Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Sun, 2014-12-07 17:36
The young Grier boy refers to the country's enemy and the forces responsible for his brother's death as "them Japs" (101). In the earlier "Two Soldiers," this same boy referred to the Japanese as "them Japanese," so he has picked up jargon we now recognize as derogatory (although its usage was acceptable during the war years and afterwards).
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Sun, 2014-12-07 17:20
Called "Mother" by the narrator, Mrs. Grier is the wife of a farmer and the mother of two sons, one of whom, Pete Grier, dies in combat in April 1942. In this story about men at war (including her grandfather and brother, who fought in the Civil war and World War I, respectively), Faulkner uses her as the voice of sympathy, wisdom and resilient patriotism - though when she consoles Major de Spain over the loss of his son, the voice we hear sounds more like Faulkner's: "All men are capable of shame. . . . Just as all men are capable of courage and honor and sacrifice. And grief too.
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Sun, 2014-12-07 13:01
The younger of the Griers' two sons who narrates the story also narrates "Two Soldiers" and "Shingles for the Lord." His first name is never mentioned in any of these texts. He is nine years old, but in this story his perspective and voice often seem to belie his young age and his class background. At such moments he can sound more like Faulkner than like a poor white child.
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Sun, 2014-12-07 10:17
Res, the farmer at the head of the Grier family, appears very differently in each of the three stories Faulkner wrote about the family during the early 1940s. In this, the last of the three, he appears as a hard-working farmer, a thoughtful husband, and a father who takes care even to make sure his son's shoes are well-shined.
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Sun, 2014-12-07 10:00
Pete Grier is oldest of the two Grier sons, and one of the "Two Soldiers" in Faulkner's earlier story about the family and World War. That story narrates his enlistment in the Army soon after Pearl Harbor (though the next month, not "the next week" as in this story, 101). In this story he is one of the men killed when the ship carrying him is sunk in the Pacific.
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Sat, 2014-12-06 18:32
The closest city to Yoknapatawpha, Memphis is the location of the Army recruiting station where Pete Grier enlisted in 1941: "One day there was Pearl Harbor. And the next week Pete went to Memphis" (101).
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Sat, 2014-12-06 18:26
The narrator refers to "the ten-cent-store . . . in Jefferson" when he explains how he came to know how zippers work (105). Also called "five-and-dime" or "nickel-and-dime" stores, these stores were distinguished for the variety of low-cost merchandise they stocked, and the way their customers had direct access to the merchandise (instead of having to ask a clerk to get things). The first such stores were opened in Pennsylvania by the Woolworth Brothers in the late 19th century. By the early 20th century they were common in the South.
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Sat, 2014-12-06 18:25
Jefferson's "ten cent store" is where Susan Reed gets a job after dropping out of school in "Hair" (135), where the narrator of "Shall Not Perish" first encounters the "zipper" as a way of closing things (105), and where Old Het gets the "succession of paper shopping bags" in which she carries her belongings in The Town (242). Het used to carry her few possessions in a carpetbag, but that was before "the ten cent store came to Jefferson" (242) - a detail like the newfangled "zipper" suggesting how this kind of store is another sign of 20th century progress.
