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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.