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THAT EVENING SUN” If It Was Publicly Announced, Particularly If It Was Declared by the Black Woman As the Victim

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THAT EVENING SUN” If It Was Publicly Announced, Particularly If It Was Declared by the Black Woman As the Victim Journal of English and Education, Vol. 5 No.1 - Juni 2011 A BLACK WOMAN CHARACTER'S TRAUMA IN miscegenation scandal and also that he had not paid her the sufficient money for the RACIST SOCIETY: A THOROUGH READING ON service. It was not something uncommon for white men in the South to take advantage of black women, yet this deed was not something that anyone could bear FAULKNER'S “THAT EVENING SUN” if it was publicly announced, particularly if it was declared by the black woman as the victim. His anger which was combined by his shame led him to punish Nancy Sri Sumaryani with his stringent and brutal conduct Yogyakarta State University Mr. Stovall knocked her down, but she kept on saying, 'When you going to pay me, white man? It's been three times now since“ until Mr. Stovall kicked her in the mouth with his heel and the marshal caught Mr. Stovall back, and ABSTRACT Nancy lying in the street, laughing. She turned her head and spat out some blood and teeth and said, “It's been three times now since he paid me a cent” This paper discusses a black woman character named Nancy in Faulkner's (Faulkner, 1950: 291). “That Evening Sun” who experiences trauma as the accumulation of her constant fear. The analysis is conducted by using Fanon's theory of Mr. Stovall defeated Nancy savagely to express his emotion and fear since psychological trauma in colonial society. The researcher used descriptive- Mr. Stovall's respectable positions as a cashier in the bank and a deacon in the qualitative method as it is a qualitative research in which data are Baptist church were harmed by Nancy's statement. His demeanor was the nonnumeric. The analysis examines Nancy's unconsciousness resulted in a expression of anger and fear. He was angry because Nancy dared to accuse him trauma. It also highlights Faulkner's technique to compare fear experienced publicly. He was also afraid that society would see him differently. However, by Blacks and Whites. society regarded that Nancy deserved to accept the punishment from Mr. Stovall Based on the analysis, Nancy's fear is sourced from her husband's harsh for Jefferson society only did minor action to prevent Mr. Stovall from knocking treatments because she is pregnant with a white man's child. Her husband's her down. After that, Nancy was dragged atrociously to the jail. violent treatments are the manifestation of his disappointment and anger towards his racist surroundings. Nancy's acute fear is worsened by her After considering the profession of Mr. Stovall and society's response surroundings' treatment that mostly consist of white Southerners and are towards his misdeed, it might be said there was hypocrisy in the Southern society. apathetic towards her fear. The crippling fear accumulates into trauma. Different from their brothers in the North, the Southern population was highly Faulkner's method to contrast the fear experienced by Whites and Blacks are regarded as religious community. However. Mr. Stovall's respectable profession as effective to show that the level of fear felt by Blacks is greater than that of a cashier did not hamper him from doing amorality. Moreover, being a Baptist Whites. Church deacon also did not prevent him from behaving atrociously towards other Key words: trauma, fear, racist human beings while the teaching of religion ordered its members to behave equally. It would be completely contrasting if the victim of the abuse was a white INTRODUCTION woman and the doer was a black man. The black man would be for sure accepting more severe punishment from the society than the white woman. It was very likely Racism in the Southern United Sates that the black man would be lynched and the case never went into trial. This is how The history of the United States of America cannot be separated from racism racial prejudice as an ideology was implemented in the South. Racial prejudice was th issue. The struggle to gain independence from Britain in the 18 century led to the the base of all conducts if it involved Blacks and Whites. Whites, no matter they freedom of the land and self from colonization. However, the freedom was not were right or wrong, women or men, got protection while Blacks must be on the 104 117 Journal of English and Education, Vol. 5 No.1 - Juni 2011 Journal of English and Education, Vol. 5 No.1 - Juni 2011 answer to Nancy proves that the Whites are never interested in the lives of the possessed by all people. The independence was merely owned by Whites or most Blacks. They merely considered them as objects and did not want to involve in notably known as the WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestants), a group of people their lives. It was different from the reaction shown by Dilsey, another black whose descendants were originally from Europe. Blacks from African descendants servant working for Compson's family, when she knew that Nancy began to did not have the same felicity as the first group. Their access to some basic rights collapse due to her own fear. Dilsey took care of Nancy. She made sure that Nancy like economics and life was limited prior and even long after the independence was received complete attention and offered to accompany her going back to her cabin. declared in 1776. Slavery which is regarded as a firm institution hampered Blacks from gaining the proper living. The difference of treatments between these two races irritated some Whites who concerned with Blacks and craved for the same Fear Felt by Blacks and Whites in Jefferson treatments. The demand put the heat on the defenders of the slavery. It reached the Faulkner used his aptitude to contrast the fear felt by the Blacks and Whites peak on the Civil War that lasted from 1861-1865. The era noted the simmering in the story in order to point out that the effect and cause of fear for Blacks was tension between the Northern and Southern United States (McNeese, 2010: 24). greater compared to the Whites. Fear in Jefferson is not solely owned by Blacks. The first one opposed slavery while the second one was consistent in maintaining it. Whites also experienced the same feeling although the kind, cause, and degree are The division of arguments between the two regions upon slavery was not different from that of the Blacks. Mrs. Compson had fear. Mr. Stovall had fear. solely driven by human rights principles. It was more on economic motivations. Even the children also had fear. The Northern depended on industrial based economy while their brothers in the Mrs. Compson felt afraid of her solitude for her husband and children used South remained entirely rural. Southerners relied on their life on agriculture. to leave her to accompany Nancy going home. The feeling of jealousy was also (McPherson, 1988:354). The vast plantation of cotton and tobacco were the main slightly inserted in the fear since Nancy was also a woman. Moreover, she was products and this rural industry required large numbers of slaves. Slaves were pregnant with a white man's child. As a woman whose husband was a master of the cheap labors because they were treated like goods. Slave trade was considered black woman whom he always accompanied, Mrs. Compson was afraid that her usual at that time. Moreover, slaves' descendents followed the status of their husband would take advantage of Nancy. Therefore, there were some occasions in parents. The morality and economic competition motivated the confrontation that the story when Mrs. Compson attempted to prevent her husband from lasted for five years in the Civil War. Apart from the war, the lives of Blacks in the accompanying Nancy, “You'll leave me alone, to take Nancy home? Mother said. South as the slavery based region did not technically change much even after the “Is her safety more precious to you than mine?” (Faulkner, 1950: 293). The 13th Amendment which banned slavery practice was imposed in 1865. expression was a mix of anger, jealousy, and fear. Mrs. Compson finally decided to Slavery was not a peculiar practice in the South. It was a strong institution permanently stop her husband and children from taking her home by saying, “How and inseparable from the life of the Southerners. Through centuries, slavery much longer this going to go on? I to be left alone in this big house while you take remained as a rigid social institution which classified the life of Whites and Blacks home a frightened Negro?”(Faulkner, 1950: 296). Mrs. Compson's last try was a as masters and slaves. Slavery is a perfect tool to implement racism because the reflection of her absolute concern to save her family from shame that might lives of Blacks were dependent on their masters and the dependency created the happen. Therefore, although she knew that Nancy was completely occupied by her power to rule Blacks as the more inferior group. It goes accordingly with the dread, she chose not to take any slightest care towards her life since for a prominent principal of racism which is the doctrine about the division of respectable family like hers, dealing with the lives of Blacks means nothing. population's category based on physical differences. The emergence of superiority As a white man, Mr. Stovall was also petrified when Nancy started to fill the feeling as a consequence of racism practice will be followed by the inception of town's street by her accuse to him of not paying her adequate amount of money inferior group.
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