Intelligent White Trash in the Snopes Trilogy Essay -- Snopes Trilogy

Intelligent White Trash in the Snopes Trilogy William Faulkners three novels referred to as the Snopes Trilogy submerge the reader into the ambiguousest, darkest realms of the homosexual legal opinion. The depth of these novels caused the nimble dismissal of both preconceived notions I had toward Faulkner and his writings. No longer did his novels count to be simple stories describing the white trash, living in the artificial Yoknapatawpha County, of the deep South. The seemingly redneck, simple-minded characters of the Snopes family, when examined closely, reveal all the greed, guile, and brilliance in the human heart and mind. The means by which the Snopes family lives, the means by which it survives, causes the reader to invent the boundary between survival and stealing, between necessity and lousiness. Is it wrong for a greedy person to manipulate some other greedy person, using his or her own greed against them? Can evil swallow itself up, overpowering an evil person by means of another evil person? The Snopes Trilogy reveals the consuming effect of deceit combined with ambition and displays the genius of the human mind despite an outward disposition that seemingly denies any intelligence at all. Flem Snopes intrigued me from the very onset of the Trilogy in The Hamlet. His simple air, slow, methodical movements, and lack of dustup only added to his mystery and intensity. Flems exterior also fooled Jody Varner, who said, His face was as sporty as a pan of uncooked dough (22). Little did he cut that later Flem would supercede him in his own store, causing Varners plan to save up the Snopeses from burning his barns to blow up in his own face. Flems outward appearance is possibly his most valuable survival gift. His uncouth facade c... ...ses others as a means of survival. Being a Snopes, he has been raised to go after with evil. It is the only means he knows. Flem either has no idea that he is destroying others, or he has been taught not to c are. Flem has been hardened he does not level off see the evil in his actions. Obviously Flem has no remorse any(prenominal) in his sinful actions or destruction of others. To him, he is merely surviving. Faulkner adds another question to todays morality. Is a person guilty if they do not know that they are sinning? Flem never thinks twice, never hesitates, never regrets any of his actions. So how does he cope with his conscience? He doesnt. He does not realize that what he is doing is wrong therefore, he feels no guilt. Flem lives, survives, and prospers the only dash he knows how. Works CitedFaulkner, William. The Snopes Trilogy. New York Random House, 1957.