This was doubtlessly my FAVORITE read in my Faulknerian fiction class in college several years back. I loved the nitty-grittiness of it, but I feel I draw some differing conclusions on Joanna Burden. As her name suggests, she personifies the White Man's Burden--just as racist as her ... I don't know if you'd call them her more "legitimately" Southern neighbors, or what, but--just as racist, but the racism mainifests in a different way. It's the, I feel you're inferior but I'm horrified by how my race treated yours, so I'll exhaust myself uplifting you til I feel better, racism. That was the sour note prevalent throughout hers and Christmas's relationship; she saw him as a color rather than a human being; he was literally her show-monkey so she could prove what an educated and enlightened white woman she was, except she was wasting the effort on someone who didn't want it
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Joanna BurdeninverarityOctober 22 2012, 02:49:19 UTC
Oh yes, I agree that Joanna Burden wasn't meant to be particularly sympathetic, which was part of my point: Faulkner made all the women enemies, even when they were ostensibly acting in a "moral" manner. Joanna is a patronizing, self-righteous martyr who thinks herself holy because she's going to save the poor Negro, and the fact that she's whispering "Negro! Negro!" in his ear while they fuck was really fucked up and obviously meant to be.
I suppose it's somewhat ambigious, but I read their first intimate scene as rape, or dubious consent at best: Christmas intends to rape her, it's just not clear whether Joanna was unwilling.
She just watched as he blew out the lamp, thinking, 'Now she'll run.' And so he sprang forward, toward the door to intercept her. But she did not flee. He found her in the dark exactly where the light had lost her, in the same attitude. He began to tear at her clothes. He was talking to her, in a tense, hard, low voice: "I'll show you! I'll show the bitch!" She did not resist at all. It was almost as though
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I suppose it's somewhat ambigious, but I read their first intimate scene as rape, or dubious consent at best: Christmas intends to rape her, it's just not clear whether Joanna was unwilling.
She just watched as he blew out the lamp, thinking, 'Now she'll run.' And so he sprang forward, toward the door to intercept her. But she did not flee. He found her in the dark exactly where the light had lost her, in the same attitude. He began to tear at her clothes. He was talking to her, in a tense, hard, low voice: "I'll show you! I'll show the bitch!" She did not resist at all. It was almost as though ( ... )
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