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"DELTA AUTUMN" (WILLIAM FAULKNER).   Term Paper ID:25535 Click to get this paper

Essay Subject: Examines story (a section of novel [Go Down, Moses]): plot, theme, characters, structure, symbolism, language, focusing on metaphor of hunting.... More...

9 Pages / 2025 Words 3 sources, 11 Citations, MLA Format $36.00 Return to List of Papers

Paper Abstract: Examines story (a section of novel [Go Down, Moses]): plot, theme, characters, structure, symbolism, language, focusing on metaphor of hunting. Paper Introduction: This study will briefly describe the plot of William Faulkner's story "Delta Autumn" (which is actually a section of the novel Go Down, Moses), and will then in greater depth examine the story's theme, characters, structure, symbolism, language, and related literary elements. The study will focus on the meanings of the various uses of the metaphor of hunting in the story. The story is about Isaac ("Ike") McCaslin and a hunting trip he and his companions take. On the way to the hunting grounds, which are far from their homes, various subjects of conversation arise in which Ike is portrayed as an idealist who bemoans the valuelessness of modern times longs for the old days when solid ideals reigned. Roth Edmonds, Ike's cousin, has had a child by aa African-American woman. At the camp, Roth asks Ike to give a Text of the Paper: The entire text of the paper is shown below. However, the text is somewhat scrambled. We want to give you as much information as we possibly can about our papers and essays, but we cannot give them away for free. In the text below you will find that while disordered, many of the phrases are essentially intact. From this text you will be able to get a solid sense of the writing style, the concepts addressed, and the sources used in the research paper. On the way to the hunting grounds, which are far fromtheir homes, various subjects of conversation arise in which Ike isportrayed as an idealist who bemoans the valuelessness of modern timeslongs for the old days when solid ideals reigned. DespiteIke's idealism, he is revealed as a racist in his encounter with the woman,although he does redeem himself to some degree with an act of generosity. "The Wilderness, the Commissary, and the Bedroom."English Studies, 44 (1963), 19-28.----------------------- 1 New York: Viking, 1974.Fisher, Richard. When he recoversenough to see that the situation calls for more than declaring her racewith a racist word he likely does not see as racist, Ike offers the money,but he must know it is not enough, that no amount of money is enough toreplace some human connection: She came back to the cot and took up the money; whereupon once more he said, "Wait:" although she had not turned, still stooping, and he put out his hand. Things are notthe same and they will never be the same way again, thinks Ike, but thisdoes not mean that he has let go of his dream of the past. This is not to say that Fisher does not cast a steely moral eye onIke, for he certainly does: Ike McCaslin is, then, a tragic figure, but not a tragic hero. Here the "hunt" is for human connection, for the simple warmth of twohuman beings related in so many ways reaching across a great historical,generational, racial gulf to touch "for a second." Importantly, however, neither, at least at that moment, is hunter orprey. It seems that every character teaches and affectssomebody for the better in some way, even if the affect is unknown and/ordelayed. But, sitting, he could not complete the reach until she moved her hand, the single hand which held the money, until he touched it--the gnarled, bloodless, bone-dry old man's fingers touching for a second the smooth young flesh where the strong old blood ran after its long journey back to home (Faulkner 659). . At first, he tells her to leave: "Get out of here! Both must participate in the reaching and touching for the reachingand touching to carry the power and meaning contained in that sharedgesture. The point is that Ike is hunting for animals, for the past, fornature, for standards to live by, but he has forgotten about love, and whenone forgets about love--the true "prey" of the true "hunter"--then one'slife is reduced to arid memories of times gone by that probably never were. But not now! He has been shown to be a man whobelieves in ideals, tradition, principles, high moral standards, etc., butwith that one word, spoken aloud and meant to be violent and shocking, theworst of Ike is revealed suddenly and terribly. Is the gesture made out of pity, guilt, expediency to get her toleave? Ike's life has come down to a hunt for something which canno longer be taken in any way, by guns or other violence or any way at all.The past and all it represents to Ike has left and will never return. Richard Fisher writes that Ike's spiritual development orconsciousness expansion at this stage of life is limited. A story which has such foreboding lines in its early stage, and whichfeatures guns and hunting and the suggestion that this hunting trip wouldbe the protagonist's "last"--such a story will likely be seen by theattentive reader as one which will end in violence, probably violenceinvolving the protagonist. Ike is not a badman, not an evil man, but is rather a man who has been inculcated with aracist attitude by Southern culture just as Southern culture has inculcatedhim with the high ideals and standards about which he spoke earlier. Is Fisher certain that the woman will be unaffected by Ike (andhis feeble attempts to reach out to her) when she reflects on the episodelater in her life? New Haven:Yale U P, 1963.Faulkner, William. In fact, violence does take place, but the violence is of a non-physical nature. Whatever the reader's reaction might be, the woman herself is notmuch impressed with Ike's gifts or with his attempt to give her advice: "Old man," she said, "have you lived so long and forgotten so much that you don't remember anything you ever knew or felt or even heard about love?" (Faulkner 66 ). In any case, he insists she takes he money, and finally she relents. Little action takes place in the story, especially in terms of theexpectations established by the opening scene of Ike's thoughts about thepast and about his feelings about the hunting trip: In fact, each time now, on that first night in camp, lying aching and sleepless in the harsh blankets, his blood only faintly warmed by the single thin whiskey-and-water which he allowed himself, he would tell himself that this would be his last. That shooting is used as a metaphor itself by Faulkner toillustrate the vulnerability not of a deer but of a human being, or twohuman beings. Roth Edmonds, Ike'scousin, has had a child by aa African-American woman. Nothing isthe same as it was. If so,this seems to be quite a remarkable leap for a man as rooted in the past asIke. As it is, for this reader, Ikeshows more openness to the woman and her plight than would have beenpredicted. We find Roth Edmonds [whom ike should be mentoring to avoid just such activities[ repeating his great-grandfather's ultimate villainy; like Carothers, Roth pays conscience money, seeking to buy off the woman who bears his son, [using] old Ike as the go-between, and Ike, the hero in a vacuum, obliges (Fisher 27). Is Ike suggesting here that he is considering the day when whites andblacks will be able to marry one another and not suffer from racism? . He is a man crying out in hissleep at the horror of his life and its disappearing into a modern world hecannot understand. Works CitedBrooks, Cleanth. William Faulkner: The Yoknapatawpha Country. We will have to wait. The violence at the heart of the story is the violence done to Ike bythe changes which he has experienced and is still experiencing. . Not now! . with his greater conviction shaken, his vision and development blocked, he does at least pursue game. That's the only salvation for you--for a while yet, maybe a long while yet. . This study will briefly describe the plot of William Faulkner's story"Delta Autumn" (which is actually a section of the novel Go Down, Moses),and will then in greater depth examine the story's theme, characters,structure, symbolism, language, and related literary elements. However, Ike does at least attempt to redeem himself, as describedabove. Marry: a man in your own race. . . The harshness in his voice is hisway of disguising what he is feeling, because he is likely uncertain ofwhat he is feeling, although he fears that whatever it is he should not befeeling it. Yet, again, Ike is not a bad, not an evil man. Marry a black man" (Faulkner 66 ). In other words, perhaps the "hunt" forlove is operative in human beings whether they like it, whether they doubtit, whether they know, or whether they fight it or not. Like the pre-blood and outmoded Old Ben, Ike is a coeval of the wilderness, their spans "running out together, not toward oblivion, nothingness, but into a dimension free of both time and space." Failing to comprehend fully what he learns, Ike is doomed to a sadly limited heroism: vocation lost, his limited vision producing a limited goodness, he approaches the end of his journey having taught and affected nobody (Fisher 28). At the camp, Rothasks Ike to give a final message to the woman when she arrives. . Nature is being pillaged by man and man's relentlesscivilization. but even in this enterprise, . At this point in the story, the hunting metaphor may be invoked onceagain. However, this touching is obviously frightening in some way to Ike:He drew the hand back beneath the blanket again: he said harshly now: "It'sa boy, I reckon. . . However, the story at that point is far from over. I can do nothingfor you! Beinga man who wants to be good and do good, Ike does what he can as he isconfronted with a human being in pain--whatever her color--although criticspoint out that his redemptive action may not be enough. The woman's statement that Ike has forgotten about love also suggeststhat the hunt for love should be more internal than external--that it is amatter of keeping in mind that love is built into the human being and onlycalls for the individual to remember that that love is the essence of life.Longing (or hunting) for idealized abstractions in the past (or in thefuture) is a guarantee that the individual will indeed lose his way on thehunt and forget that it is the human connection of love which is the sourceof life, and not judging others according to ideal standards. Go back North. . . He gives her "the horn"--a symbol of the past, of nature, of honor, of himself and his memory. Yes, a deer is hot, but the shooting does not involve theprotagonist. Perhaps Fisher's last judgment (that Ike taught and affected nobody)is unnecessarily harsh. The studywill focus on the meanings of the various uses of the metaphor of huntingin the story. Perhaps she will experience a twinge of regret at whatshe said to him about love, and perhaps she will turn that regret into anact or two of compassion toward others in her life who are simply incapableof showing more love than they do. . In fact, the entire story is about hunting--for animals, for food,for nature, for the past, for sex, for honor, for tradition, for the OldSouth, for love. Still, once again, after this third sign of openness, he withdraws,although not as decidedly as he had after reaching out to share a touchwith her: "Yes," he said, harshly, rapidly, but not so harsh now and soon not harsh at all but just rapid, urgent, until he knew that his voice was running away with him and her had neither intended it nor could stop it: "That's right. Maybe in a thousand or two thousand years in America, he thought. Brooks accurately assesses the context of Ike's dilemma and the factthat if Faulkner had had Ike do more for the woman, the author would havebeen betraying the character's integrity. There is a human equality in that mutual reaching out and touchingwhich to this reader is the heart of the story. have you lived so long and forgotten so much that you don'tremember anything you ever knew or felt or even heard about love?"(Faulkner 66 ). Theshock of discovering that his cousin has had an affair with this blackwoman and had a child with her is a huge step for Ike in the realizationthat nothing will ever be the same as it was for the world as Ike knows it.His reaction, while racist, is involuntary. One commentator speaks of his "compromises with segregation." But this is to read the story as a tract, to misinterpret Isaac's character as developed through the whole novel, and to ignore the dramatic context (Brooks 273). . The story is about Isaac ("Ike") McCaslin and a hunting trip he andhis companions take. To the contrary, one of the major aspects of the structure of thestory in terms of Ike's character development, or change at least, if notdevelopment, is the long establishment of Ike as a man of high ideals andprinciples, followed by the sudden exclamation he makes to the woman: Now he understood what it was she had brought into the tent with her, what old Isham had already told him by sending the youth to bring her in to him--the pale lips, the skin pallid and dead-looking yet not ill, the dark and tragic and foreknowing eyes. He cried, not loud, in a voice of amazement, pity and outrage: "You're a nigger!" (Faulkner 658). However, because, at its foundation, the feeling has nothing to dowith sex or race or age, but is essentially a feeling of humanconnectedness, Ike is drawn to make another gesture--after the money andthe reaching and touching. Itis a gift of himself to the woman and her son, who he is gradually seeingas a part of himself. The traditional values of the past are being bulldozed awayjust as those traditional values are being bulldozed away. Can't nobody do nothing for you!" However, then Ike tries to giveher money. he fails. Ike is certainly a tragic figure, as Fisher notes, but also as Fishernotes, Ike's significance is diminished simply because he is incapable ofan action, beyond the symbolic (money, one touch, the horn), which woulddeliver himself (much less the woman) from the suffering of the moment: . However, to the woman, Ike's words show not that he is warming up inhuman sense, but that he is as out of touch with his feelings as ever: "Oldman, . Cleanth Brooks writes that A number of readers have expressed themselves as less than satisfied with Isaac McCaslin's behavior. . The violence of this word in the context of the portrait of Ike whichhas been established is shocking. But he would stand that trip--he still shot almost as well as he ever had, still killed almost as much of the game as he ever killed; he no longer even knew how many deer had fallen before his gun--and the fierce long heat of the summer would renew him (Faulkner 636). ." (Faulkner 659). . To judge the manin terms other than those which prevail in the constricted context of hisown life is to be unfair to the character. There is great irony in the woman's statement, for Ike lives in thepast, in what he "remembers." Yet here is this young woman reminding himthat the point of life is love, and not yearning for some abstract standardof culture which probably never existed except artificially in the past. The Portable Faulkner. . If this paper is not what you are looking for, you can search again: Search for: or Click here to request an essay written just for you.