Southern Culture In William Faulkner's The Unvanquished

If you could describe the idea of Southern Culture in fewer than three words? Well a man of the name William Faulkner uses a special way to establish a perspective by using imagery which helps the reader to visualize his views. Faulkner has ways of viewing regular ideas in a more abstract less conventional way. He uses the imagery of a relation between characters along with a scent that allows for a sense of inspiration. Faulkner perspective on brokenness in Southern Culture is that it is in disarray. Faulkner’s views can not be juxtaposed to those of fact because most people will acquiesce to Faulkner’s views. The southern culture has preponderant slaves, yet in the South a slaves was considered normal for someone to have several of and

The scent of verbena has been so coexistent with southern culture most people always recognize the scent. Drusilla is very fond of this scent, she wears it into the battlefield because it gives her strength. She believes while fighting the only available scents should be courage, sweat, and verbena. Verbena, a flower that typically produces a strong lemony scent, only appears in the chapter named after it, but it reoccurs constantly. Drusilla wears it in her hair; Bayard pins a sprig of it to his coat when he goes to confront Redmond, and walks through the town square enveloped in a cloud of its scent. Drusilla places its blossoms on Bayard's pillow as a gesture of farewell. She tells Bayard, that she wears it because it is the only flower whose scent is strong enough to be detected above the pungent smell of horses and battlefields; the smell of courage, she says. More literally, the scent of verbena becomes a symbol of Drusilla . So that when Bayard smells it as he walks toward Redmond's office, it is a sensory continuation of her incitements to violence from the day before. Like Drusilla, the flower is incredibly strong and impossible to forget when Bayard thinks of her it uncontrollably invades his brain. “Her hair was cut short; it looked like Father's would when he would tell Granny about him and the men cutting each other's hair with a bayonet. She was sunburned and her hands were hard and scratched like a man's that works” (3.2.24). Of course, a smell cannot be argued with or dissuaded; like Drusilla, it is emotional and inflexible rather than rational. More specifically, Drusilla associates its scent with courage and military heroism. That she leaves it on Bayard's pillow is proof that she admits the bravery of his action, even as she disagrees with his refusal to commit violence. Drusilla uses the scent as a way to inspire not only herself but also her peers. The verbena