Intruder in the Dust Guide, Meaning , Facts, Information and Description
Josie Garthwaite writes the following about Intruder in the Dust :Imagine yourself in the segregated Southern community of Yoknapatawpha County, where you’ve grown up among an odd sprinkling of unabashed racists and quiet idealists. You are a 16-year-old boy, nephew of the white lawyer asked to represent the alleged murderer of a white man. Now, the alleged murderer, a black man resented by most of your community, asks you to violate the grave of his supposed victim. What do you do? This is the setting for action in William Faulkner’s Intruder in the Dust.
Upon reflection on the novel, Faulkner’s work is a story of personal conflict, racism, independence, and the growth of a young man. In the midst of the chapters, however, readers may find themselves as confused as our troubled character as he battles an unclear enemy. With sentences that ramble for pages and constant reference to the main character as “he,” Faulkner disguises meaningful social commentary and moral messages with an indulgent writing style. The fact that Intruder in the Dust could leak its questions of independence and justice into my consciousness despite Faulkner’s technique, speaks well, however, for the content.
Intruder in the Dust raises questions of independence in a subtle but very effective manner. Lucas Beauchamp, the assumed murderer, is portrayed as a truly independent soul. He seems to be as much a legend in Yoknapatawpha as an actuality as he lives his life refusing to bow his dignity to any man. “All that anyone could tell him about the Negro [Lucas] who said ‘ma’am’ to women just as any white man did and who said ‘sir’ and ‘mister’ to you if you were white but who you knew was thinking neither…because he didn’t even care.” (p. 18).
Chick Mallison, (the main character referred to as “he”), begins his journey as racist as the lynch mob out to get Lucas because he was unwilling to stand up to the injustices of his society. As the story progresses, however, he defies respected adults in his life and pursues justice for the detained Lucas Beauchamp. He gains independence by acting on his own sense of morality that any person deserves justice, regardless of skin color. Towards the end of his battle, Chick’s uncle assures him, saying, “Some things you must never stop refusing to bear. Injustice and outrage and dishonor and shame…not for kudos and not for cash…Just refuse to bear them.” (p.201). This necessity for self motivation and confidence in your beliefs is true to life in life in times and places outside of Yoknapatawpha County as well.
Intruder in the Dust is both affirming and disheartening. The idea that such adversity can be overcome by an otherwise unassuming individual demonstrates that there is possibility for improvement of our world’s imperfections. Those imperfections, however, are brought to the readers’ attention as we notice the similarities between this fictional society, that would have let a man be imprisoned and murdered for little more than the color of his skin, and our own.
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