Representations of Poor Whites in the Works of William Faulkner

Abstract

This essay examines representations of the rural poor in the novel As I Lay Dying and the short story "Barn Burning." In conjunction with these fictional works, the essay explores the ethnic origins of poor whites and their place in the social structure of the antebellum and postbellum South. . . . Furthermore, Faulkner's background in the aristocratic planter class informs his portrayals of poor whites, and the author becomes a voice for his Southern brand of political conservatism. His work progressively becomes more conservative in tone between As I Lay Dying and his later work "Barn Burning," moving from a portrayal of poor whites as ignorant, tragicomic figures (the Bundren family) to poor whites as a corrosive social force that threatens the fabric of Southern society (the Snopes family). Above all, William Faulkner stresses the 'otherness' and inferiority of the rural poor, and the fiction illumines his personal sociopolitical thought. [From introductory section]