The Corruption with Modernization in Faulkner’s The Country :: Faulkner Country Short Stories

The Corruption with Modernization in Faulkner’s The Country The disruption of traditional values and ways of life that accompanied the modernization of the U.S. seems to be a common theme throughout the â€Å"Country† section of Faulkner’s Collected Stories. In â€Å"Barn Burning† Abner Snopes seems to feel that the world is against him: â€Å"Don’t you know all they wanted was a chance to get at me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  (8). He sees fire as â€Å"the one weapon for the preservation of integrity† (8), and it is apparent that he feels the disparity in standard of living between farm owners such as Major de Spain, and workers like himself to be an injustice and an injury to him (but then again, maybe he’s just plain evil, as Faulkner’s characterization of him as stiff, cold, and always in dark clothing intimates). In â€Å"Shingles for the Lord,† the â€Å"modern ideas about work† imparted to Solon Quick from his experience with the WPA are presented as ridiculous—labor put toward r epairing a church calculated out precisely into â€Å"work units† (29-30). Could Faulkner be presenting the idea that so-called â€Å"progress† and the introduction of capitalism and government intervention has corrupted people—become the new church at which they worship? In â€Å"The Tall Men,† a sort of Gemeinschaft vs. Gesellschaft theme is evident. I really like this story. It conveys how difficult the changes in the U.S. during the early part of the 20th century must have been for the â€Å"country† people who were tied to the land. New Deal programs like the WPA and AAA, â€Å"three-letter reasons for a man not to work† (58), are a problem for the McCallum’s because the programs made hard work unprofitable and encouraged laziness and dependency as farmers lost autonomy and became beholden to the government. The old marshal, Mr. Gombault, tries to make Mr. Pearson, the government investigator, understand that the McCallum's are â€Å"tall† or prideful men whose self-sufficiency and friendly transactions have not given way to the impersonal deals and something-for-nothing mentality of the new era (it’s interesting that the characterizations of the McCallum's completely contradict Mr. Pearson’s chara cterization of â€Å"these people† as lazy, selfish, and ungrateful or unpatriotic, on page 46). Again in â€Å"A Bear Hunt,† traditional, country people are set apart from â€Å"literate, town-bred people† (65); and in the last two stories, both featuring the Grier family (relation to Res Grier of â€Å"Shingles for the Lord†?