Mcclendon In William Faulkner's Dry September

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In William Faulkner's short story “Dry September”, Faulkner uses physical actions to reveal hidden evidence on unanswered questions of the story. Specifically, McClendon's actions lead to answering some of the most compelling questions that arise from the book that were not clearly answered within the McClendon’s dialogue. Faulkner portrays McClendon's actions and emotions through descriptions, which allows the reader to obtain the knowledge necessary in understanding what happened to Will Mayes, if McClendon wanted to kill Will or not, and if McClendon will commit these actions again. McClendon's sadistic personality, habits, and actions prove that Will Mayes was murdered. McClendon is described as a man with a “heavy-set body”(171) and with …show more content…

At the beginning of this section, the narrator describes McClendon's house after he gets home from murdering Will Mayes, “...his neat new house. It was trim and fresh as a birdcage and almost as small, with its clean, green-and-white paint” (182). The author describes his house as a birdcage, as if it were small, just like an actual birdcage. The purpose of a birdcage is to lock a bird inside it. Faulkner makes a comparison to show how McClendon feels trapped in his own house. He is dirty and sweaty and just came from a place that is not neat and nice like his house. This causes him to feel uncomfortable, uneasy and ashamed while entering his house. McClendon just came from a place where he was feeling good and powerful for what he had done to now feeling sick and horrible. He wants to make himself feel better. Therefore, he will try and make someone or something feel worse so he can feel better about himself in his situation for one split-second. For example, McClendon's violent actions earlier in the day towards Will Mayes causes him again to do more violent and angry things, this time to his wife. McClendon immediately gets frustrated with his wife when he gets into the house. He “glared at her with his hot eyes”(182) which implicates that he was enraged about something previously. McClendon uses energy from his anger and violence and reverberates it onto something he can easily exhibit his power too. He then continues to slap his wife until she is on the ground, speechless. His impulsive violence makes him feel powerful and satisfactory, but only for a brief moment.

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