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William Faulkner's Literary Analysis

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As a resident of Yoknapatawpha, Lucas Beauchamp creates conflict just by living as a decent African American. In the south, African Americans are treated as less than human, however Lucas always holds his head high and speaks to any man, including caucasians, as if they are equals. This behavior is seen as absurd to some of the locals and they are not fond of Lucas. Even Chick, his savior, comments, “If [Lucas] would just be a nigger first, just for one second, one little infinitesimal second,” (Faulkner 12). As a result of the treatment of African Americans in the South, it was expected and assumed that blacks would “snap” and kill white people therefore fueling the assumption that Lucas murdered Vinson, the son of a violently infamous Caucasian mob family. After hearing of Lucas being charged with murder, Charles Chick Mallison, a young sixteen year old who feels indebted to Lucas after being saved four years prior, is determined to have Lucas exonerated (Faulkner 4-15). Chick functions as the hero, and narrator, in this novel. In order to stand up for what is right, Chick rejects his society’s social norms and risks …show more content…
Theodore G. Bilbo and James K. Vardaman both served as governors of Mississippi and as radical white supremacists. Bilbo was a prominent member of the KKK, believed that African Americans were an inferior race, and was heavily pro-segregation (1). In response to African Americans voting, he stated on a radio show “every red-blooded Anglo-Saxon man in Mississippi to resort to any means to keep hundreds of Negroes from the polls in the July 2 primary. And if you don't know what that means, you are just not up to your persuasive measures.”(Tristam 1). Vardaman was an extreme white supremacist to the point where he once stated “If it is necessary every negro in the state will be lynched” to maintain white supremacy (Biography: James K. Vardaman

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