textfiles/reports/term2.rpt

                     The Use of Imagery in Fitzgerald's "May Day"


	               and  Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury"


                                   Michael Stutz

                                   Intro To Fiction

                                   Dr. Burchmore
























































     In "May Day", F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his unique descriptive

  writing style which is loaded with imagery.  This is characterized

  partly by his sensitive desciptions of inanimate objects.  For 

  example, "When Edith came out into the clear blue of the May night

  she found the Avenue deserted." (The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald,

  pg. 126)  The 'clear blue' referring to the May night says is all, 

  and reinforces the tone of the novelette.  Also, "The wealthy, happy

  sun glittered in transient gold through the thick windows of the 

  smart shops, lighting upon mesh bags and purses and strings of pearls

  in gray velvet cases; upon gaudy feather fans of many colors; upon

  the laces and silks of expensive dresses; upon the bad paintings and

  the fine peroid furniture in the elaborate show rooms of interior 

  decorators." (pg. 104)  These still-life images are so vivid that one

  can see the quiet, dusty shops, and almost feel the passing threads of 

  hope that Gordon Sterrett felt before his untimely suicide at the end of

  the story.  Fitzgerald makes the reader feel for Mr. Sterrett through 

  the use of these subtleties.  By the end of the story, one actually

  feels the complete despair that Mr. Sterrett feels, partly due to the

  images Fitzgerald uses: "He looked at the dusky gray shadows in the 

  corners of the room and at a raw place on a large leather chair in the

  corner where it had long been in use.  He saw clothes, dishevelled, 

  rumpled clothes on the floor and he smelt stale cigarette smoke and

  stale liquor.  The windows were tight shut." (pg. 141)  Furthermore,

  I noticed that Fitzgerald uses a lot of metaphors and similies, which

  brings to mind English poets such as Robert Browning in his "Prospice."

  For example, "The windows of the big shops were dark; over their doors

  were drawn great iron masks until they were only shadowy tombs of the

  late day's splendor." (pg. 126), compares the closed doors of the shops

  to places of burial not unlike Browning compared death to fighting a

  battle.  And like Keats, in his "Ode to a Grecian Urn", where he

  addresses the urn as is it was a human being, Fitzgerald uses the

  abstract images of a "Mr. In" and a "Mr. Out", two doors, walking down

  Broadway at dawn, and makes colorful images of them "...dizzy with the

  extreme maudlin happiness that the morning had awaken in their glowing

  souls.  Indeed, so fresh and vigorous was their pleasure in living that
  
  they felt it should be expressed by loud cries." (pp. 135-6)  This almost

  comic passage relates deeper images on the moods of life and the fact

  it does keep moving even when one has left it, which is part of the

  central theme of "May Day."



     In "The Sound and the Fury", William Faulkner's imagery is 

  characterized by the fact that almost all of it takes place through the

  minds of the narrators Benji, Quentin and Jason.  The Dilsey section is

  the closest to his own thoughts and images.  In the Benji part of the 

  novel, all of the imagary is very basic and physical, but Faulkner has

  mastered this so well that it is hard to believe that the words were

  written by a sane, educated man.  For example, "Versh's hand came with the

  spoon, into the bowl.  The spoon came up to my mouth.  The steam tickled
  
  in my mouth." ("The Sound and the Fury", Norton Critical Edition, pg. 16)

  This is so simple and basic that it is great.  I would have never thought

  of 'the spoon' moving as an inanimate object; a regular narrator would

  have said something to the effect of 'Versh's hand guided the spoon'.  

  Also, the steam 'tickling my mouth' is a simple observation reinforcing

  my point about the section being more physical/sensory than anything else.

  "We watched the tree shaking.  the shaking went down the tree, then it

  came out and we watched it go away across the grass." (pg. 46)  This is

  another example of Benji's simple, idiotic but observant view of the 

  world.  Moreover, in the Quentin section, the imagery tends to be more

  like Faulkner's own words, like "Through the wall I heard Shreve's bed-

  springs and then his slippers on the floor hishing.  I got up and went to

  the dresser and slid my hand along it and touched the watch and turned

  it face-down and went back to bed." (pg. 47)  The slippers 'hishing' is

  a staple Faulkner image, which I will discuss shortly.  This passage 

  also shows Quentin's unrest and mental despair, like Gordon Sterrett's

  in "May Day", through the use of small descriptive images, the ones in

  this section coming from Quentin's mind/mouth rather than an omniscient

  narrator.  The slight action Quentin made with his watch is a nervous one

  which foreshadows his destruction of it, and later his eventual suicide.

  "...feeling the eyes animals used to have in the back of their heads when

  it was on top, itching.  It's always the idle habits you acquire which you

  will regret." (pg. 47)  This comes almost directly after the first quote,

  and it reinforces the nervous, 'I-can't-run-away-from-it' feelings that

  Quentin has.  And furthermore, in Jason's section of the book, his 

  images and descriptions show his as the shallow, evil person that he is.

  "...gobbing paint on her face and waiting for six niggers that cant even

  stand up out of a chair unless they've got a pan full of bread and meat

  to balance them, to fix breakfast for her." (pg. 109)  This, part of

  Jason's opening statements, displays his complete lack of respect and 

  outright hatred for his family and servants.  Him picturing Caddy 

  'gobbing paint' on her face rather than 'applying makeup to her face'

  or something or other clearly shows this.  And his view of Dilsey: "She

  was so old she couldn't do any more than move harldy.  But that's all

  right: we need somebody in the kitchen to eat the grub the young ones

  cant tote off." (pg. 112)  The images of her 'eating grub'  and of him

  pushing her around is another display of his dastardly evilness.  And

  he views the music being played: "The band was playing again, a loud 

  fast tune, like they were breaking up." (pg. 148)  This and all of the

  other images used throughout this section portray Jason as the bastard

  he is.  Lastly, in the last, narrative Dilsey section, Faulkner's own

  thoughts and images are pictured.  The first sentance, like Quentin's 

  slippers, has many of the sensitive, subtle Faulkner images along with

  his other technical, observant ones: "The day dawned bleak and chill, a

  moving wall of gray light out of the norteast which, instead of 

  dissolving into moisture, seemed to disintegrate into minute and 

  venemous particles, like dust that, when Dilsey opened the door of the

  cabin and emerged, needled laterally in her flesh, precipitating not so

  much a moisture as a substance partaking of the quality of thin, not

  quite congealed oil." (pg. 158)  The paragraph continues into more

  description of the same vein, getting technical and prescise, but at the

  same time letting Faulkner keep his composure as the observant Southern

  gentleman.  This displays his brilliance as a writer and his ability to

  create moods and tones with his scenes.  In my opinion, a whole paper

  could be written on just the words he uses in those first five 

  paragraphs, creating a breathtaking view of a common scene.  The images

  he uses to describe Jason in this section portrays him just like the 

  reader had already pictured him:  "...cold and shrewd, with close-

  thatched brown hair curled into two stubborn hooks, one on either side

  of his forehead like a bartender in caricature, and hazel eyes with 

  black-ringed irises like marbles..." (pg. 167).  His use of images and

  the descriptiveness of them gives a firm base to the ideas and themes 

  that the reader interprets through the reading of the novel.  These

  images build upon the 'disintegration' theme as well as all others, and

  probably in different ways to different readers.  But there is no question

  that the images get ideas across.


     
     From this comparison I learned that both authors use slightly similar

  images (they are both sensitve, Fitzgerald has a more apostrophic, 

  metaphorical approach in this novel, and Faulkner is more technical and

  'scientific', for lack of a better term) in their works to portray the

  central theme along with subthemes, which for the most part I believe are

  up to the individual for interpretation.  Both are masterpieces which 

  were not as accepted in their time as they are today (Fitzgerald received

  only $200 for his work, and the critics didn't exactly jump on Faulkner's

  boo, they said it was confusing among other things).  I believe that

  imagery is an integral part of both these author's styles, and I hope that

  I made it clear through this essay.