Faulkner's Acceptance Speech & "That Evening Sun"

Faulkner’s principles stated in his Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech are clearly shown in his short story “That Evening Sun”. According to Faulkner, honest writing is writing about something that comes directly from the heart. He believes that a writer is to write about courage, honor, hope, pride, compassion, pity, and sacrifice.

Nancy, a prostitute in the story, represents courage, pride, and sacrifice in the story when she stands up for herself to a client and demands to be paid for her sexual services. “When you going to pay me, white man? When you going to pay me, white man. It’s been three times now since you paid me a cent.” She gets beaten up in the process of standing up for herself, but still continues asking for her payment.

In “That Evening Sun”, Nancy misrepresents Faulkner’s quality of hope. Nancy feels that her husband, Jesus, was going to kill her. She refuses to walk home by herself at night and she uses the children to keep company so she wouldn’t be alone bathing in the fear of death. The family knew about it but did nothing to stop the murder from happening. In this way, Nancy was the family sacrifice. The children, in allowing Nancy to be murdered, do not show pity or compassion. They know all along that Jesus will kill Nancy, but they do not seem to care.

Tip of the Iceberg

It was another stressful day at the office. A typically reserved employee who does not share what is on her mind, Penny went for a walk in the park to clear her head. From a distance, she saw a seemingly happy couple having a picnic in the park. As she walked closer, she realized the man was Mr. Wellsworth, her more than handsome boss. She watched him as he laughed and flirted with a beautifully plain woman on the grass. They were leaning toward each other, constantly resting their hands on the other’s arm. This was too much. Penny quickly walked back to the office to collect her things and head home for the rest of the afternoon. Mrs. Wellsworth had always been a good friend to her, and what she had seen earlier at the park, while Mr. Wellsworth claimed to be in a meeting, really disturbed her. Packing her things into her forest green Timbuk2 shoulder bag, Penny came across an unfamiliar business card lying face down on her desk.

Lucy Green

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Native Son - 97-156 Part Two

     Throughout the novel, I think that Wright uses communism in Jan and Mary to symbolize part of the American people. Mr. Dalton’s character is placed to represent white corporate America and Jan’s character is placed to represent the more understanding side of America. By bringing up the ideas of communism to a black man in a white society, Wright is trying to show the reader Bigger’s thoughts and fears through his reaction to the white society that surrounds him.

      

     “As long as he and his black folks did not go beyond certain limits, there was no need to fear that white force.” On pages 114-115, Wright tells the reader how Bigger feels towards his black peers and how he wishes it were possible to gather all the blacks together and fight the white force. “As long as they lived here in this prescribed corner of the city, they paid mute tribute to it. There were rare moments when a feeling of longing for solidarity with other black people would take hold of him. He would dream of making a stand against that white force.” Although communism is a reoccurring motif in this novel, I don’t believe that Bigger is a communist in any way. His thoughts about Japanese conquering China, Hitler exterminating the Jews, and Mussolini in Spain show a more rebellious and violent nature rather than an attitude of bringing society together as one, or bringing equality to the blacks and whites.

     Bigger wants violent revenge. He wants to bring the blacks together and to put their differences aside for an important cause. Bigger and the other blacks live in fear and shame. Later in the book, he classifies the feeling of being pushed into a corner with his back against the wall as rape. The actions against the blacks do not promote a feeling of communism in Bigger’s mind, but rather emotions of revenge and rebellion.

Native Son - 97-156

“Now, who on earth would think that he, a black timid Negro boy, would murder and burn a rich white girl and would sit and wait for his breakfast like this?” (Bigger, page 107) Before Bigger received the job as the Dalton’s chauffeur, he was filled with hatred and fear toward the white man for taking away his fair share of opportunities in the world. He resentfully refused to accept the fact that because he was black, he does not have the same stake in the world as the white man does. He hated the idea that no one cared about the blacks and that even the police turned a blind eye on black on black crime. After taking the job, spending time around Mr. Dalton, Mary, and Jan, and then finally killing a very drunk Mary and shoving her into the furnace, Bigger’s feelings and opinion toward the black man’s role in society drastically changes.

“There was in everyone a great hunger to believe that made him blind, and if he could see while others were blind, then he could get what he wanted and never be caught at it.” Scared that he will be caught and killed for murdering Mary Dalton, Bigger realizes that he must act like everything is normal because no one would suspect a black man of stepping out of line and meddling in the white man’s world. Instead of being upset with his lack of opportunity and success in the world, he embraces the cage his life was put into by being born a black man and celebrates his newfound ability to hide from his insane crime.

Because of the set role of the black man in society, the other people, or the white people, are blind to what the blacks are capable of when they break the ‘rules’. Due to his crime and his mindset while trying to find a solution, Bigger realizes that he can hide behind what people expect of him.

Native Son - 62-93

Mary is not careless, but instead, she’s rather careful. She is not stupid, but she is misguided, immature, and naïve. She tries to rid the world of racism, but instead, she makes Bigger feel increasingly uncomfortable in the car and at lunch with Jan. Mary tries to understand Bigger’s life but she just comes off as annoying, rude, and too confrontational to be comforting. When Bigger first meets Mary on page 51, the first words out of her mouth are, “Bigger, do you belong to a union?” Bigger is upset by this and many other comments of hers.

Mary is misguided and naïve because she doesn’t put Bigger’s feelings and emotions into consideration when she tries to ‘fix’ his lifestyle, which means changing everything he’s ever known. Mary’s goal is to become a part of the Communist Party and help her boyfriend Jan defeat racism by becoming a part of Bigger’s world and blurring the lines between the whites and the blacks. When Mary says, “We want one of those places where colored people eat, not one of those show places.” I felt bad for Bigger because Mary makes it seem like a game for the rich white people to help the less fortunate and unheard become a group who others begin to notice and care about. Bigger doesn’t understand at all because he has no idea what Mary and Jan could possibly want with him. He realizes that the way society is now is the way it will remain – divided.

Mary is immature and misguided because, although she acts with the best intentions, her privileged mindset leads her to believe that because she treats Bigger with a respect he’s never been shown before, he’ll automatically appreciate it and like her when in fact, he hates her and Jan for the way they’re acting. “But he did not understand them; he distrusted them, really hated them.”

Native Son - 34-62

On page 59 of Native Son, Bigger finally shows how happy and relieved he is about his job as a chauffeur for the Dalton family. Earlier in the book, it was clear that he resented, hated, and feared the whites through his interactions with his group of friends and his family. When Bigger is alone in his new room at the Dalton’s, he is pleased with what will become of his new life. He finally has “a room all to himself!” and no longer has to sleep next to his kicking brother. “And he would buy himself another watch, too. A dollar watch was not good enough for a job like this; he would buy a gold one. There were a lot of new things he would get. Oh, boy! This would be an easy life.”

Bigger is not “selling out” by taking advantage of the opportunity presented to him. He understands that it is a good way to make money and to be at peace with the white people, the people who limit what his people can do, in order to create a better life for himself and his family. He is given great working hours, a beautiful place to stay, and the people he works for, although white, are wonderful people that contribute to the closing of the gap between the colored and the whites in society. Although he feels as though he can’t completely be himself around the Daltons, we can already see a difference in his interactions with Mary than with the whites he criticized with his friends.