10.2 William Faulkner

William Faulkner received a noble prize for his literature in 1949. Faulkner began his career as a poet. As a young man he wanted to join the military but he was rejected.  Instead he went to Canada.  He published many works in his time and is now a topic in every American Literature classroom.

In the short story "That Evening Sun" we see the story from two different points of view.  Quentin tells his story from the view of a 24 year old and then he tells the story from how he remembers as a nine year old.  His mother and father have a maid by the name of Nancy.  She is very afraid of her husband Jesus.  She is convinced that he is going to kill her.  She begs night after night for people to walk her home so she does not have to be in the dark.  She thinks he is waiting with a razor blade ready to slice her throat open.  It gets so bad that she even wants to stay the night and begs the children to come and stay with her.  The children are young and they don’t really understand. They are not really concerned with her situation but more concerned with what they won’t have if she dies. They don’t understand death and the process of after someone dies they don’t return. 
Nancy and Jesus’ relationship was like a rollercoaster.  I am assuming there were many reasons.  It was mentioned how she was always around the white men and it was suggested that she was pregnant by one.  The "watermelon" under her dress was indeed a baby.  This story portrayed the severe inequalities between black and white people.  How the white people view the black people and their horrible perception of people of color. I enjoyed this story; I guess I see how prejudice people really were and how come it took so long to get through these eras. Even though I know some people are still prejudice, it’s hard for me to understand because people of color are still human and have feeling just like anybody else.