Week 9

Week 9

William Faulkner's        

 

 "That Evening Sun"

            William Faulkner lived from 1897-1962.  He received a Nobel Prize for Literature in 1949.  After that achievement his reputation spread around the world.  He grew up in Oxford, Mississippi. He used this town in many of his writings with some small changes.  He traveled a great deal, and trained as a pilot.  I find it interesting he never graduated from college yet accomplished so much.  Goes to show if you are truly talented you will succeed.

            “That Evening Sun” takes place in Jefferson.  I thought it was a rather odd story.  It was ok and kept me engaged enough to get through it but I really don’t see why it would be so special.  I read it as if a white family has a maid named Nancy.  She has a ex husband or boyfriend who was in trouble with the law and had left town, she is horribly scared he is back and wants to harm her.  After her job is done with the cooking and cleaning she doesn’t want to go home.  She instead just sits quietly in the family’s kitchen.  We find out she is afraid to walk home alone in the dark so Jason the man of the house walks her home with his 3 children.  His wife does not like this at all.  She thinks Jason cares more about he negro help than his own wife and family.  I thought it was really nice of him to care about her well being.  Soon enough Jason is tired of walking her home and tells her,  her husband is not out there.  She manages to talk the 3 children into walking her home with promises of fun.  When they arrive there is nothing fun about it for them. They want to go home but she offers them popcorn and stories so they stay. I was glad their father showed up to bring them home where they belong.  What if her crazy husband really did come back and harm them all.  I believe the constant worry drove her insane and she began drinking. In the beginning of the story she was in jail trying to hang herself.  It was confusing jumping from the present into the past and the two kids constantly talking during the story because they were too young to really understand what was going on with Nancy and Jesus. Overall it was good but another sad story about how unfair blacks where treated in those days. 

 Langston Hughes

Hughes' poetry and  "On the Road"

            Langston Hughes was born in 1902 and died in 1967.  In grammar school he was chosen as a class poet and in high school he published two poems in magazines. He had many talents including humorist, historian of blacks. He wrote many novels, short stories and poems.  They also included children’s books, songs, and operas.   He had great black heritage and living in New York City picked up tastes in jazz music which you can clearly see in his writings.

            I enjoyed the few poems we had to read.  In the poem,   The Weary Blues I can easily picture a low lit club with a piano player at his piano and small tables gathered about.  The piano player is playing his blues and the person in the audience is just getting caught up in the music forgetting their own worries.  In Harlem, I picture a person who has a dream that is put on hold.  They are wondering what happens, Do they dreams dry up?  Do they fester? Or just explode.   I thought the majority of his poems were easy to understand and I liked them. 

            “On the Road” was sad to me.  We have a man called Sargeant who gets off a freight train looking for a place to sleep.   He is so tired and hungry he pay’s no attention to the snow coming down on him.  He goes to a church where is he is turned away and referred to a shelter which he has already been rejected because they are already full and he is also a black man.  He is banging on the church door until cops arrive.  I believe they knock him unconscious but he is having his own dream of breaking Jesus off the cross and them leaving together and he finds shelter for the night and Jesus goes on to Kansas City. Sargeant wakes up to what he thinks is being beaten on his hands by cops again but he realizes he is in jail from the earlier incident.   I find it very sad because he was black he was not accepted by the church.  I bet if it were any white man they would have been given a spot to sleep. 

Ernest Hemingway

The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber

            Ernest Hemingway was born in Oak Park, Illinois.  His father was a Physician who gave his son many adventures in fishing and hunting.  After high school graduation he went to work as a report in Kansas City.  He was in World War I and the first American to survive after being wounded on the Italian front.  He often wrote about a modern world filled with sterility, failure and death.

            We were assigned to read The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber.  In the story we have a wealthy family of Francis and Margaret Macomber who are on a safari vacation in Africa.   This story keeps with his themes of failure and death.  The Macomber’s are out on a lion hunt with Mr. Wilson.  They finally find their prey and Francis first wants to shoot from the car which is a big NO NO.  He ends up shooting a lion but he does not die and they must look for him in the brush. Francis is very scared of the big kill and you can tell he just does not want to go through with it.  The time comes and the lion charges and Francis runs away like a chicken.  His wife is just downright disappointed and calls him a failure.   Back at camp for the night Francis wakes up and his wife is missing.  Turns out she has been with Mr. Wilson for a few hours and we can only imagine what they are up to.  She finds Mr. Wilson desirable because he is not afraid to kill the lion unlike her husband.  They both think the other will not leave each other because Mr. Macomber us rich and Mrs. Macomber is beautiful. 

            They are out on another hunt for buffalo and Mr. Macomber gets his kill and is very proud of him self. He has conquered his fear. Again he only wounded the buffalo so must go in the brush to finish him off. The buffalo charges again and he shoots and shoots but keeps hitting the horns which bullets just bounce off of.  Mr. Wilson is also shooting and Mrs. Macomber takes a shot and accidentally shoots her own husband dead.   I think this was their secret plan to get rid of him so they could be together.  This way she walks away with all her husbands money and Mr. Wilson.  The death could look accidental to most but only they know the truth.