3 - Go Down, Moses and the Discourse of Environmentalism

Summary

GO Down, Moses is one of the more remarkable fictions created by William Faulkner in his long and distinguished career. Technically complex, the work's method — the intricate interweaving of previously published short stories with added material designed both to connect the segments and to increase their thematic range — has over the years elicited arguments among critics as to whether it is a collection of short stories, a “composite” (Creighton), or a cohesive novel; recent judgments essentially concur that it is a novel unified by its compelling portrayal of an abusive social and economic system and that its somewhat fragmented method and varied tone echo central thematic elements and intentionally deconstruct the very notion of facile aesthetic closure (Morris 123). The novel depicts a large number of distinctive characters, more perhaps than any other Faulkner novel, many of them connected by blood through several generations of a complicated family that includes individuals of both Caucasian and African heritage. The portrayal of its central figure, Isaac McCaslin, is sufficiently ambiguous that commentators continue to disagree as to the implications of his rhetoric and his behavior (Wall summarizes much of the controversy). The conceptual scope of Go Down, Moses is impressive, because its rich and provocative treatment of racial, class, and gender issues is splendidly amplified by its consideration of the interrelationship of the human problems with basic questions concerning not only land ownership – most vividly apparent in Isaac McCaslin's radical gesture of repudiation – but also the very essence of the connections between human beings and the natural environment.