The story "Dry September" by William Faulkner for me was a story full of excitement and confusion. At the beginning all of the guys are sitting around in the barber shop talking about how Miss Minnie Cooper got raped by a black man. The black man they are blaming the raping on is Will Mayes whom the barber thinks had nothing to do with it. Because of the barber siding with Mayes the other men in the barber shop are going against him and they are getting enraged. McLendon walks in and gets everyone except the one barber to side with him. Everyone who is against the barber, have no proof that Mayes was the one who did it. They haven't talked to anyone to even see if Mayes was anywhere near Miss Cooper that night. McLendon wants everyone who is against the barber and Mayes to go and "see" aka hurt and kill Mayes. So then after they sit around an argue about who did what they decide to go. This is where I started to get confused.
The barber and the main arguer, McLendon who hate eachother, get in the same car to go see Mayes. So after all of the men just called the barber a "niggerlover" and who despise the barber all get in the same car anyways. That just didn't seem right to me. Then they reach Mayes' house and they get him outside only to beat the living daylights out of him. When they are talking about the fight they say on page 444 that, "The others expelled their breath in a dry hissing and struck him with random blows and he whirled and cursed them, and swept his manacled hands across their faces and slashed the barber upon the mouth, and the barber struck him also." This was confusing to me because they say that even the barber, the one is supposedly on the side of Mayes', hits him. Why would the barber hit Mayes? I can kind of understand why the barber would do something like that because there's no way that he could have stood his ground against all of the guys beating up Mayes, but still I would like to think that maybe he would just stand there and watch instead of hitting the poor guy.
Anyways, so then they all get back into the cars, including Mayes and they start driving to a abandon road, obviously to beat up and kill Will Mayes. The barber keeps telling McLendon to let him out of the car, but McLendon won't allow it he keeps telling him to jump out. And this is when Mayes realizes that the barber is in the car and he tries to get his attention, but the barber won't answer him. Apparently Mayes and the barber are friends. Again this is where I start to get confused. The barber jumps out of the car while it's still moving and hides in the ditch on the side of the road. he jumps out because he doesn't want to have to witness what the guys are going to do with Mayes which is understandable. But then my confusion sets in. As the men drive away the barber continues to hide in the ditch, he even hides in the ditch when other cars drive by. Is he trying to avoid being seen so that he doesn't get blamed for killing Mayes? Or he is hiding from the guys who killed Mayes? I was thinking probably both. I would think that the guys who are killing Mayes would want to find the barber so that their dirty deed doesn't get out.
Moving on to Miss Minnie Cooper. This woman seems like she's lost her umph from her golden years. She's not married, has no children, and seems like just a lonely old woman. The story states that she used to be a charmer and caught the eyes of many men back in the day, but now she just kind of sits on the outside of things and goes unnoticed. I really believe that she made this whole story up so that she could have all eyes on her again because when she walks through town after the story has gotten out, all of the men in town tip their hats to her and notice her a lot more. Also after everyone starts noticing her more the second she gets out of site from people she starts bursting out laughing. This makes me think that maybe she's thinking "Haha I fooled them" or something like that. I hate her and I hate that she got poor Will Mayes killed over her lies.
4 comments:
I agree, I think Minnie Cooper wanted to get some attention like she received when she was younger, and she told everyone she was raped by Will to get this attention. She did not care about Will and what was going to happen to him, all she cared about was herself. This shows you what kind of character Minnie Cooper really is.
Colleen, awesome conclusion. You summed up my thoughts perfectly, even though I didn't come right out and say them. I wrote about how Faulkner leaves it open to interpretation, but in my mind, Minnie is a liar and I hate her, even though we don't know all of the facts. Are we as bad as the lynch mob for judging her without knowing what happened? I doubt it, but who knows?
I think that Minnie Cooper accused Mayes of raping her for attention as well. She used to be very popular and well known throughout the community, and now was older and was not nearly as popular as she used to be. It is unfortunate and disturbing that someone would do something like this, that she only cared about herself, and she knew that if she claimed she was raped, it would be believed.
I think that Minnie Cooper is misunderstood, and a victim as well. Though I agree with you as well, I can't help but feel sorry for her. She lives in a town where people ignore her or make fun of her and she lives with her Mother and her Aunt. She knows that she is unlikel;y to marry with no prospects. She knows what her social standing is and that the women in town merely put up with her for the rumors that they get out of her.I am not excusing her behavior for not coming out with the truth and saving Will Mayes, but Minnie deserves some compassion too.
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