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The Role of the Negro in William Faulkner's Public and Private Worlds

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The Role of the Negro in William Faulkner's Public and Private Worlds 71- 27,547 ROBINSON, Evalyne Carter, n.d. THE ROLE OF THE NEGRO IN WILLIAM FAULKNER'S PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WORLDS. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1971 Language and Literature, modern University Microfilms, A XEROX Company, Ann Arbor, Michigan THIS DISSERTATION HAS BEEN MICROFILMED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED THE ROLE OF THE NEGRO IN WILLIAM FAULKNER'S PUBLIC AND PRIVATE WORLOS DISSERTATION by Evalyne Carter Robinson, B.S., M.A. Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of the Ohio State University Approved by» Adviser X nt of Education The Ohio State University Columbus, Ohio June, 1971 PLEASE MOTE: Some pages have indistinct print. Filmed as received. UNIVERSITY MICROFILMS. pref a c e : Only relatively recently has it become fashionable* or academically responsible, to think of William Faulkner's work as an object for intellectual study. The reasons for this reluctance have been several. Among the obviousi (1) the retiring nature of Faulkner himself and (2) the difficulty of his work. A researcher presumes a great deal when he proposes to undertake a study of Faulkner's work. After a short period of time, he becomes aware that what was assumed to be a simple routine academic task is instead the challenge to solve a geometrical-like puzzle which, from the "start- here" point, directs and enmeshes the gullible puzzle- solver in an intricate and challenging, but, at the same time, peculiarly ego-shattering design. While all the while, the ghost of the pu2 zle-maker stands quietly and politely on the sideline--a slight, but firmly definitive figure, the chin slightly lifted and projected, the white hair immaculately coiffed, the hand carelessly encircling the perennial pipe, and the dark and piercing eyes watching with an almost bemused expression as the researcher charges blindly along one corridor after another of the puzzle de- ii sign, only to find that each leads to several more confus­ ing corridors, or that it is altogether a dead-end. Two recognitions become evident! the meanings which seem the simplest are often the most involved and complex; those which should be complex, or which the researcher seeks to submerge in academia effluvia, are the simplest. And, this is as it should be, because true to Aristotle's guid­ ing principle, William Faulkner's work is an "imitation of life," and life is like that--many answers are obvious and there for the taking; others are more elusive; some are never found. Too often, the researcher does not find his way to the point marked "the finish," but in the process of the endeavor, he has been involved in an engrossing experience and has been challenged to try the game again and again. Many persons have been vital to the completion of this study. The researcher is, of course, indebted to the critics of Faulkner, but also to Or. Wilfred Eberhart, adviser and chairman of the Reading Committee, for his reading and criticism of the manuscript, to the staffs of The Ohio State University and Antioch College libraries for various favors and their cheerful and untiring assistance, and to Random House for permission to quote from Faulkner's texts. iii VITA Name! Evalyne Carter Robinson Degrees and Fields of Studvi 8.S. Hampton Institute, Hampton, Virginia Specializations— English Education/ English/ Social Studies M.A. The George Washington University, Washington, D.C. Specializations— American Literature/ English Education Ph.D. The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio Specializations— English Education/ American Literature/ Comparative Education/ Philosophy Publications! Children's stories— Jack and Jill magazine P-Q 3 Itlons -Hold t West Friendship, Maryland (West Friendship High School) Responsibilities— English instructor/drama coach/ school publication Richmond. Virginia (Social Service 8ureau, Family Division) Responsibility— Caseworker St. Croix, Virgin Islands (Division of Social Welfare, Child Welfare Department) Responsibilities--Caseworker/acting supervisor Sa'int Mary's County, Maryland (Banneker High School) Responsibilities— English instructor/ departmental chairman Wilberforce, Ohio (Wilberforce University) Responsibilities— Associate Professor of English/ departmental chairman i v TA8LE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE .............................................. ii VITA ................. iv LIST OF TABLES . vi Chapter I. INTRODUCTION .................................... 1 Statement of Problem 3 Analysis of Related Studies ......... ..... 6 Statement of Hypotheses . ............. 38 Method of Attack .......... 39 Definition of T e r m s ...................... 47 II. BACKGROUND ...................................... 48 The Region! Oxford, Mississippi ........ 48 The Region! Yoknapatawpha County •*•••.» 90 III. THE NEGRO IN FAULKNER'S WORKS .................. 104 Patterns of Classification • • • • ........... 104 Thematic Structure . ................. 136 IV. THE DEVELOPMENT OF FAULKNER'S MORAL VIEW. 196 Situational and Environmental Influences . • . 197 Faulkner's Moral View of the •Negro, .......... 203 Manifestations in His Writings ........ 206 V. SYNTHESIS......................................... 264 VI. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS......................... 293 APPENDIX .......................................... 300 BIBLIOGRAPHY. ................... 305 v » LIST OF TA8LCS Table Page 1. Distribution of Black Population in United States • ••.«•*...••• Appendix, 303 2. Percent of Total Land Area in Farms in Mississippi, Selected Years, 1850- 1964 ............... 83 3. Characteristics of Farm Ownership and Farm Tenancy in Mississippi, Selected Years, 1910-1964 85 4. Total Personal Income and Major Components Thereof, Mississippi, 1956-1965 88 5. Industrial Sources of Civilian Income Received by Pers.ons Participating in Current Production, Mississippi, Selected Years, 1956-1965................................... 89 vi CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION William Faulknar was a man steeped in the soil and the social conventions of his native land. He was a South­ erner— a Mississippian— by every instinct, but he was able to recognize the flaws of his Southern society, to probe into the reasons (sociological and moralistic) for these flaws, and to seek soma compromising solution. His quest was made more difficult because his personality was not a simple one. Excluding the earlier writings, Faulkner had pub­ lished seventeen navels and seventy-six short stories by the time of his death in 1962. Thirty-two of the short stories have been assimilated into larger units (e.g., The Unvanouished and Go, Down. Noses and Other Stories) • All of these works except nineteen short stories and five novels are set within his fictional region, Yoknapatawpba County, Mississippi. Although, in view of contemporary developments, Faulkner’s work may be more than slightly outdated in terms of its social and racial views— that is, more than a few of his characters are supercilious and some of his preachments are superficial— this, nevertheless, offers a unique and important historical, sociological, and psychological basis for a study of the culture of the South and, more importantly, of the universal social issues inher­ ent in that society. The assessment of William Faulkner as a man and as an author has been varied. Several critics have assigned him a place among the eminently notable; others have relegated him to the mediocre. Many have described him as a "liberal, but, at the same time, a carefully authentic writer, who exhibited a deep and humane insight into the social condi­ tions prevalent in the context of his native South, and who possessed a cogent awareness of the psychological evolu­ tions and philosophical formulations of the minds of the several social stratifications which compose that South. Still others have described him as bigoted, overly subjec­ tive and sentimental in approach, and protective and defen­ sive of the Old South— a social structure which from any rational or moral standard or point of view must be de­ scribed as reprehensible. Most have agreed that he created a more realistic, comprehensive, and concentrated portrait of the complex, and often paradoxical, class structure of the New South by virtue of his willingness and capability to look beyond the external structure of the stereotyped- character images, portrayed by some other contemporary Southern writers, to probe deeply in a compulsive-like effort to discover the causal pattern of the social responses of these stereotypes, and to transcend the surface, mechanistic literary tool to discover the philosophical, psychological, sociological human image. Statement of Problem Historically, the Negro has been a popular subject for stereotyping and exploitation by Southern authors* like his counterparts, William Faulkner also made extensive use of these types. His moral vision, public and private, of the Negro and the degree of the relationship of the public vision to the private vision have been subjects for diverse debate. One school of thought denies that Faulkner's life and environment had any significant influence on his writ­ ings. This view has gained in popularity during the last few years, and it is very evident in the many critical essays which have largely ignored Oxford, Mississippi, apparently dismissing it as irrelevant to the interpreta­ tion of the work at hand. Few of the school suggest that Oxford is, or could have been, a factor in the development of Faulkner's moral view of the South and the Southern Negro. By contrast, a second school of thought asserts that
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