In Faulkner’s Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, he calls on young writers of today to write about the major conflicts of society to show the issues of our humanity. He explains that many young writers shy away from the problems of the human heart in society. Faulkner emphasizes and shows in “That Evening Sun,” that we as humanity must write about our moral problems, showing the contrast of past and present to help change our views and actions of today. For example in the “That Evening Sun,” Faulkner shows the problems of segregation, prejudices, and racism in society, through the dialogue of Nancy, Jesus, and the young children and through the description of the characters. In this story Faulkner shows the real side of the South of this time period and gives criticism of the Protestant aristocracy and white supremacy of the era. This idea of writing about the true issues of society and revealing the truth that is right in front of our faces is what Faulkner is calling on young writers to do.
With the use of Faulkner’s description of Nancy in “That Evening Sun, he allows the reader to see the immoral issues of the early 1900s in the South. Throughout the story Faulkner shows the agonies of the human heart or blacks through Nancy’s emotions and actions. Nancy was described as a very distraught and depressed character, which was continually taken advantage of. Nancy has no control of her situation and that is what Faulkner is trying to emphasis in the story, the lack control blacks have on their lives during this era. For instance, Nancy is having Mr. Stovall’s baby, but he will not help her even when she continually asks, “When you going to pay me white man?” She even gets so distressed with going to jail, losing her husband, and not getting help from her baby’s daddy that she continually sings in a blues-like manor and even goes as far to try to kill herself. Nancy only believes, “she ain’t nothing but a nigger.” Faulkner shows through his writing that society must be pretty corrupt if a young girl thinks nothing of herself, has no control of her life, and tries to kill herself all because of her skin color. This is a perfect example of what Faulkner calls us to do in his speech; he wants the young writers of today to show the true emotions of our societal problems, that it may cause a change to future generations.
Faulkner also shows the societal problems of this era through the repetition of dialogue between Nancy and the young children in the story to emphasis how society can corrupt an innocent young child to become immoral. Throughout the story there is a repetition between the boys dialogue of, “I ain’t a nigger” or “You scardier than a nigger.” Faulkner tries to show through Quentin, Caddy, and Jason who are relatively young, that society corrupts the mind of what are innocent kids. The kids in the story don’t even know what a “nigger” is, but they know they don’t want to act or be one. This is an example of Faulkner showing the conflict of the human heart and how it innocently affects the next generations without people even recognizing it. Also with the repetition of blacks having no control of their life shows the immoral acts of the period. For example Jesus says” I can’t hang a round white man’s kitchen. But white man can hang around mine,” again shows that the societal issues that blacks have no control of their rights. Faulkner shows that young writers must write about things that are worth writing about that show the blood, sweat, and tears of our societal issues today. What Faulkner is calling on young writers of the future is similar to many other famous activists call on us do. These famous leaders want us to show through our actions and writing about the problems of society and conflict of the human heart. A influential leader once said, “The hottest place in Hell is reserved for those who remain neutral in times of great moral conflict… If we are to go forward, we must go back and rediscover those precious values - that all reality hinges on moral foundations and that all reality has spiritual control.” (MLK) Like MLK, Faulkner calls on us to write something meaningful that shows the courage, honor, pity, compassion, pride, and sacrifice of society.
