Assignment Five Notes

English 2013: Introduction to American Literature
Assignment Five--Maturation

William Faulkner (1931)
The fifth and sixth assignments of this course concern the difficult transition from child to adult.

This fifth assignment examines the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright, four stories in which young characters' struggles to "grow up" mirror difficult social transitions.

In "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about the distant past in which Anglican and Puritan settlers competed in New England. The story focuses on the transformation of Edith and Edgar, the young Adam and Eve of the Anglican Merry Mount revelers, into a somber married couple who live within the Puritan community. The story maintains that their mature, sober love contains "all the purest and best of their early joys" (p. 622), but the story also refers to the years of responsible marriage ahead of Edgar and Edith as a "difficult path." Hawthorne's story seems to display a sense of loss over the "wild mirth" of youth and the inevitable way in which "moral gloom overpowers all systematic gaiety" (p. 622). Hawthorne's story is based on the historical conflict between the Puritan settlers in Plymouth led by William Bradford and the Anglican settlers at Merry Mount led by Thomas Morton. You can read a description of this conflict and the versions of the events written by Bradford and Morton.

Hawthorne's "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux" recounts the growing pains of a young man who leaves his humble country home and travels to the big city of Boston in the years just before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Robin's misadventures during the single night that is described in the story disillusion him of the dream that his future will be guaranteed by his kinsman. The story, which opens with a brief history lesson, draws a parallel between Robin's effort to grow up and the young nation's struggle to break free from its "parent."

Nathaniel Hawthorne

William Faulkner's "Barn Burning," which won the O Henry short story award as the best story of 1939, is set 30 years after the Civil War, the story focuses on two members of the Snopes family: Ab Snopes, a poor sharecropper who takes out his frustrations against the post-Civil War aristocracy by burning barns, and his adolescent son, "Sarty," who dislikes his father's destructive tendencies and ultimately must choose between family and morality. This powerful coming-of-age story is notable for Faulkner's attempt to show Sarty's inward turmoil. The story describes three locations that represent Faulkner's vision of the divisions of the white south: the planter's mansion represneting the old landed power, the sharecropper cabin that represents the disenfranchised poor whites, and the town store that represents the new merchantile class that will eventually replace the plantation aristocracy. The University of Mississippi maintains William Faulkner on the Web, a valuable site.

Richard Wright's story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," set in the rural South during the 1930s, recounts young Dave Sanders' struggle to achieve manhood. Like Robin of "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux" Dave experiences unexpected setbacks that almost seem comic at times. Unlike Robin, who may be considering staying in Boston at the end of "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux," Dave defiantly asserts his manhood at the end of "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" by leaving the world in which he feels belittled.

Richard Wright

The University of Mississippi's Department of English maintains a Richard Wright page on its Mississippi Writers site. In addition to providing an abbreviated biography of Wright and a bibliography, the site also provides links to other Wright Web sources.

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updated: January 8, 2008

William Faulkner (1931)	The fifth and sixth assignments of this course concern the difficult transition from child to adult. This fifth assignment examines the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne, William Faulkner, and Richard Wright, four stories in which young characters' struggles to "grow up" mirror difficult social transitions.
In "The May-Pole of Merry Mount" Nathaniel Hawthorne wrote about the distant past in which Anglican and Puritan settlers competed in New England. The story focuses on the transformation of Edith and Edgar, the young Adam and Eve of the Anglican Merry Mount revelers, into a somber married couple who live within the Puritan community. The story maintains that their mature, sober love contains "all the purest and best of their early joys" (p. 622), but the story also refers to the years of responsible marriage ahead of Edgar and Edith as a "difficult path." Hawthorne's story seems to display a sense of loss over the "wild mirth" of youth and the inevitable way in which "moral gloom overpowers all systematic gaiety" (p. 622). Hawthorne's story is based on the historical conflict between the Puritan settlers in Plymouth led by William Bradford and the Anglican settlers at Merry Mount led by Thomas Morton. You can read a description of this conflict and the versions of the events written by Bradford and Morton.
Hawthorne's "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux" recounts the growing pains of a young man who leaves his humble country home and travels to the big city of Boston in the years just before the outbreak of the Revolutionary War. Robin's misadventures during the single night that is described in the story disillusion him of the dream that his future will be guaranteed by his kinsman. The story, which opens with a brief history lesson, draws a parallel between Robin's effort to grow up and the young nation's struggle to break free from its "parent."		Nathaniel Hawthorne
William Faulkner's "Barn Burning," which won the O Henry short story award as the best story of 1939, is set 30 years after the Civil War, the story focuses on two members of the Snopes family: Ab Snopes, a poor sharecropper who takes out his frustrations against the post-Civil War aristocracy by burning barns, and his adolescent son, "Sarty," who dislikes his father's destructive tendencies and ultimately must choose between family and morality. This powerful coming-of-age story is notable for Faulkner's attempt to show Sarty's inward turmoil. The story describes three locations that represent Faulkner's vision of the divisions of the white south: the planter's mansion represneting the old landed power, the sharecropper cabin that represents the disenfranchised poor whites, and the town store that represents the new merchantile class that will eventually replace the plantation aristocracy. The University of Mississippi maintains William Faulkner on the Web, a valuable site.
Richard Wright's story "The Man Who Was Almost a Man," set in the rural South during the 1930s, recounts young Dave Sanders' struggle to achieve manhood. Like Robin of "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux" Dave experiences unexpected setbacks that almost seem comic at times. Unlike Robin, who may be considering staying in Boston at the end of "My Kinsman, Major Molineaux," Dave defiantly asserts his manhood at the end of "The Man Who Was Almost a Man" by leaving the world in which he feels belittled.		Richard Wright
The University of Mississippi's Department of English maintains a Richard Wright page on its Mississippi Writers site. In addition to providing an abbreviated biography of Wright and a bibliography, the site also provides links to other Wright Web sources.