Dry September Analysis

The ice plant where Will works as a night watchman can be seen as a symbol of hope, a symbol of labor, and a symbol of the lack of productive imagination and untapped resources. It also helps make...

Most of William Faulkner's stories are set in Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, and often the small town of Jefferson. This is certainly the case with "Dry September." While Mississippi is a real...

The third person narrator of "Dry September" doesn't delve into the inner minds of its characters, except in the case of Miss Minnie Cooper, and even then not too deeply. The narrator seems objecti...

Modernism is a literary movement created by artists who were increasingly conscious of the fact that they were living in a fractured world, full of tragic events. Through a variety of experimental...

The dialogue and actions of the characters provide a chaotic vision of a desperate society, deeply ailing on every level. Each member of society seems to be breaking under the strain, and additiona...

For Faulkner, the complex "Dry September" is a short piece, neatly divided into five sections that together create a unity. By streamlined we mean that everything not absolutely necessary is pared-...

We have an adjective, "dry," which describes the noun "September." The first line of the story expands on this relationship:Through the bloody September twilight, aftermath of sixty-two rainless da...

We might as well begin with the very end:The dark world seemed to lie stricken beneath the cold moon and the lidless stars. (5.7)The ending line reinforces the idea we have seen throughout "Dry Sep...

Saturday night at the barber shopIt's hard to imagine that anybody in Jefferson wasn't talking about the rumor. But the barber shop, McLendon's recruiting station, is where the plot make an example...

"'Come on,' McLendon said " (1.45).Booker says that in this stage, "Life in some 'City of Destruction' has become oppressive and intolerable." The hero of the story must make a "long, difficult jou...

This act is split into two parts: 1) The barbershop scene in which the plot to go after Will Mayes is hatched; and 2) The foray into Minnie Cooper's past, and the details of her present existence.T...

There isn't any actual sex in this story, but the main action is driven by a rumor that Will Mayes has raped or otherwise sexually abused Minnie Cooper. The text strongly suggests that Minnie is se...