earticle

영어

“Dry September” is one of Faulkner’s work which deals with violence in black and white relationship. In the story, a black man is accused of raping a white lady by rumor and is killed by an angry white lynching mob. Minnie, the lady, is a spinster who fails to perform the gender roles assigned by the Southern society, and she is believed to have told a lie in order to get back attention and past glory. Although Minnie is hidden behind the physical violence by the white mob, she is unquestionably the underlying cause of the brutal death. That is, her lie ignites the white men’s hostility against the black people and leads to the tragic ending. In this paper, therefore, Minnie’s lie is treated as a verbal violence together with men’s physical violence, and why she tells a lie is considered with her situation in the South. Lastly, Faulkner is thought to use violence to remind us of the evils of violence and to tell some important truth, not for the sake of violence. (Jeonju University)