William Faulkner’s Dry September and That Evening Sun :: Faulkner’s Dry September Essays

William Faulkner’s Dry September and That Evening Sun William Faulkner’s â€Å"Dry September†, and â€Å"That Evening Sun† have to very obvious things in common; they leave many unanswered questions. There is no real ending to either story, and the reader is left to imagine what happens in the end of each story. In â€Å"Dry September†, I was left wondering whether or not Will really did anything to Minnie Cooper. My intuition tells me no, that she was just an old lonely woman who wanted attention, or who construed this offense in her head. I was also left wondering whatever happened to the barber and Will. Did they return to town, only to be chased out again, or were they rebels no, forced to find a new home? The ending part about Mc Lendon when he is mad at his wife for waiting up for him, and she says â€Å"Don’t John. I couldn’t sleep....The heat; something. Please John. You’re hurting me† leaves me wondering still is he mad because he did not find Will once he had jumped out of the car, or is he all riled up because he has gotten Will, and doesn’t want his wife to know where he has been all night? â€Å"That Evening Sun† does not have a conclusive ending either. My first question while reading this was why is everyone so afraid of Jesus? On page 290, the Jason says â€Å"...father told us to not have anything to do with Jesus.† Why would father say this I wondered as I was reading the story. Nancy too seems frightened of Jesus. In section three of the story, Nancy is trying to get the children to ask their mother and father if she can spend the night because, though she doesn’t tell the children, she is afraid of Jason. In the end of the story, on page 307, Nancy says â€Å"I got it. It was on the table when I came in. It was a hog bone with blood meat still on it, laying by the lamp. He’s out there. When yawl walk out that door, I gone.† Faulkner never lets us know what exactly the hog bone represents, or if in deed it was really there, or this is just Nancy trying to lie to let Jason let her stay with him for the night. The story, however, ends before we learn what happens to Nancy, if anything.