One quarter way through the short story collection: "The Collected Works of William Faulkner" my recurring and gnawing self interrogation: following an introverted examination of my own psyche - reguarding the racism portrayed on these pages - I keep asking myself - two generations removed and descent of suspiciously similar "white peoples" who lived and breathed in the very same red dirt hills and gullies of Northern Mississippi. Were I to be transporteed then and there, and brought to life in one of the scenes from his books - given the man I've become in this time and my place - which of the characters (so empathetically and convincingly portrayed by Faulker) would I be?
For example: Would I , in "Dry September" fall out to be the voice of reason - of the barber - who refused to believe the colored Will Mayes to be guilty of a crime, with which he was charged by vigilante bigmouths, becuase he knew it to be out of character? Would I endure the ridicule of my cohorts in the barber shop, for believing the word of a a "nigger" over that of a white woman? Would I be able to stand still without flinching while I was called "niggerlover" and a damn yankee, even though I was a native son my entire life. Or would I fall out to be one of those majority biggots: accusing an innocent man, interrogating the barber for being rational, and causing paranoia, by such tactics as... "Happen? What the hell difference does it make? Are you going to let the black sons get away with it until one really dos it?" -- and then later tracking down the wrongfully accused man - shouting" "Get him into the car" ..." Kill him, kill the black son..."
Given the socio-economic stratus of the time, and my family's position within the hierarchy of those times I'd say the odds were, in spite of a good Church upbringing and "Christian" home: I'd fall out be a fence straddler most likely . Wonder whichaway I wouda fell? What about you?
No comments:
Post a Comment