The Corruption with Modernization in Faulkner’s The Country :: Faulkner Country Short Stories

The Corruption with Modernization in Faulkners The CountryThe time out of traditional values and ways of life that accompanied the modernization of the U.S. seems to be a common theme throughout the Country section of Faulkners Collected Stories. In Barn Burning Abner Snopes seems to feel that the world is against him founding fathert you know all they wanted was a chance to decease at me (8). He sees fire as the one weapon for the conservation of integrity (8), and it is app atomic number 18nt that he feels the disparity in standard of lively between farm owners such as Major de Spain, and giveers like himself to be an in honestice and an injury to him (but then again, maybe hes just plain evil, as Faulkners characterization of him as stiff, cold, and always in dark clothing intimates). In Shingles for the skipper, the modern ideas about prepare imparted to Solon Quick from his experience with the WPA are presented as ridiculous jade put toward repairing a church calculated out precisely into work units (29-30). Could Faulkner be presenting the idea that so-called progress and the introduction of capitalism and disposal intervention has corrupted massesbecome the new church at which they worship? In The Tall Men, a sort of Gemeinschaft vs. Gesellschaft theme is evident. I really like this story. It conveys how difficult the changes in the U.S. during the early part of the twentieth century must have been for the country people who were tied to the land. revolutionary Deal programs like the WPA and AAA, three-letter reasons for a man not to work (58), are a problem for the McCallums because the programs made hard work bootless and encouraged laziness and dependency as farmers lost autonomy and became beholden to the government. The old marshal, Mr. Gombault, tries to make Mr. Pearson, the government investigator, understand that the McCallums are tall or prideful men whose self-sufficiency and friendly transactions have not given way to the imperso nal deals and something-for-nothing mentality of the new era (its interesting that the characterizations of the McCallums completely contradict Mr. Pearsons characterization of these people as lazy, selfish, and ungrateful or unpatriotic, on page 46). Again in A Bear Hunt, traditional, country people are set apart from literate, town-bred people (65) and in the last two stories, both featuring the Grier family (relation to Res Grier of Shingles for the Lord?