Go Down Moses And Other Stories

Roth Edmonds and the woman are distantly related. For Isaac, he sees the sordid McCaslin family history repeating itself. In addition, he is horrified to discover that the woman is black despite the fact that she has been passing as white. The woman refuses the money and attempts to make Isaac understand her relationship with Roth. Isaac insists that she take the money and a small gift for the baby, but in the end, he is more shocked and ashamed than sympathetic.

How does the older Isaac compare with the Isaac who went hunting with Sam as a child? Does he still embody the lessons he learned from Sam Fathers? If so, in what ways? If this concludes his coming-of-age story, what kind of man has he become? What does Isaac advise her to do? What does this say about Isaac? What does his reaction to the woman show about his attitude toward black people? Isaac rejected his inheritance so many years earlier in part because of the curse of slavery in his family.

Does his renunciation change the subsequent attitudes toward blacks in the rest of the novel? How does she differ from the other women in the novel? In what ways has the situation for women changed since the days of Eunice, the slave who kills herself over the actions of old McCaslin? How is it different? What does this signify for Faulkner? Discuss the conversation between Roth Edmunds and Isaac. What do these thoughts reveal about Isaac and his view of the world?

As Isaac drifts off to sleep, his mind wanders and he reiterates virtually his whole life p. In the end, what moments are important to Isaac? Do they reflect any of the larger themes of the novel? Go Down, Moses Characters: The final chapter departs from the others in that the connection to the McCaslin family is more distant. This story focuses on the Beauchamp or racially mixed side of the family. Mollie has a feeling that her grandson is in trouble and she seeks out a local lawyer, Gavin Stevens, for help.

The reader learns that the boy, Butch, was thrown off the McCaslin plantation several years earlier for stealing. He subsequently had lots of run-ins with the law. Gavin Stevens discovers that the grandson is to be executed for murder. Miss Worsham, a white woman whose slaves included Mollie and her brother Hamp, offers financial help to Mollie through Gavin Stevens. The novel concludes with the funeral procession through the town as it heads to the McCaslin family property. Why does Faulkner choose to end the novel with Mollie and her dead grandson, the black side of the family instead of the white McCaslins?

How do the lyrics of the song resonate in both this story and the novel as a whole? Do the efforts of the two white characters, Gavin Stevens and Miss Worsham, show that attitudes in the South have changed? Slavery no longer exists, but what legacy does it leave for the Beauchamp family? Why does Mollie want to bring her grandson home regardless of what he has done?

What thematic elements tie this story to the other chapters in the novel? The landlord has no proof and presses the judge to question Sarty, but the judge instead just orders the family out of town. The family sets up their next home on the property of a wealthy landowner named Major de Spain. Abner Snopes quickly angers the Major and his wife by purposefully destroying an expensive rug and refusing to repair or replace it. The Snopeses must appear again in front of a judge and the father is ordered to pay for damages.

The boy finally breaks from his father and tries to warn the Major, but when he hears shots, he runs away. What must Sarty struggle to overcome and how does he change through the course of the story? Does Sarty eventually overcome the obstacle of his youth? You got to learn. What effect do these words have on the young boy? How does this theme of the burden of family blood manifest itself in Go Down, Moses? What defines and motivates him as a person? He sees the flames in the sky, hears shots, and runs. He wakes up alone and cold. As with Go Down, Moses , is it possible to be ancestryless?

As the boy walks off into the night, is there a sense of promise or foreboding? That Evening Sun Characters: Quentin Compson looks back to an experience he had as a child involving their servant, Nancy, and his brother and sister. Nancy becomes pregnant by a white man, Mr. When she confronts him and demands money, he refuses to help and beats her instead. Nancy is later thrown in jail. Her husband, Jesus, feels powerless to protect his wife in a community run by whites.

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He disappears, but Nancy fears he will return to hurt her because of her infidelity. She is terrified and enlists the Compsons to walk her home every night. Compson has neither sympathy nor patience for her problem, but Mr. Compson tries to help her. With the adults indifferent to her plight, she finally brings the three children home with her in the hope that they will offer her a degree of protection.

The children have no idea what is going on and Mr. Compson eventually comes to take them home. At the end of the story, Nancy is left alone, fearing for her life. The reader never learns of her fate. Quentin recounts the story as an adult so that he is able to have a more mature, thoughtful perspective on this childhood incident. What does Quentin finally understand at the end of the story? What is life like in Jefferson, the town where the story takes place?

How have things changed in the town since Quentin was a young man? Discuss the opening of the story. What might these changes in the town signify for Faulkner? While the town physically changes, does the dynamic between the white and black members of the community change as well? Discuss what this statement might mean to Nancy.

What can be said about the scene with Nancy and the children when she brings them home with her? Are the children aware of her fear? What is the point of this scene? The alleged sexual assault results in a heated discussion between some of men of the town at the local barbershop. The barber, Hawkshaw, defends the accused black man, Will Mayes. Louder, angrier voices prevail and the men set out to avenge Miss Minnie Cooper, the supposed victim. The story digresses to give some background on Minnie, but returns to the men who pursue the alleged rapist and kill him.

How does Faulkner use descriptions of the weather to convey the feeling of the town and those who live in it? Discuss the character of Hawkshaw. He tries to defend Will Mayes, but in the end, what choice does he make and why? Why is Minnie a subject of curiosity to those in the town? At the conclusion of the story, what causes her hysteria at the movie theater? Discuss the character of Jack McClendon. Why is he so intent on seeking revenge and punishing a possibly innocent man? As with Minnie, what societal circumstances create the dynamics of his character? Why is he so cruel to his wife in the closing lines of the story?

Do these characters and their decline and desperation suggest a larger meaning for Faulkner? Do any of the themes that Faulkner explores in Go Down, Moses also appear in this story? A Rose for Emily Characters: The following sections detail the events leading up to her demise, the death of her father, her purchase of poison for an unknown purpose, and finally her relationship with a man named Homer Barron.

How does society limit Emily? How does Emily respond to these limitations? In some ways, this story encapsulates a struggle between the past and the present. Discuss ways in which Emily clings to the past and ways in which the present intrudes. What does the character of Emily symbolize for Faulkner? Does the theme of the past versus the present connect this story in any way to Go Down, Moses? Discuss the significance of the title of the story as Emily is never actually given any roses. What is the effect of having the narrator be someone from the town as opposed to Emily or Homer?

Is there any significance to the end of the story? Why conclude with such a violent, horrible ending? How does Faulkner combine this gothic style, which sounds more like an Edgar Allan Poe tale, with his own specific writing style in this story? The family also includes a father, mother, and daughter, but their roles are less prominent. Summary The story details an encounter between an aristocratic Southern officer in the Confederate army, Major Weddell, and his servant, Jubal, with a desperately poor family living in the mountains of Tennessee.

The Major is making his way home after the war and asks the family if he can spend the night on their property. The encounter is very tense as one of the sons in the family, Vatch, fought in the Civil War for the Union army. During the course of their visit, Jubal drinks too much alcohol and the officer feels he must stay until his traveling companion is sober. In a desperate attempt to change their lives, two of the children in the family try to leave with the officer and his servant to return home with them. They believe that Major Weddell is wealthy and that he offers a more promising life.

The longer the Major stays, the angrier the family gets and Weddell is forced to flee. The story ends tragically with the death of Weddel, Hule, and the impending death of Jubal at the hands of Vatch. Describe the relationship between the Major and Jubal. Is this the case? Why is he loyal to Major Weddell? This story also explores the nature of victory and defeat as it includes characters from both sides of the Civil War. She did not say it aloud. She breathed again, deep and quiet and without haste. While he represents the losers in the war, why are Hule and his sister so sure that Major Weddell will provide them with a better life?

Why do Vatch and his father ultimately ambush the Major and Jubal? He dies in this story. Ikkemotubbe also known as Doom: He shows little interest in the tribe and is distant from his father. According to Chickasaw tradition, when a chief dies, his servant must die along with him. The narrative point of view eventually shifts to the hunted servant as he hides and waits for the chief to die, fully aware that tradition will require his death.

He observes from a distance and when he sees that the chief has died, he runs. He does not run far, however, and the Indians allow him time to accept his fate. The servant is eventually surrounded and captured and the story ends as he about to be killed. Does the black servant accept his death? Why does everyone treat him as if he has already died? What is his relationship with the Indians who are chasing him?

What attitude do the Indians have toward the slaves? Discuss why they see slavery as a burden? Is it because they think it is unjust p. In what way do their thoughts contribute to the discussion of race relations that runs through these stories and the novel Go Down, Moses? Compare the way the Indians are portrayed in this story to the way they appear in Go Down, Moses. There Was a Queen Characters Elnora: Narcissa disrupts the quiet rhythm of the house when she takes off suddenly to go to Memphis, leaving her son at home. When she returns, Narcissa informs Jenny Du Pre that she went to retrieve some letters that were sent to her many years ago that could potentially destroy the reputation of the family.

It is clear that she secures the letters through sex as she has no money with which to buy them back. The story concludes with the death of Jenny Du Pre. Go Down, Moses is a book dominated by the world of men. Why does Elnora feel so hostile toward Narcissa? How do their racial backgrounds contribute to this hostility? Why does Narcissa sit with her son, Benbow, in the water?

Why does the old woman, Jenny Du Pre, die at that particular moment in the story? In Go Down, Moses , nature itself is a character. In his analysis of the novel, critic Harold Bloom asks if Isaac is the narrative thread that ties these stories together or is it the land? Faulkner examines the complexity of race relations in virtually every chapter of the book. How does the interaction between blacks and whites evolve in the novel as time passes and slavery no longer exists?

What is the legacy of slavery for the McCaslin family and in general for the South? Discuss this idea in relation to conclusion of the book and the character of Samuel Beauchamp. Do any of the characters in the novel or the short stories outlast the curse? Is the curse of slavery actually lifted? In a novel seemingly dominated by men, who are the important female characters in the novel?

Explore the theme of family and ancestry in Go Down, Mose s. Blood ties these characters together, but at times it is more a burden than a comfort. In rejecting his inheritance, Isaac is attempting to distance himself from his family and their misdeeds. In the end, what does the idea of family mean to these characters, in particular to Isaac?

Faulkner also explores the idea of patrimony throughout Go Down, Moses. Does Isaac still inherit something? If so, what is it? Faulkner contrasts this traditional notion of inheritance with what Isaac learns from Sam Fathers. Is Faulkner suggesting that those lessons are lost forever? Discuss the complex narrative structure of the book. Do all the stories work together to form a novel? Do they need to connect to still work as a novel? Negro and white, Lucas Beauchamp and Isaac McCaslin, a figure of enduring strength and a figure of looming conscience.

Discuss and compare the characters of Isaac and Lucas as representatives of both sides of the family. Discuss Go Down, Moses as a coming-of-age novel. Describe the stages of initiation for Isaac. In the end, what does he really learn and what kind of man does he become? Do you agree that the dedication sets the tone for the novel? If so, in what way?

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Is it significant that he dedicates the book to a woman when the majority of the important characters in the book are men? Does the dedication help tie all the stories together? What home is Sam referring to? What begins as an actual house becomes something else, a concept of home not tied to a specific place. William Faulkner on the Web http: The site also contains plot synopses, genealogical charts, biographical information, and more.

Faulkner at Virginia http: New York Times , Times Topics http: The Paris Review, Interviews http: Chelsea House Publishers, Selected Letters of William Faulkner. There is no good reason for ideas and sentence structure to be so convoluted as to be undecipherable. Sara Lindley Because often our own thoughts are incredibly convoluted and confusing. If you're referring to the stream of conscious stuff- the sentences that take …more Because often our own thoughts are incredibly convoluted and confusing.

If you're referring to the stream of conscious stuff- the sentences that take up entire pages- you have to be in the mindset that you're in the character's mind. People don't think in short clear reasoned out thoughts. Faulkner is trying to convey the mess of the human mind through words. Anyone out there reading this novel? Donald Yes Mel, I am. First time reading this one for me. See 2 questions about Go Down, Moses…. Lists with This Book. Apr 05, Gail rated it really liked it Shelves: When I'm away from Faulkner's works, I always think of them as "hard", "confusing", "over-the-top".

You know, that sort of thing that only intellectuals read and pretend to understand and enjoy. But when I start to read them The first chapter is mysterious and deliberately obtuse. The reader is picked up in the middle of some strange goings-on and must try to decipher the characters and the allusive plotline. No matter how much you feel like you're drowning, or lost in some ma When I'm away from Faulkner's works, I always think of them as "hard", "confusing", "over-the-top".

No matter how much you feel like you're drowning, or lost in some maze, or hurtling down the hill aquiring more and more mass like that mythical snowball from your youth, just keep on reading. The prose, which seems at first glance to be so complex and without identifiable form as to be impenentrable, will soon charm you, draw you into its web, and you'll forget all about grammar constructs as you tumble over ideas, people, and events. This is a sad, sad story of men's pride, women's degradation, the corrupting abuse of power and the corrupting influence of having no power when one man can be considered to "own" another.

A moving exposition of the American South. Worth reading either to better understand both black and white culture, or to simply be carried off into another world by some astounding prose. View all 5 comments. Aug 31, Aubrey rated it liked it Recommended to Aubrey by: What went into my love for The Sound and the Fury and Light in August was a devotional and patient waiting for moments of clarity, one that relished the rolling prose and chiaroscuro enough in the meantime for a warm reception of an end.

In contrast, this work largely inherited the last section of the first, a very concise and straightforward view of the previous three sections' miasma that ultimately suffered for its lending 3. In contrast, this work largely inherited the last section of the first, a very concise and straightforward view of the previous three sections' miasma that ultimately suffered for its lending well to a reader's making of meaning. There's a moment in the middlish-end of GDM that carries on in the Faulknerian way, but by then the patience no longer waits for a message other than what was confirmed so understandably in the first pages.

A disappointment, but not unforeseen. Within my class on the English periods of Neoclassicism and Romanticism there was a supreme focus on the writer as prophet. Even personal mediation succeeds in the vein of A Breath of Life , but that is much more difficult when the scope is less grand and the thematic underbelly is far more self-reflexive. Whichever the case, both are prone to error of exotification and other symptoms of those prone to grandiose definitions of the Other, after a while rendering each and every work a balancing act of the right audience at the right time.

This is of course is the usual thing with literary works, but the stakes are higher when heaven is a prophet and hell is a profiteer. An emphasis on hunting coupled with a fairy tale story of white supremacy made for an uncomfortable taste in the wake of Ferguson and government-hired guns killing a black person every 28 hours, an off the top of the head statistic that doesn't have ready recourse to the numbers of murdered brown and indigenous people but knows the less popularized are comparable.

Take your guns and idealized female-pain and leave me the woods. I'll still be reading Absalom, Absalom! The less comprehension of bloodbreeding tropes, the better. View all 3 comments. View all 8 comments. Mar 06, Sue rated it it was amazing Shelves: This Has been a wonderful reading experience.

Go Down, Moses Teacher’s Guide

It feels like I've been to a symphony, overwhelmed by the many component parts but the totality is just so great and, to my mind, so well done. This novel, which is a collection of tales out of the Mississippi delta, encompasses a century of life, a war that splintered the country, the racial lines that divide then cross and mingle, the ever-changing land itself, and annual male rites of passage in the hunt. Once again I've chosen to allow Faulkner's This Has been a wonderful reading experience. Once again I've chosen to allow Faulkner's prose to wash over me. The family lineage, the complicated begats, will be truly reconciled hopefully in my second reading.

Enough comes through to allow me to have moments of "What" and "Oh! There are many exceptional sections. Of course I can't choose them all. There was the faint, cold, steady rain, the gray and constant light of the late November dawn, with the voices of the hounds converging somewhere in it and toward them. Then Sam Fathers, standing just behind the boy as he had been standing when the boy shot his first running rabbit with his first gun and almost with the first load it ever carried, touched his shoulder and he began to shake, not with any cold.

Then the buck was there. He did not come into sight, he was just there, looking not like a ghost but as if all of light were condensed in him and he were the source of it, not only moving in it but disseminating it, already running, seen first as you always see the deer, in that split second after he has already seen you, already slanting away in that first soaring bound View all 19 comments. Aug 08, Jamie rated it really liked it Shelves: May 14, Bruce rated it really liked it. The subplot is that the mistress of the neighboring house, Miss Sophonsiba, has her eye set on catching one of the two confirmed bachelors.

The story is gentle and amusing, lacking any hint of obvious cruelty, and ending with humor. Mostly, the little story gives a glimpse into a time and culture typical of rural Mississippi, a setting that seems in a sense timeless. To what extent this picture can be generalized can be questioned, but Faulkner has set a tone for the subsequent stories in the book, be they similar or deeply contrasting. How can tenderness have so much bite? A couple of generations have passed since the first story.

Two men, Lucas Beauchamp and Roth Edmonds, one black and one white, both descendents of the same man, interact in an almost courtly minuet of custom and similar background, legal obligation, mutual respect and awkwardness in a South that has long passed the time of slavery and yet is governed by implicit rules of conduct and habit. Out of a long established routine a crisis arises, attempts at resolution occur, and a satisfactory outcome eventuates. This simple outline fails to convey the unspoken assumptions, the issues of pride and independence, and the deeply hidden but equally deeply felt emotions and conflicted loyalties that underlie surface events.

I am used to reading a Faulkner with more bitterness, with more anguish than this story contains, and the rich depth of this narrative moved me. Short and violent and tragic, a tale of loss and grief and derangement. What a stark contrast to the two previous stories. Are black and white two different species altogether? Sometimes it seems like it, and the only possible response is sadness.

There are new people, too, whom we have not met before, peopling the history and the present. Always, as in so much of Faulkner and in so much of this society and era, there is the perpetual obsession with blood — black blood, white blood, Indian blood — blood that determines status and fate, even personal character.

There is something primal about this society and its habits, its customs, something inescapable about the trajectory of lives. The story features the young boy Ike McCaslin, eager to grow up, eager to shoot his first deer, and the old Sam Fathers, mostly Chickasaw with traces of black and white, old Sam who patiently teaches Ike, shepherding him through years of learning and waiting, finally guiding him through his initiation into manhood.

Faulkner powerfully evokes not only woods and wilderness but psychological yearnings and growing realizations in this haunting tale of growing up. It is really a novella, and it is a continuation of the previous story. The Bear is ancient, mammoth in size and almost immortal, terrorizing a large area of wilderness and its few inhabitants for many years. A hound has been bred for this very purpose, a hound called Lion.

All of this forms the context in which Ike becomes the man he does become, forms the foundation for the crucial decisions he makes years later. The final portion of this novella explores, through the thoughts of primary characters, the whole anguished history of the culture and racial dynamics of the South from pre-Civil Wars times through Reconstruction and the early 20th century, the travail caused by a society and culture both romantic and elemental attempting to deal with whites, blacks, and Indians and every combination of the three.

And as time passes, the old South, the wilderness and old ways gradually and inexorably disappear, old heritages and histories and psychological genealogies never entirely vanishing but persisting almost completely hidden, like subterranean rivers that are ever present. Each character attempts to deal with these dislocations in his own way, each sacrificing aspects of himself to preserve other parts, the past never able to be entirely preserved and never entirely overcome. The wilderness is much diminished in extent, much more barren of game, but for Ike it is the place where he is most truly at home.

His is the voice of wisdom and experience, a voice often not easily heard by those who are younger. And, along with the increasing limitations of age, he also experiences a peace that compensates. Yet all is not as peaceful as it seems. The ravishment of the land is paralleled by ravishment of people, too, and racial rigidities are in tension with efforts to love, leading to irresolvable dilemmas that leave Ike shaken and anguished.

This narrative, perhaps the briefest in the book, highlights an instance of inter-racial sensitivity and caring that is poignant and uplifting, suggesting a future of understanding and harmony that seemed often lacking in the frequently fraught stories earlier in the book. While never sugarcoating the history and culture of the region, never minimizing the difficult racial heritage and continuing agony, the book ends on a note of hope that is particularized in a simple action.

His prose is deep and rich, never simple to read, always haunting in its insights. Ma Dio non si cura dei singoli individui. View all 7 comments. Faulkner dedica il libro alla sua mammy nera: Sette racconti interconnessi e pieni di rimandi e di personaggi ricorrenti o romanzo vero e proprio? Ma se la domanda fosse: Ma non un qualsiasi film in bianco e nero; no, un film ammericano , di quelli che solo loro sanno fare. This is one of the most moving scenes I have seen in a moving picture for a long time.

But I am particularly grateful to you, as are a number of my friends, both white and colored, for the dignified and decent treatment of Negroes in this scene. I was in Hollywood recently and am to return there soon for conferences with production heads, writers, directors, and actors and actresses in an effort to induce broader and more decent picturization of the Negro instead of limiting him to menial or comic roles.

Jun 23, Morgan rated it really liked it Shelves: For the most part, I liked this book. This is a collection of seven interrelated "short" stories. All the stories have themes about race and wilderness. They are all set in his fictitious Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi. My favorite story was called "The Bear" and it probably the most famous one in this book. My only complaint about this collection is some of the stories seemed more like novella than short stories. However, I liked the wilderness aspect of the book that makes it a great summer For the most part, I liked this book.

May 29, Richard rated it it was amazing. Among the most beautiful of Faulkner is the Faulkner that studies the relationships that mankind forges amongst itself and with the outside world. The relationships of race, of animal, of culture. In this book, Faulkner shows such a profound level of insight into how we cope with what we must and create what we need.

The mosts famous section of this book, "The Bear," is just a wonder for how well it does what Faulkner messes up in works like Intruder in the Dust. Coming of age, the politics betw Among the most beautiful of Faulkner is the Faulkner that studies the relationships that mankind forges amongst itself and with the outside world. Coming of age, the politics between races, the inevitability of time--this one section alone smacks out your teeth with the aging of a boy into manhood and all the pains therein in his quest to fell a mythically sized bear.

But how the South can maintain its flat stereotype with Faulkner's work in print is beyond me. In this book alone, we see the intricate push-and-pulls between white and black and how the two can never be truly separate , the need that all human beings have for each other and for the flora and fauna around them and how it all contributes to our own characters.

Sorry for the philosophical bend to all of this, but so much has been written about the struggle to read Faulkner and the necessity of it, and this book only reminded me of why Faulkner MUST be read, if only to understand a little bit better what we like to ignore about our own dependency on everything around us.

In love with Faulkner 4. I liked Light in August , but I couldn't appreciate his style. And I guess for everything there is a season. Then I came back, and it happened to be in the right season, when my preoccupation was not storytelling but style and sentence rhythm. It has to do with my progress as a writer as I'm able to appreciate fiction for other than their plot.

I relished, no In love with Faulkner 4. I relished, no reveled in, Faulkner's meandering sentences. I loved his themes of blood and curse, race and history. After reading this excellent collection of interrelated stories, I'm tempted to go back and reread his classics, especially Absalom! The stories included here are very accessible, though you probably need to look for the McCaslin family tree online and reference it I copied into the book, and it helped tremendously.

Overall, unique prose with great cadence, and gripping stories. Sep 09, Allegra rated it really liked it Recommended to Allegra by: When I read this book in school I really had to get past Faulkner's indirect and colloquial writing style - it pissed me off for some reason and I just had a lot of trouble getting through it.

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But then, through our discussions I understood more of what was going on, and later, re-reading parts, they became clearer and clearer. Now, I have found that the images in the book pop up all the time in my life, and resonate with profound meaning for me. Once, driving through Florida, I saw a series of h When I read this book in school I really had to get past Faulkner's indirect and colloquial writing style - it pissed me off for some reason and I just had a lot of trouble getting through it. Once, driving through Florida, I saw a series of huge houses, all set back behind at least an acre of field, all in poor repair, with dark windows and no signs of life, but the grass had been cut, the windows were un-boarded, so someone had to be there!

I was overcome with a feeling that these houses were occupied by families who'd been there for generations, living their forefather's legacies of, most likely, guilt. I have tried to describe the feeling those houses gave me to many people, but the ones who really understood were those who had also read this book. Mar 29, Stacie rated it it was amazing Shelves: I know this isn't going to be much of a review Right now, it is simply because I 'heart' Faulkner.

He is one of the most magnificent story tellers ever. His way of getting deep into the heart and matter of mankind's relationship with mankind and nature is genius. I believe there is no one out there that can ever compare to his ability to tell a story An imaginary town, but a truthful town nonetheless. Uno splendido viaggio nell'anima nera dell'America del Sud. Dove "nero" si riferisce a un colore di pelle ma anche a una zona dell'anima.

Jun 27, J. Especially poignant now, "Moses" is a raggedy collection of connected, nested stories centered on a family lineage that mixes both white and black, free and slave or ex-slave and ultimately highlights the futility of them all against an unwavering wildness that can only be dealt with by destroying it. With the exception of Ike's sanction against the folly of thinking that one can possess anything that doesn't want to be possessed whether land, the feral, or in love , this is a far more accessi Especially poignant now, "Moses" is a raggedy collection of connected, nested stories centered on a family lineage that mixes both white and black, free and slave or ex-slave and ultimately highlights the futility of them all against an unwavering wildness that can only be dealt with by destroying it.

With the exception of Ike's sanction against the folly of thinking that one can possess anything that doesn't want to be possessed whether land, the feral, or in love , this is a far more accessible work than, say, "The Sound and the Fury". Jumping back and forth through time we catch picture-imperfect glimpses of the tendrils of a plantation family that finally triumphs by eviscerating the ambiguity and sublimity of nature by turning in on itself.

Fascinating and often surreal, with lengthy, run-on passages bereft of punctuation, much of this reads like a poem, a paean to the futility of displacing the wild. Feb 02, Daniel rated it really liked it Shelves: As usual, a journey into the Mississippi of William Faulkner is not recommended for someone looking for a light read in the dentist office.

However, if you like books which challenge you - not only with subject matter, but also through their mechanics - then Faulkner proves superb. Go Down Moses was always presented to me as a collection of short stories. There is a certain truth to this. Each chapter can exist on its own - and tehy often are: However, to simply call it a group of short stories would be to miss a greater point. Independence of individual parts does not mean they are unconnected, nor that the reading is not enriched by their being consumed together.

But what struck me - and surprised me - was how much ecology filtered into this work. It is truly a book worthy of Green Peace or Al Gore in its stance on the intertwinning of humanity and nature. However, it's not one of his tougher either, so you don't have to be a scholar to take it one. All in all, a wonderful read.

Mar 04, Mark Mallett rated it it was amazing Shelves: Some books are easy and breezy; this is not.

Go Down, Moses by William Faulkner - Teacher's Guide - theranchhands.com: Books

But the experience of reading it is exquisite. Faulkner's writing style is dense and perhaps convoluted. You might misinterpret, for example, the antecedent of a pronoun until some pages after you encounter it; you might not even sort out which characters are given voice until the recognition dawns some time later. Some subtle happening or remark might have great meaning and I'm sure I missed a lot of these ; different parts of the book amplify other Some books are easy and breezy; this is not.

Some subtle happening or remark might have great meaning and I'm sure I missed a lot of these ; different parts of the book amplify other parts, both forward and backwards - in that sense the story sort of seeps into you from all directions. I loved not just the tales and the meaning in them but the experience of reading it all. Somehow I've managed to miss Faulkner well, I know how - I've managed to miss most classic literature so far be it from me to say much other than a bit about my enjoyment of this book.

I look forward to others, and perhaps to coming back to this again. May 03, Diane Barnes rated it it was amazing. I find it difficult to review this novel, so I will leave that to others more proficient at doing so. Some adjectives just off the top of my head: All these things in one short novel is incredible enough, but Faulkner manages all these things sometimes in one long sentence.

Relationships and kinships between the black and white races, man vs. View all 10 comments.