Dry September Pdf Download Questions and Answers
1. THROUGH THE BLOODY September twilight, aftermath of sixty-two rainless days, it had gone like a fire in dry grass: the rumor, the story, whatever it was. -What is referred to as “the rumor, the story”?
Ans. The opening paragraph of “Dry September” sets the tone of the story by focusing on the oppressive heat and the resultant, uncontrolled and heated passions of Jefferson’s citizens. Sixty-two hot, rainless days have created a frustration among the townspeople and have fueled Miss Minnie’s accusation that she was raped by a black man.
2. Describe the place where the story Dry September opens.
Or,
Describe the atmosphere of the barbershop.
Ans. In the barbershop the ceiling fan stirred, without freshening it, the vitiated air, sending back upon the customers, in recurrent surges of stale pomade and lotion, their own stale breath and odours.
Q. 3. Attacked, insulted, frightened: none of them, ….. knew exactly what had happened. -What conception about the people gathered in the barbershop do you form from this comment?
Ans.In the “Dry September” by William Faulkner, the referred phrase, in the opening paragraph, along with the description of the “Bloody September twilight, aftermath of sixty-two days” and the stale, stagnant air of the barbershop, suggests a dry and stale mental condition of the people gathered in the barbershop.
Q. 4. “I know Will Mayes. He’s a good nigger. And I know Miss Minnie Cooper , too.” –Who is the speaker? What conception about the speaker do you form from this comment?
Ans. In the “Dry September” by William Faulkner, the speaker is Henry Hawkshaw, one of the barbers in that barbershop, a symbolic gathering place for small-town gossipers. In the midst of the tension caused by the rumor, Hawkshaw is the voice of reason. His patience and persistence in wanting facts and justice represent the sane approach in contrast to the others’ irrational violence.
Q. 5. “Won’t you take a white woman’s word before a nigger’s?”-What conception about the speaker do you form from this comment?
Ans. This line is taken from the first section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. Here, the speaker is Butch, ‘a hulking youth in a sweat-stained silk shirt,’ who chides Hawkshaw for taking side of a Negro inspite of being a white man. Here Butch the representative of typical white people comments the quoted line revealing his firm belief in the White Goddess concept.
Q. 6. “It’s this durn weather,” another said. “It’s enough to make a man do anything. Even to her.” -Comment on the context of this remark.
Ans. This line is taken from the first section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. Here the speaker is one of the clients in the barbershop. At one point in the conversation it looks as if one of the men understands the role of the weather, the dryness, and the heat in what has allegedly happened. But ironically he brings up the weather only as a misogynistic explanation for why someone would be compelled to attack Minnie.
Q. 7. “Well,” he said, “are you going to sit there and let a black son rape a white woman on the streets of Jefferson?”-Who is the speaker? What conception about the speaker do you form from this comment?
Ans. This line is taken from the first section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. Here the speaker is John McLendon, an ex-soldier in the First World War, who led his army in the battle -field of France was madelled for his valour.
McLendon seems to be echoing Iago who uses compelling graphic imagery to convince others of his disgust at a black man’s sexual encounter with a white woman.
Q. 8. “Well,” he said, “are you going to sit there and let a black son rape a white woman on the streets of Jefferson?”-Who is the speaker? Describe the physical appearance of the speaker?
Ans. This line is taken from the first section of the short story “Dry September” by William
Faulkner.
Here the speaker is John McLendon.
McLendon is described as a man who was seen standing in the floor, his feet apart and his heavy-set body stood with ease. His white shirt was open at the throat; he wore a felt hat. His hot, bold glance influenced the group.
Q. 9. “This ain’t the first man scare she ever had…-Who is referred to as “she’? What idea of ‘she’ is revealed here?
Ans. Here, Miss Minnie Cooper a white woman is referred to as ‘she’. At the center of the rumour is Miss Minnie Cooper and the quoted line raises question about her character. It is hereby transpires that Minnie Cooper has a tendency to spread the rumour of her being sexually harassed in order to prove that she still has the physical attraction for the male community of Jefferson.
Q. 10.”Happen? What the hell difference does it make? Are you going to let the black sons get away with it until one really does it?” -Who is the speaker? What conception about the speaker do you form from this comment?
Ans. This line is taken from the first section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. Here the speaker is John McLendon. This statement, part of the White Goddess mentality, clearly shows that even McLendon doesn’t believe in the rumor. But for him and other bigots like him, a white woman’s word is to be taken as the absolute and unquestionable truth.
Q. 11. where they would handle the goods and haggle over the prices in cold, immediate voices, without any intention of buying. – Comment on the significance of the line with its context.
Ans. This line is taken from the second section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. The third person narrator says this while describing the meaningless empty life of Miss Minnie Cooper.
.Q. 12. which had enabled her for a time to ride upon the crest of the town’s social life .- Who is referred to here? What is suggested by the quoted line?
Ans. Miss Minnie Cooper is referred to here in the short story, “Dry September” by William Faulkner.
Faulkner recounts Miss Minnie’s school years to stress the disparity between her youth and her present age. The importance of how she was received during her school days compared to how she is treated as a middle-aged adult cannot be overemphasized.
Q. 13. Then the town began to see her driving on Sunday afternoons with the cashier in the bank. – Who is referred to here? What is suggested by the quoted line? –
Ans. Miss Minnie Cooper is referred to here in the short story, “Dry September” by William Faulkner.
Minnie has had one love affair, with a bank cashier, and has consequently been reduced to the status of an adulteress in the the town. No man cares to watch her on the streets anymore. When eyes of nothing happens to change her situation, she is compelled to do something herself. Her fantasies, even the tragic one about rape if indeed it begins with her, are created by her own understanding of what people expect; that is, she tries to live up to the expectations she believes the town has of her.
Q. 14. Against that background Minnie’s bright dresses, her idle and empty days , had a quality of furious unreality. -Comment on the “furious unreality’ in Minnie Cooper’s life.
Ans. In the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner, the text that other ladies in Jefferson, even married ones, have to fill their days with meaningless activities. Much of the information supplied in this section supports the contention that Miss Minnie reports fictitious sexual encounters to reawaken the town’s interest in her sexuality and to convince herself that she is attractive and desirable.
Q. 15. in the doors of which the sitting and lounging men did not even follow her with their eyes any more.- Who is referred to here? What is suggested by the quoted line?
Ans. Miss Minnie Cooper is referred to here in the short story, “Dry September” by William Faulkner is definitely a failure by the rules of Southern womanhood that require marriage and motherhood. Therefore, not being married, for women of course, even for men, meant a life in an incomplete state and they had to stay in the periphery of the social circle. For a spinster alienated from society, there are no appropriate alternatives.
Q. 16. The day had died in a pall of dust; – Comment on the symbolic suggestion of this phrase.
Ans. This line is taken from the third section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. The third person narrator describes the evening on which Will Mayes is going to be killed with this symboliic phrase. Faulkner has used the image of the death of the day very significantly here. The word “pall” literary is associated with death. It means -‘a cloth spread over a coffin, hearse, or tomb’. The images of dust and death are concurrent in this story of Faulkner. The death of the day foreshadows another cruel death – the death of Will Mayes.
Q. 17. if he’s here, don’t that prove he never done it? Don’t it? If it was him, he would run. Don’t you see he would?”-Who is the speaker? What does the speaker want to ‘prove’?
Ans. Here the speaker is Henry Hawkshaw, a barber.
When Hawkshaw joins McLendon’s group, in section three, they think that he has changed his mind and has come to join their revenge; however, Hawkshaw continues to try to convince them to stop their thirst for murder. He questions the believability of Miss Minnie’s charge, pleading with the group to consider how “a lady will kind of think things about men when there aint any reason to …” Because his reasoning falls on deaf ears, he changes his strategy and argues that Will would have left town by now if he were guilty: He would know that he’d be punished.
Q. 18. There was no sound in it save their lungs as they sought air in the parched dust in which for two months they had lived; – Comment on the symbolic suggestion of this phrase.
Ans. This line is taken from the third section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. Third person narrator describes the atmosphere outside the ice-plant where the lynching mob waited for Will Mayes after getting down from car. Faulkner has very brilliantly used the dry and parched atmosphere to symbolize the parched humanity among the frustrated and inhuman mobs outside the ice-plant waiting to pound upon Will Mayes. Very symbolically no other sound is heard in that situation except their own heart-beat- signifying life that had survived sixty-two rainless days but it also indicates the inner soul that still wants to warn them of not doing that heinous deed.
Q. 19. Below the east the wan hemorrhage of the moon increased. – Comment on the symbolic suggestion of this phrase.
Ans. This line is taken from the third section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. Third person narrator describes the atmosphere outside the ice-plant where the lynching mob waited for Will Mayes after getting down from car. Faulkner shows his class as a short story writer in this single sentence. The phrase ‘the wan hemorrhage of the moon’ apparently signifies the reddish hue of moon. But the term ‘hemorrhage’ is associated with bleeding. The metaphor of moon clearly foreshadows the ensuing murder of Will Mayes.
Q. 20. they seemed to breathe, live, in a bowl of molten lead. Who are suggested here by ‘they’? What does the line signify?
Ans. Here, in the third section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner, the lynching mobs, led by McLendon, waiting for Will Mayes outside the ice-plant are referred to as ‘they’. –
The hell of “Dry September” is the fruit of a long and articulate chain where cruelty and selfishness engender suffering that, in turn, engenders new cruelty, selfishness, and suffering, thereby nourishing a potentially infinite process. The moon shining above this infernal world is a faraway and ambiguous presence: “Below the east was a rumor of the twice-waxed moon”. When its light becomes more intense, it takes the form of a “wan hemorrhage” that is filtered by the dust in the air and gives it a silvery colour, turning the atmosphere into a sort of “bowl of molten lead”.
Q. 21. They ran in a stumbling clump, as though they were fleeing something. – Who are suggested here by ‘they’? What does the line signify?
Ans. Here, in the third section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner, the lynching mobs, led by McLendon, waiting for Will Mayes a outside the ice-plant are referred to as ‘they’. When they heard the sound of “a blow, a hissing expulsion of breath and McLendon cursing in undertone” , the mob rushed away more to escape their frustration and suppressed agony than to kill Will because Will is only a symbol here, a symol of black man, by killing whom the mob would feel satified of doing something substantial in their present parched life.
Q. 22. he whirled and cursed them, and swept his manacled hands across their faces and slashed the barber upon the mouth, and the barber struck him also.- Who is suggested as ‘he ? Comment on the context of the comment.
Ans. This line is taken from the third section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. The narrator of the story says this about Will Mayes manacled and desperate in the car driven by McLendon. Hawkshaw’s complete failure to “not let” the men harm Will Mayes is highlighted again as he too “struck” him like all of McLendon’s companions.
Q. 23. It led back to an abandoned brick kiln-Why the reference of the brick kiln is important in context with the story “Dry September”?
Ans. The detailed description of the brick kiln and a series of reddish mounds and weed and vine-choked vats without bottom’ and the missing of a mule in those vats and the mention of the fact that the owner of the mule ‘could not even find the bottom of them (vats)’ is very significant with the kidnapping of Will Mayes. It hints that Will’s body will be thrown away in such a vat from where it will be impossible to find his body out. It is a typical Faulknerian style to hint a grave thing with another simple fact.
Q. 24. The impetus hurled him crashing through dust-sheathed weeds, into the ditch. -Who is referred to here? Describe his condition?
Ans. This line is taken from the third section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. The quoted line describes the situation and condition of Hawkshaw when he jumps out of the car of the lynching party driven by McLendon.
The falling of Hawkshaw into the ditch where ‘in a thin, vicious crackling of sapless stems he lay choking and retching until the second car passed and died away’, also hints a symbol of suffocation.
Q. 25. There were four people in it and Butch was not on the running board. – Comment on the context of the line. What does the line signify.
Ans. This line is taken from the third section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. The description is about the car of the lynching party driven by McLendon when it returned from outside the town. Faulkner does not mention the absence of Will in the returning car of McLendon. He does not mention that Will had been killed by those white men. He only says that one person was absent in the returning car as Butch, who was on the running board while the car went out of the town with Will, was ņow sitting in the car and the readers can easily assume the person who was now absent in the car or rather who was not returning.
Q. 26. But as they neared the square she began to tremble again-Who is referred to here as ‘she’? Why ‘she began to tremble again’?
Ans : Miss Minnie Cooper is referred to here as ‘she’ in the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner . The description suggests the inner conflict of Miss Minnie Cooper. After the rumor of her being raped by a black man and after the supposed news of lynching of Will Mayes, she is now in the center of attraction of the town. But she feels apprehensive to face this fame with her guilty heart. None but she knows that she is responsible behind the killing of an innocent person. So when she neared the square of the town she began to tremble again out of the frustration. She must be nervously excited about the attention she is about to receive.
Q. 27. where even the young men lounging in the doorway tipped their hats and followed with their eyes the motion of her hips and legs when she passed. Who is referred to here as ‘her’? Comment on the significance of the line. Ans. Miss Minnie Cooper is referred to here as ‘her’ in the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner.
The night when the murder is committed, she wears a new dress inorder to go to the cinema with her girlfriends. The perspective of making her appearance in the main square of the town raises a feverish excitement in her. Such excitement turns into inner exaltation when she realizes that the men in the square welcome her with “suddenly ceased voices, deferent, protective” and even with interest: “the young men lounging in the doorway tipped their hats and followed with their eyes the motion of her hips and legs when she passed”.
Q. 28. “There’s not a Negro on the square. Not one.” – Comment on the significance of the line. –
Ans. In the fourth section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner, it is said by one of the friends of Miss Minnie Cooper while they passed the square on the very Saturday night of lynching of Will Mayes. Knowledge of Will’s disappearance has become widespread, for Miss Minnie’s friends note, “There’s not a Negro on the square. Not one.” Here, Faulkner is commenting on a unique Southern phenomenon: Saturday is traditionally the day that many Southern blacks spend in town. But when something violent occurs, such as a rape or a murder, the entire black community reacts by disappearing, or, in Southern idiom, by becoming invisible.
Q. 29. It was like a miniature fairyland with its lighted lobby and colored lithographs of life caught in its terrible and beautiful mutations. Comment on the significance of the line.
Ans. This line is taken from the fourth section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. It is said about the cinema hall where Miss Minnie and her friends went to see the ‘moving picture’. Miss Minnie’s life was filled with idleness, boredom, and the long days with no meaningful activity except resting, dressing, walking, chatting, lie ahead. But there is more to Minnie’s’ fantasies than the obvious and simple explanation indicated by Hawkshaw and others, that she is unmarried and getting old. Minnie’s fantasies are also influenced by the dream factory in Hollywood. The life she seems to miss is not the life of marriage, children, duties, and responsibilities. Rather, it appears to be the gtamorous and exciting life portrayed by Hollywood myth-makers. Q.
30. Her lips began to tingle. – Who is referred to here as ‘her’? Why did her lips begin to tingle?
Ans. Miss Minnie Cooper is referred to here as ‘her’ in the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner.
Before entering the cinema hall to see the movie, Miss Minnie felt laughing. This is meaningful as it suggests that Miss Minnie is devastated in her heart, realizing that though she has gained attention of the town, her regular life has not changed and so she is in the cinema hall with her usual friends and not with any male partner, which would have proved her more successful in her goal. But it has not happened and Miss Minnie realizes that it will never happen. The futility of her endevour to be famous provokes her to laugh but she desperately tries to control or rather hide it
Q. 31. Then to one another: “Do you suppose anything really happened?” their eyes darkly aglitter, secret and passionate. “Shhhhhhhhhh! Poor girl! Poor Minnie!” – Comment on the context of the line.
Ans. This line is taken from the fourth section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. It is the reactions of the friends of Miss Minnie Cooper about her when they were nursing her after she had started to laugh hysterically in the cinema hall. Faulkner’s description of the friends’ eyes as “darkly aglitter, secret and passionate,” suggests that Miss Minnie is not the only Southern woman who is sexually repressed. Still wondering if the rape truly occurred, the women are not convinced of Miss Minnie’s accusations, but Will Mayes has had to pay for these charges with his life.
Q. 32. Describe the house of McLendon.
Ans. In the fifth section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner, We get the description of the neat new house of McLendon described as ‘trim and fresh as a birdcage and almost as small”. This an irony that McLendon’s house is a ‘birdcage’ as his wife lives a passive and tortured life in this house though, from outside, the house looks new, neat, fresh and small, with its clean, green-and white paint. This contradiction between apparent look and the atmosphere inside the house is hinted by Faulkner with this simple but poignant description of the house.
Q. 33. “Didn’t I tell you?” He released her and half struck, half flung her across the chair, and she lay there and watched him quietly as he left the room. – What idea of the speaker is given by the narrator through this line?
Ans. This line is taken from the fifth section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. The quoted line describes the inner beast of McLendon, his torturous and dominating attitude towards his wife. Our final glimpse of McLendon is not of the heroic American decorated for valor, but of a mean, vicious, and violently sadistic bigot.
Q. 34. The dark world seemed to lie stricken beneath the cold moon and the lidless stars. – Comment on the symbolic significance of the line.
Ans. This line is taken from the fifth section of the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. This is actually the concluding line of this section and the story as well, with deep symbolic significance. Perhaps by concentrating on McLendon, the final section encapsulates the basic tension of the story: the violence of the men, the passivity and fear of the women, the wasted qualities of the world they live in.
Q. 35. Give brief introduction to the character of Miss Minnie Cooper.
Ans. We are introduced to the character of Miss Minnie Cooper in the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. Minnie Cooper is an unmarried white woman in her late thirties who may or may not have been sexually assaulted by a black man, Will Mayes. Minnie has been virtually abandoned by this society, due to her low class and lack of a husband. According to others in Jefferson, Minnie drank whiskey on a regular basis and had accused a man of watching her undress, both of which are seen as desperate attempts to attract attention. The rumour involving Will Mayes makes Minnie the center of attention, whether or not that was her intent in the first place.
Q. 36. Give a brief introduction to the character of Will Mayes.
Ans. We are introduced to the character of Will Mayes in the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. Will Mayes is a black man who lives in Jefferson, works at the ice factory, and has been accused of sexually assaulting a white woman, Minnie Cooper. As a black man in Jefferson, Mayes’s word is worth next to nothing, and not a single person bothers to ask him about the incident. Mayes’s implied death is emblematic of the powerlessness of black men in this society, and in fact the rumour of his murder sends such a strong message to the black men of Jefferson that they are completely absent from public areas of town that evening.
Q. 37. Give a brief introduction to the character of John Mc Lendon.
Ans. We are introduced to the character of John McLendon in the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. John McLendon is described as having commanded troops in France and is considered a war hero and man of action around Jefferson. There is no mention of his current occupation, and it appears that it does not matter much, as he is entirely defined by his wartime heroism. He lives in Jefferson with his wife, and while he is publicly viewed as a man of valour, within the walls of his home, McLendon is verbally and physically abusive with his wife, embodying the hypocrisy at the center of “Dry September.” McLendon the violent mob to the ice-factory and then takes away Will Mayes from there to out of the town to kill him. Q. 38. Give a brief introduction to the character of Henry Hawkshaw. Ans. We are introduced to the character of Henry Hawkshaw in the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. Henry Hawkshaw, also known as Hawk, is one of the barbers of Jefferson, a mild-mannered white man. The barber shop is one of the central gathering places for men in the town, and “Dry September” opens with Hawkshaw discussing the rumors about Minnie Cooper and Will Mayes with his fellow barbers and their customers. Hawk is the only man in Jefferson who is confident of Mayes’ innocence.
38. Give a brief introduction to the character of McLendon’s Wife.
Ans :We are introduced to the character of McLendon’s wife in the short story “Dry September” by William Faulkner. McLendon’s wife appears only at the end of the story, having waited up for her husband as he returns from ostensibly murdering Will Mayes. Enraged that she has done so, McLendon verbally and physically abuses her.
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