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believe that the Stupen experience embodied the sense of defeat that most southerners felt after the war. The basic ideals and spirit of southern life was destroyed by the war and never to be fully restored again. Their lives were turned upside down by the war and afterwards they did not even have the solace of their previous social status to return to. During the war many people were faced with unthinkable hardships on every level. The myth of the helpless southern woman was replaced by the image of an undying strong will to provide for and take care of her southern men.
The women of high social standing were reduced to making their clothes out of used material instead of buying new fabrics and dresses, as they were accustomed to. Judith was even thought of as stealing the scraps of material that she used to make her wedding dress. Mrs. Rosa, Judith, and Clytemnestra all aged greatly during the war, they were forced to learn how to care for themselves completely with no help from a man to speak of. This quick aging left permanent scars on southern women I believe, before the war they were more childlike and helpless, dependent on their southern men. The war gave forced independence for the most part.
Even after the war was over and the men returned home to their ruined homelands the help of women was needed to maintain vegetable gardens and such for food. Also with the abolition of slavery and the economic turmoil the women did not regain servants very easily and were depended upon to take a larger role in the care of the family. The women in Absalom, Absalom show this in the way they personally take care of Stupen. Rosa proves her new found complete independence in her rejection of Stupen's insulting proposal, this shows how the life lessons made her more willing to live alone as she was once afraid of, rather than succumb to a mans desires. I think Faulkner's portrayal of the evolution of the southern woman is interesting in that he first shows how frivolous Ellen can be. He shows how she runs with the idea of her daughters wedding whimsically and begins to shop constantly for the best garments.
Then Ellen dies thus representing the Darwinian the survival of the fittest concept. Ellen representing the weak southern woman dies out and Judith her daughter fights to survive. Ellen retires to die in her room while when faced with problems Judith learns to overcome them instead of retiring as her mother had. Judith becomes so strong-minded that she does not even weep for her dead fianc until her father returns. She immediately puts burial plans into action and takes care of the task at hand.
This new portal of the southern women I believe still survives today. The problems that faced southern men were similar but different. The men of the south were forced to take up arms to protect their way of life. All the while their women were changing, their property being destroyed and their way of life demolished. Their entire legacies were destroyed in a brief time in history. Theses men such as Stupen left for the war leaving behind flourishing plantations such as Stupen's Hundred and returned as Stupen did only able to cultivate Stupen's mile.
This was a devastating realization to come home to. Theses men had been defeated on the battlefield subjected to inhumane conditions such as no shoes and returned home to nothing but the spoils of war. Stupen came home to find his household in ruin but had an optimistic outlook on reinstating his home to its pervious glory but was soon defeated in that endeavor also. He was looked upon by Judith, Clytie, and Rosa as a sign of hope and a savior of sorts but was unable to fill theses shoes.
He tried to begin farming again but was unable to cultivate the land due to many factors mostly economical. The role of the planters had drastically changed, he was no longer the wealthy overseers he was now the hands in the dirt. Those hands already plagued with old tools and lack of supplies led to extremely hard work. Stupen thought a partial solution to re-establishing his legacy would be to gain a new male heir in light of the fact hat Henry was gone in exile, and Bon was dead.
Stupen unfortunately failed in this endeavor also. He was even reduced to think of all white women around him as possible mothers to a son. He took Milly out of desperation regardless of her class, because she was close by. I can imagine that courting an old man was not high on any woman's list. After this defeat he was unable to hold his tongue and insulted the mother of his new daughter. This provoked Wash Jones to kill him.
I am convinced that many men were faced similarly with the reality of not having a male heir to help rebuild the family legacy and carry on the family name. Not so many that would have sons in exile as Henry was but men who lost their only sons to the war. The state of spoiled land and spoiled ideals that the south was returned to after the war was one of complete and utter hopelessness the south was never to be the same again. The struggles that that families went through were the essence of the "Lost Cause" it was hopeless to try so hard to rebuild a south that could never exist again. The new south even today tries to deal with the issues raised during wartime this is evident in the fascination and horror connected with the old south.
As Quentin and Shreve discussed the stories of Jefferson and the Stupen's, Quentin was faced with the realization of his love hate relationship with the south. He realized that he did not hate the south that he had grown up in. I believe that the new south still to this day tries to reestablish some of the ideals of the old south as evident by the romanticism that a lot of southerners have in regard to pre war history. Bibliography:
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