StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...

The Evening Sun - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
Name: Instructor's name: Course: Date: Personal responsibility: That evening Sun by William Faulkner The article, That Evening sun, is based on the effects of discrimination and racism in the society. The life of Nancy as depicted by Quentin illustrates the challenges of the time and the level of human rights violation in the slavery era…
Download full paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER93.5% of users find it useful
The Evening Sun
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "The Evening Sun"

Download file to see previous pages

Nancy is a black woman married to a violent man called Jesus. In the story, both Nancy and Jesus acknowledge that cheating is a grievous evil that can lead to dire consequences. However, in the story Nancy is in crisis because she is pregnant with a white man and not her husband. In addition, the husband understands the problem and has vowed to “cut her throat’ using a razor. Nancy does recognize that she has erred, and the ultimate punishment for her unfaithfulness is death (Towner and Carothers 56).

She does not fear the punishment, but the acceptance of death as her final destination is the challenge. She has accepted the fate of black women in the society because it was not by choice that she became pregnant, but by force because the white men took advantage of her. Even the Baptist deacon, Mr. Stovall, does not pay her for raping her and even knocks her teeth off, which indicates the level of personal challenge and moral decadence (Faulkner 447). The story revolves around the focus of the different individuals including the focus of personal struggle.

Jesus is depicted as a violent husband and cannot even assist his wife the chores that she undertakes. For instance, other husbands offer to carry and deliver the clothes washed to the owners. In view of personal responsibility, Jesus does not support his wife in her duties, but is relentless in expecting the wife to remain faithful. The knowledge of the unfaithfulness of the wife is brought out when he states that he will rip open the “watermelon” (Faulkner 449). The violent confrontation between husband and wife leads to the last decision which is murder.

In acknowledging the husbands desire for revenge for unfaithfulness, Nancy does not take any action to counter the desire for revenge by her husband. In fact, she decides to accept her fate. Her behavior reveals the acceptance of personal responsibility for actions that are avoidable and unavoidable. However, the understanding of the husband is limited because there is no communication between the wife and him considering the events leading to her pregnancy. Personal responsibility is depicted in the action of Nancy and Quentin (Towner and Carothers 36).

Nancy focuses on the aftermath of unfaithfulness while Quentin focuses on the responsibilities undertaken by Nancy. The crucial question asked by Quentin is; “who will do our laundry?” He does not consider the life of challenge of Nancy and does not know what challenges awaits Nancy including the murder by Jesus. In dealing with the challenge, he accepts that Nancy must die, and her death is insignificant. The most salient issue is the laundry work. Nancy washes the clothes and is considered washerwoman by the children.

As such, the importance of Nancy to the family is washing and cooking for the family and nothing else. Therefore, her death will affect washing and cooking when their mom is sick. The family is not concerned by the impending death of Nancy and do not consider it serious (Towner and Carothers 78). The focus of the family is on everyone taking his or her personal responsibility. In fact, Quentin’s father is the only person trying to support Nancy by escorting her after realizing the challenge she is facing.

However, he does not do anything else except escorting her which leads to her death because Jesus was lurking behind the house waiting for her to come back (Faulkner 36). The depiction of carelessness in

...Download file to see next pages Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“The Evening Sun Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/literature/1496616-the-evening-sun
(The Evening Sun Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words)
https://studentshare.org/literature/1496616-the-evening-sun.
“The Evening Sun Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/literature/1496616-the-evening-sun.
  • Cited: 2 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF The Evening Sun

How the other Half Lives by Jacob Riis

In 1873, three years after moving into New York, Riis became a police reporter for a magazine called New York Tribune and later moved to The Evening Sun.... Riis's view of his subjects In chapter 13, Riis (253) notes “The old woman lived in a wretched shanty, occupying two mean, dilapidated rooms at the top of a sort of hen-ladder that went by the name of stairs....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

William Faulkners That evening sun go down

… William Faulkner's “That evening sun go down,” is a short story that features Nancy, a Negro woman that does laundry and housework in Jefferson neighborhood.... The story features great indifference from white folks that seemingly care very little about their regular house servant that does their dishes, prepares their meals and cleans their laundry-perhaps because she is black and ill mannered according to them....
5 Pages (1250 words) Coursework

Five greatest U.S. presidents

Throughout the history of the United States, there have been many great men who have occupied the Oval Office as President of the United States.... Some have led the country through extremely trying periods and crises, some have led it to peace and prosperity, and some have been instrumental in making America the sole remaining Superpower of the world that it is today....
5 Pages (1250 words) Essay

Future Opportunities for Veterinary Technician Career

They undertake medical test in animals and treats the medical conditions those animals may have, while operating under the supervision of a registered Veterinarian (NAVTA, 2002).... eterinary Technician… Their duties include carrying out laboratory and other diagnostic test, such as urinalysis, blood sugar tests and taking blood counts....
6 Pages (1500 words) Research Paper

Contrasting Perceptions

The Evening Sun rays from the West gave the sparkling outlook of the pitch signifying the beauty of the Mother Nature.... The Evening Sun rays from the West gave sparkling outlook of the pitch signifying the beauty of the Mother Nature.... The Evening Sun seemed to request sweat from these young players since they were sweating profusely....
1 Pages (250 words) Assignment

I Hate To See That Evening Sun Go Down

Customers who viewed I Hate To See That evening sun.... It is evident in the work when he plays a song “……I hate to see the sun goes down.... In addition, the face presents a violent and destructive episode.... From the onset, the darkness looms over the life of Abner Meecham the main character that was sent to a nursing home....
2 Pages (500 words) Essay

Gastronomical Story

The paper "Gastronomical Story" states that the countless efforts to let the secret recipe to the author's grandmother's cooking out proved futile.... Of all the experiences he had during the vacation, visiting home was the best, and the meal was definitely the best he had tasted in a long while....
7 Pages (1750 words) Essay

Interactive Faade in Controlling Natural Light

… The paper "Interactive Façade in Controlling Natural Light" is a good example of a term paper on architecture.... A smart building is any structure that utilizes automatic processes to automatically control the operations of the building (Liu, Wittchen & Heiselberg, 2015).... The operations of the building  that can be controlled automatically in a smart building....
11 Pages (2750 words) Term Paper
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us