calls it the pleasure of retaliation (174). The neighbors she visits on Christmas, women friends most likely, revel in the opportunity to tell her of how well her cause love-interest is doing without her in Memphis, watching with bright, secret eyes her haggard bright formula (175). When Minnie is having a fit of uncontrollable laughter at the end, the women she is with act concerned and kind, smoothing her hair and saying poor girl to her, but this is shown to be delusionthey smooth her hair, not to comfort her, but to look for signs of graying, and between the expressions of pity spoken in Minnies hearing, they speculate furtively over the reality of her claim (182).