In his acceptance speech, Faulkner explains that“…the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart…(Faulkner, 176).” He goes on to explain that the job of a poet or a writer is to assure us that life is worth living and prove to us why. He mentions that humans have courage, pride, pity and an inexhaustible voice and that with these tools we not only can survive this crazy ride we call life, but we will prevail. He shows his belief of this idea in does his short story "That Evening Sun" through Nancy, Mr. Stovall, Mother and Father.
As far as exhibiting these traits go, I feel that Nancy does it the best. She is not afraid to say what she feels or knows. She has an inexhaustible voice. When she's thrown in jail, she yells at Mr. Stovall, "When you going to pay me, white man? (Faulkner 168)," and recieves a kick in the face in return. She repeats that she knows Jesus is back because she can feel it (Faulkner 169) but Father just tells her that he went away even though she is adamant upon Jesus' return. Mr. Stovall and Mother are both very proud. Mother shows it when she asks Father if her safety is less important to that of Nancy when Father walks Nancy home. Mr. Stovall shows off his pride when he kicks Nancy in the face after she asks him for her pay. Obviously gender comes into play but the fact he kicks her in the face and she loses teeth shows much more then gender and that is also race. Father shows pity and courage as he tries to talk to Nancy and help her. He walks her home and tries to talk to her about Jesus and ease her stress. No matter how nice he may seem though, he and the rest of the family abandon Nancy at the end of the story regardless of their knowing that Jesus was going to kill her.
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