William (Cuthbert)
Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was one of the most important and
prolific writers in Southern literature, in the United States. He was born in
the state of Mississippi and therefore profoundly influenced by the southern
culture and history, but also by the education in arts and literature provided
by his mother and maternal grandmother. His Nanny, Caroline (Callie) Barr
provided a huge background on the African-American tradition and history, from which,
we could assume, derives his great dismay on the huge social, political and economic
misfortunes (for lack of a stronger word) of that community.
William
Faulkner won the 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature for “his powerful and
artistically unique contribute to the Modern American Novel”. He also won two Pulitzer
Awards, one in 1955 for A Fable and
the other in 1963 (posthumous) for The
Reivers. In 1951 he received a US National Book Award for Collected Stories and another in 1955
for A Fable.
In 1927
Faulkner created the setting for most of his novels and short stories – a small
region in Northern Mississippi named Yoknapatawpha
County, with the town Jefferson
in its core. “That Evening Sun” was published in 1931, and the main characters
are the Compson children, being Quentin, the older son, the narrator. Like
the town Jefferson is the setting of
choice of the author, also The Compson family plays a main role in many
of Faulkner’s novels.
This short
story depicts the racial, social and moral contrasts in the southern society, and is marked by the stern criticism
of Faulkner towards the white community's relation with the African-Americans. It’s narrated by Quentin, when he is 24 years old and starts
remembering something that happened during his childhood, 15 years earlier. As
the story enfolds, the tone becomes more and more childish, showing the
children's incomprehension and empathy to Nancy’s despair and the lack of
understanding of the adults in their family.
A brief
note to the title — it comes from a black spiritual, whose first line
states: “Lord, how I hate to see that evening sun go down”, meaning that after
the setting of the sun, death would follow, giving an early indication of Nancy’s
fate.
I hope you
enjoyed it as much as I did, and I hope to read your thoughts and impressions
while reading it.
Madalena
Athayde - 44440
