
FAULKNER’S “DRY SEPTEMBER”: A TALE OF LYNCHING
Key words: lynching, dry “Dry September” was one of William Faulkner’s (1857-1962) best short stories. It is a tale of ‘lynching.’ The story weaves the theme of lynching, rumour, gossip, prejudice, repression, justice, hypocrisy, racial identity into an artistic piece through the killing of an innocent Negro Will Mayes by a war-veteran despot McLendon. It also takes resort to the paranoid theme of White Goddess concept of a Southern Belle. There is no question of justice or a chance of trial. In spite a few past evidences to Minnie Cooper’s susceptibility to flirtation and coquetry McLendon and his cohorts never