Monday, July 31, 2006
"That Evening Sun" Notes and Homework Questions
THAT EVENING SUN—NOTES
BY WILLIAM FAULKNER
WILLIAM FAULKNER
BORN 1897 IN NEW ALBANY, MISSISSIPPI
HE WAS HE OLDEST OF FOUR SONS AND CAME FROM AN OLD TRADITIONAL SOUTHERN FAMILY.
HE DIED IN 1962 SHORTLY AFTER HIS 65TH BIRTHDAY.
THEMES AND MEANINGS
THE SETTING IS EARLY 20TH CENTURY WITH SOUTHERN LIFE TRADITIONS SHOWING INEQUALITY OF THE RACES.
THIS IS MAINLY A STORY ABOUT FEAR
WHEN THE EVENING SUN GOES DOWN, NANCY’S IMAGINATION IS MOST ACTIVE AND FEARFUL.
IF NANCY’S HUSBAND, JESUS, TAKES ACTION AGAINST THE WHITE FATHER OF HER BABY, NANCY WILL BECOME THE TARGET.
SHE HAS NO ENFORCEABLE LEGAL RIGHTS
CHARACTERS
FATHER, MOTHER, THREE CHILDREN
QUENTIN (NARRATOR), CADDY AND JASON
THREE BLACK CHARACTERS
NANCY(THE HELP), DILSEY(COOKS AND CLEANS), JESUS (NANCY’S HUSBAND)
MR. STOVALL RECEIVES SEXUAL FAVORS FROM NANCY AND DOES NOT PAY HER.
STYLE AND TECHNIQUE
THE STORY USES MORE NARRATIVE RESOURCES IN DEVELOPING THE THEME.
THERE IS LITTLE ACTION
THE STORY USES A RETROSPECTIVE POINT OF VIEW.
QUENTIN, THE OLDEST CHILD, NARRATES THE EVENTS THAT HAVE OCCURRED 15 YEARS EARLIER.
THE STORY JUXTAPOSES(COMPARES) THE ADULT WORLD AND ITS PROBLEMS WITH THE CHILDREN’S WORLD.
THE CHILDREN ARE NOT INNOCENT BECAUSE THEY HAVE ABSORBED THEIR PARENT’S ATTITUDES.
THEY ARE CRUEL AND PITILESS IN A MANNER OF INEXPERIENCES CHILDREN
IN QUENTIN’S ACCOUNT THERE IS NO SYMPATHY FOR NANCY’SCONDITION OR SITUATION.
• Characters (Important):
• Nancy—washes clothing for a white family. Also sleeps with white men for money such as a Mr. Stovall, who did not pay her.
• Dilsey—the black cook
• Jesus—Nancy’s husband
• Caddy Compson—child (white girl); later in life she is the boldest of the children, the most curious and alive.
• Jason Compson—child (white boy); is a cowardly bully, who blames everyone else for his own mistakes.
CHARACTER (CONT.)
• Father and Mother Compson—(white); Mother is an insufferable hypochondriac who whines about everything. FATHER is an idealistic and compassionate but pessimistic man, who senses the decay in the culture around him.
• Quentin Compson—child (white boy) narrator of the story…narrates it after a lapse of 15 years; is a sensitive, intelligent, but ineffectual idealist.
• Faulkner wrote novels, short stories and poetry
• He is considered by many as a great writer
• He is best known as the chronicler of the decadent south.
• In the book THE SOUND AND THE FURY the character of Quentin comes back as an adult. He is the narrator of this story.
• Nancy is pregnant but it is not Jesus’s baby.
• Jesus is determined to get even with Nancy over her sleeping with white men.
• Jesus leaves and then comes back.
• Nancy is afraid to walk home alone, so Father and the children walk her home, but Mother is not happy about this, because Father is leaving her alone at home while walking their maid home.
• Quentin tells the story with a child’s perspective.
• Jesus can do nothing about the fact the Nancy sleeps with white men for money. He is a black man in a Southern society and both his wife and his property belong to the white man. This is not in actual ownership but in Southern practice.
• Jesus decides to punish Nancy rather than Mr. Stovall (who is white) because Jesus, as a black man, is submissive to the white Southern patriarchal values.
• Faulkner’s work is psychologically complex and often tragic.
• Faulkner tries to show the reader universal truths of the human heart by examining the characters he found in the South.
• Faulkner tries to symbolically represent the tragic bonds between black and white.
• He creates the universal human emotion…terror.
• Nancy’s hopelessness is not only just from her situation but also who she is…powerless in the white society.
• If Nancy’s husband would seek revenge on the white man (Mr. Stovall), he would be lynched.
• Nancy clings to the Compson child children because she knows her husband will not hurt her when the white children are around.
• Faulkner wrote between the two World Wars are was part of a generation who was trying to reconcile the horrors of war with the idealism that America was founded.
• He also had to deal with the rift imposed by the Civil War…slaves had been freed on paper, but the legacy of racism and discrimination continued to tear the south apart.
• Faulkner symbolically represents these tragic bonds between black and white by introducing elements of miscegenation and incest into his plot.
• The story is split by the innocent squabbling of the children and Nancy’s desperation.
• The story is like a detective story…the reader must piece together the different clues to come up with a story that makes sense.
• The reader must piece together the comments of a naïve child and the significance of the incidents in town where Nancy is kicked and then thrown in jail.
• The contrast between the innocent naivete of the children and Nancy’s desperate attempts to draw their protective normalcy between her and Jesus emphasize her vulnerability.
• These plot elements unite to create an unforgettable atmosphere of fear and desperation.
HOMEWORK: DUE THE DAY AFTER WE COMPLETE THE STORY.
THAT EVENING SUN by William Faulkner
A. Write a sentence for each of the following words. Sentences must reflect the story.
1. intimation
2. personnel
3. foretell
4. momentary
5. harried
B. Briefly answer the following questions.
1. Why is Monday morning no different now from any other day of the week?
2. How long ago had the events in this story taken place?
3. What sort of man is Mr. Stovall? Be specific
4. What happens to Nancy in jail?
5. Why is Nancy afraid of Jesus?
6. Why does Nancy take the children to her cabin?
7. At the end of the story, does the reader know whether Nancy will return to work for the white family?
8. What is the significance of the title?
9. What is the author’s attitude regarding black women?
10. How is Nancy treated by the family for which she works? Give an example.
11. Why is she jailed?
12. What does Jesus mean when he tells the children that Nancy has a watermelon under her dress?
13. Of what does the mother of the white family complain?
C. Briefly answer the following questions.
1. Who is Nancy?
2. Who is Dilsey?
3. Who is Jesus and what is his relationship to Nancy?
4. What does Nancy do to supplement her income?
5. What is Nancy afraid of?
6. What does Mr. Compson allow Nancy to do?
7. Where does Nancy think she will be ambushed?
8. How does Mrs. Compson feel about Mr. Compson’s actions?
9. Who walks Nancy home on her final day of employment with the Compson’s?
10. What is Nancy doing at the end of the story?
11. Who is the narrator of the story?
D. Continue to briefly answer these questions.
STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
1. How are we first introduced to Nancy? Why do the children go to “chunk” her house/ Why can’t they go up to the door?
2. Why does Mr. Stovall knock Nancy down and then kick her in the mouth?
3. What vice did the watermelon come off of?
4. Why did Father tell Jesus to stay off this place?
5. What kind of wife and mother is Mrs. Compson? Who is her main concern?
6. What sense to you get of Caddy from her comments and questions. For example, “I’m going, too…Let me go, Father.” “Let what white men alone?…How let them along?” and when Jason says, “Nancy’s scaired of the dark,” Caddy says, “So are you” and the mother jumps on “You, Candace!”
7. Why is Dilsey’s husband’s name ironic?
8. What is Dilsey like? How can you tell from what she says and does?
9. How can you see the similarly manipulative and selfish natures of Jason, Jr., and his mother. How does their father respond (don’t miss the humor in this.)
10. Be prepared: the “n-word” appears frequently in this story. Compare and contrast how the word is used by Nancy versus how the word is used by Jason. Remember that Jason is only five years old. He is just learning how to use the word. What does he learn during the course of the story? Why does Nancy respond? “I hellborn, child” to Jason’s question.
11. What is the significance of the last exchange between Caddy and Jason? Is Caddy sympathetic with Nancy? Is Jason? What does Caddy think of Jason?
BY WILLIAM FAULKNER
WILLIAM FAULKNER
BORN 1897 IN NEW ALBANY, MISSISSIPPI
HE WAS HE OLDEST OF FOUR SONS AND CAME FROM AN OLD TRADITIONAL SOUTHERN FAMILY.
HE DIED IN 1962 SHORTLY AFTER HIS 65TH BIRTHDAY.
THEMES AND MEANINGS
THE SETTING IS EARLY 20TH CENTURY WITH SOUTHERN LIFE TRADITIONS SHOWING INEQUALITY OF THE RACES.
THIS IS MAINLY A STORY ABOUT FEAR
WHEN THE EVENING SUN GOES DOWN, NANCY’S IMAGINATION IS MOST ACTIVE AND FEARFUL.
IF NANCY’S HUSBAND, JESUS, TAKES ACTION AGAINST THE WHITE FATHER OF HER BABY, NANCY WILL BECOME THE TARGET.
SHE HAS NO ENFORCEABLE LEGAL RIGHTS
CHARACTERS
FATHER, MOTHER, THREE CHILDREN
QUENTIN (NARRATOR), CADDY AND JASON
THREE BLACK CHARACTERS
NANCY(THE HELP), DILSEY(COOKS AND CLEANS), JESUS (NANCY’S HUSBAND)
MR. STOVALL RECEIVES SEXUAL FAVORS FROM NANCY AND DOES NOT PAY HER.
STYLE AND TECHNIQUE
THE STORY USES MORE NARRATIVE RESOURCES IN DEVELOPING THE THEME.
THERE IS LITTLE ACTION
THE STORY USES A RETROSPECTIVE POINT OF VIEW.
QUENTIN, THE OLDEST CHILD, NARRATES THE EVENTS THAT HAVE OCCURRED 15 YEARS EARLIER.
THE STORY JUXTAPOSES(COMPARES) THE ADULT WORLD AND ITS PROBLEMS WITH THE CHILDREN’S WORLD.
THE CHILDREN ARE NOT INNOCENT BECAUSE THEY HAVE ABSORBED THEIR PARENT’S ATTITUDES.
THEY ARE CRUEL AND PITILESS IN A MANNER OF INEXPERIENCES CHILDREN
IN QUENTIN’S ACCOUNT THERE IS NO SYMPATHY FOR NANCY’SCONDITION OR SITUATION.
• Characters (Important):
• Nancy—washes clothing for a white family. Also sleeps with white men for money such as a Mr. Stovall, who did not pay her.
• Dilsey—the black cook
• Jesus—Nancy’s husband
• Caddy Compson—child (white girl); later in life she is the boldest of the children, the most curious and alive.
• Jason Compson—child (white boy); is a cowardly bully, who blames everyone else for his own mistakes.
CHARACTER (CONT.)
• Father and Mother Compson—(white); Mother is an insufferable hypochondriac who whines about everything. FATHER is an idealistic and compassionate but pessimistic man, who senses the decay in the culture around him.
• Quentin Compson—child (white boy) narrator of the story…narrates it after a lapse of 15 years; is a sensitive, intelligent, but ineffectual idealist.
• Faulkner wrote novels, short stories and poetry
• He is considered by many as a great writer
• He is best known as the chronicler of the decadent south.
• In the book THE SOUND AND THE FURY the character of Quentin comes back as an adult. He is the narrator of this story.
• Nancy is pregnant but it is not Jesus’s baby.
• Jesus is determined to get even with Nancy over her sleeping with white men.
• Jesus leaves and then comes back.
• Nancy is afraid to walk home alone, so Father and the children walk her home, but Mother is not happy about this, because Father is leaving her alone at home while walking their maid home.
• Quentin tells the story with a child’s perspective.
• Jesus can do nothing about the fact the Nancy sleeps with white men for money. He is a black man in a Southern society and both his wife and his property belong to the white man. This is not in actual ownership but in Southern practice.
• Jesus decides to punish Nancy rather than Mr. Stovall (who is white) because Jesus, as a black man, is submissive to the white Southern patriarchal values.
• Faulkner’s work is psychologically complex and often tragic.
• Faulkner tries to show the reader universal truths of the human heart by examining the characters he found in the South.
• Faulkner tries to symbolically represent the tragic bonds between black and white.
• He creates the universal human emotion…terror.
• Nancy’s hopelessness is not only just from her situation but also who she is…powerless in the white society.
• If Nancy’s husband would seek revenge on the white man (Mr. Stovall), he would be lynched.
• Nancy clings to the Compson child children because she knows her husband will not hurt her when the white children are around.
• Faulkner wrote between the two World Wars are was part of a generation who was trying to reconcile the horrors of war with the idealism that America was founded.
• He also had to deal with the rift imposed by the Civil War…slaves had been freed on paper, but the legacy of racism and discrimination continued to tear the south apart.
• Faulkner symbolically represents these tragic bonds between black and white by introducing elements of miscegenation and incest into his plot.
• The story is split by the innocent squabbling of the children and Nancy’s desperation.
• The story is like a detective story…the reader must piece together the different clues to come up with a story that makes sense.
• The reader must piece together the comments of a naïve child and the significance of the incidents in town where Nancy is kicked and then thrown in jail.
• The contrast between the innocent naivete of the children and Nancy’s desperate attempts to draw their protective normalcy between her and Jesus emphasize her vulnerability.
• These plot elements unite to create an unforgettable atmosphere of fear and desperation.
HOMEWORK: DUE THE DAY AFTER WE COMPLETE THE STORY.
THAT EVENING SUN by William Faulkner
A. Write a sentence for each of the following words. Sentences must reflect the story.
1. intimation
2. personnel
3. foretell
4. momentary
5. harried
B. Briefly answer the following questions.
1. Why is Monday morning no different now from any other day of the week?
2. How long ago had the events in this story taken place?
3. What sort of man is Mr. Stovall? Be specific
4. What happens to Nancy in jail?
5. Why is Nancy afraid of Jesus?
6. Why does Nancy take the children to her cabin?
7. At the end of the story, does the reader know whether Nancy will return to work for the white family?
8. What is the significance of the title?
9. What is the author’s attitude regarding black women?
10. How is Nancy treated by the family for which she works? Give an example.
11. Why is she jailed?
12. What does Jesus mean when he tells the children that Nancy has a watermelon under her dress?
13. Of what does the mother of the white family complain?
C. Briefly answer the following questions.
1. Who is Nancy?
2. Who is Dilsey?
3. Who is Jesus and what is his relationship to Nancy?
4. What does Nancy do to supplement her income?
5. What is Nancy afraid of?
6. What does Mr. Compson allow Nancy to do?
7. Where does Nancy think she will be ambushed?
8. How does Mrs. Compson feel about Mr. Compson’s actions?
9. Who walks Nancy home on her final day of employment with the Compson’s?
10. What is Nancy doing at the end of the story?
11. Who is the narrator of the story?
D. Continue to briefly answer these questions.
STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS
1. How are we first introduced to Nancy? Why do the children go to “chunk” her house/ Why can’t they go up to the door?
2. Why does Mr. Stovall knock Nancy down and then kick her in the mouth?
3. What vice did the watermelon come off of?
4. Why did Father tell Jesus to stay off this place?
5. What kind of wife and mother is Mrs. Compson? Who is her main concern?
6. What sense to you get of Caddy from her comments and questions. For example, “I’m going, too…Let me go, Father.” “Let what white men alone?…How let them along?” and when Jason says, “Nancy’s scaired of the dark,” Caddy says, “So are you” and the mother jumps on “You, Candace!”
7. Why is Dilsey’s husband’s name ironic?
8. What is Dilsey like? How can you tell from what she says and does?
9. How can you see the similarly manipulative and selfish natures of Jason, Jr., and his mother. How does their father respond (don’t miss the humor in this.)
10. Be prepared: the “n-word” appears frequently in this story. Compare and contrast how the word is used by Nancy versus how the word is used by Jason. Remember that Jason is only five years old. He is just learning how to use the word. What does he learn during the course of the story? Why does Nancy respond? “I hellborn, child” to Jason’s question.
11. What is the significance of the last exchange between Caddy and Jason? Is Caddy sympathetic with Nancy? Is Jason? What does Caddy think of Jason?
# posted by Sister Pat / English @ 5:57 AM 
