"Dry September" had a very interesting feel to me, after reading through about 3 times. I finally began to grasp some of the information needed to truly understand this piece of text. Obviously, it was a story mainly focused on racism, and the truth to how it really was in the past. Minnie, a girl in her mid thirties, accuses a "negro" of assaulting her. This story gave me the same feeling as the novel, To Kill A Mockingbird, which took the rights of a colored man and completely dismissed them. While many argued throughout the text that Minnie may had just been crazy, and it was probably not true, if one was to agree with a Negro over a white woman, you were to be looked down upon. It was hard for me to grasp this story the first time was because there were many characters and too much action to keep up with. I couldn't quite figure out if they attacked Will Mayes in the car, and why McLendon was so physical with his wife in the end. I felt that it had some type of symbolism with how a white man can treat a white woman, but it is worse if an accusation, that may not even be true, was said about you.

Throughout the short story, “Dry September” by William Faulkner, the setting, along with the descriptive language, contributes to the reader’s interpretation of the story. For example, Faulkner explains that the story is taking place in September in Jefferson. This suggests to the reader that the story is taking place in a town where racism is prevalent. The author also describes the hot weather the characters experience. From the beginning, the reader has an idea of the heated and humid conditions occurring in the story which may represent discomfort. In addition, the author uses descriptive language such as “each armpit was a dark halfmoon” in order to suggest the weather conditions. The author also uses descriptive language to describe the attack on Will Mayes in terms such as “dry hissing” and “manacled hands.” Further, once the attack is over, the author describes McLendon’s car driving away and states that “the dust swallowed them; the glare and the sound died away…but soon the eternal dust absorbed it again.” This descriptive language is describing the end of the attack, but also alludes to the end of Will Mayes life, which is not explicitly stated. Overall, both the setting and descriptive language allude to the underlying message, and the discomfort of the story.