Spotted Horses
Spotted Horses is the title of a novel by the American writer and later Nobel Prize winner for literature, William Faulkner . It first appeared in Scribner’s magazine in 1931.
Emergence
Faulkner had worked on a novel with the working title Father Abraham in 1926/1927 , but finished the writing after almost 18,000 words and did not complete the work, which meant that it remained a fragment and was only published posthumously. This book should be about the fictional Snopes clan. Instead of completing the novel, Faulkner wrote several versions of the story that would become Spotted Horses (first working titles were As I Lay Dying (Faulkner's fifth novel was eventually to be titled), Aria con Amore and The Peasants ).
However, the author failed to get literary magazines excited about the story, which is why it remained unpublished until 1931.
In the early autumn of 1938 Faulkner devoted himself again to the Snopes clan and finally wrote the first part of the Snopes trilogy. In this novel, The Hamlet , Faulkner integrated the previously independent text by Spotted Horses into the fourth book of the novel The Peasants .
action
The text is about Flem Snopes, who comes back from Texas with an unknown Texan and wants to earn money by selling untamed horses to the unsuspecting population. The story is about three scammers who act differently on different pages. Eventually the Texans and Flem Snopes link the unsuspecting Henry Armstid to spend the last five dollars of the family's property on a horse (which he doesn't necessarily need). Despite his wife's request not to enter into the transaction, Armstid pays the men believing that he has made the deal of his life. Subsequently, Armstid fails to capture the wild horse, and he loses it and is injured.
In the extended version of the text, which was integrated into the fourth book of the novel The Hamlet , Mrs. Armstid tries to get the money back and goes to court. It is there that Flem Snopes and the Texan make visible false statements; the court finally settles the case because it cannot be proven who the horses belong to. Mrs. Armstid accepts the defeat and accepts it.
main characters
Flem Snopes
Flem Snopes is a completely unscrupulous fraudster who single-mindedly gets to his goal and, if necessary, can exert pressure just through his presence. Because Flem Snopes rarely intervenes actively in the scenery. He lets the Texan and his other family members do the dirty work. He sits (often in silence) on the edge of the auction; yet everyone knows that he is the powerful person, and his ubiquity oppresses and dominates the whole action.
The Texan
The Texan is not as vicious as Flem in his actions, but still brazen and shameless in his deceptive intentions. He seems to have a heart, however, as he is gripped by Mrs. Armistid's pleading regarding her husband Henry, who is spending the last five dollars of the family's budget on a horse, and offers to reverse the transaction. He recognizes the need and urgency of keeping the money for the family and does not allow himself to be suppressed by the quick-tempered spouse.
VK Ratliff
Ratliff is someone who, as a representative of sewing machines, also knows (and presumably uses) fraudulent tricks, which is why he recognizes the game of the Texan and Flem Snopes'. Unlike the other two, Ratliff has a conscience, but does not actively intervene in the scenery, although he was once exploited by Flem Snopes and therefore has sympathy for anyone who can defend himself against Flem. In a way, he appreciates Flem's dominance, but at the same time despises him for his inhumanity.
Henry Armstid
Armstid falls for the Snopes' and Texan's fraudulent machinations and spends the last five dollars of the family budget on a horse he doesn't necessarily need. His wife's plea not to go into the deal is answered with insulting tirades. He does not realize that he is being linked and that he is just not doing the business of his life. Henry Armstid, however, is unable to capture the horse drawn because it is wild and untamed; he is even injured. In the court, however, a decision is made in favor of the Snopes clan, since, according to the judge, it cannot be proven who the horse belongs to. The five dollars are lost.
More people
Other characters appear in the novella. Mrs. Armstid gets an even bigger role in the extended text version as part of the novel The Hamlet , as she goes to court there to enforce her rights. But she realizes early on that she has no chance against the overwhelming power.
Other Snopes family members also appear, such as Eck Snopes, who is privy to the fraudulent activities of Flem and the Texan and helps poke the unsuspecting Henry Armstid over the table.
The horses
Apart from the fact that the horses are wild and untamed, not much can be said about the horses, including who they belong to. Whether Flem's testimony in court was false may be possible. But before that, Flem announced during the transaction that the horses did not belong to him (which should actually make it clear that he would then only have limited sales rights). In fact, there is also an indication within the text that Flem's own cousin Eck is not sure whether the horses belong to Flem or not. Ratliff recognizes (primarily in the novel The Hamlet , but also in the context of the text Spotted Horses ) that Flem Snopes could obviously be of the opinion that he could do anything. Due to the violent reputation of his father Abner Snopes, he was hired as an assistant in Will Varner's shop and quickly mutated into an important personality. He succeeds in bringing the Varner family into his debt by marrying the illegitimate, pregnant and precocious daughter Eula and thus protecting the family from a scandal. The judges in the epilogue of the story seem clearly on his side. So it is up to Ratliff to recognize the dark machinations of Flem Snopes, but he does nothing about it.
Literary style
Spotted Horses can be viewed as a typical Faulkner story and assigned to the genre of Southern Gothic , a subgenre of Gothic fiction ("Schauerliteratur"), in which grotesque, sometimes black-humored images, metaphors and scenes are embedded in the text in order to promote morality ( especially often to depict the decadence ) of the American South. In fact, the text embodies a certain kind of southern humor . One of these characteristics is the description of the wild ponies that lies between lovely, calm creatures and wild beasts that can kill you all the time. Another characteristic are the exaggerations that also occur in the first point. The author also uses similar, if not the same words as for horses to describe the wild horses. This stylistic feature not only supports the story's (strange) humor mentioned above, but leaves a lot of room for interpretation. First and foremost, this underpins the Snopes family's wild character and lawlessness, as well as their brutal nature.
Bridge to other works by Faulkner
The horse that Jewel Bundren buys in Faulkner's fifth novel, As I Lay Dying , is a descendant of one of the horses that appear in Spotted Horses . Otherwise this text can easily be sorted into Faulkner's overall canon; Characters like Flem Snopes or Ratliff not only appear in other Snopes stories or novels, but appear again and again in short stories or Faulkenr's novels. Like almost all of his works, Spotted Horses is set in Yoknapatawpha County , more precisely in Frenchman's Bend; a settlement that was built on a once stately plantation after the American Civil War .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Literature in brief - zeit.de
- ↑ The Hamlet, William Faulkner, Vintage International, Oct. 1991, Editor's Note, 407
- ↑ http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/faulkners-short-stories/summary-and-analysis-spotted-horses/introduction
- ↑ http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/faulkners-short-stories/summary-and-analysis-spotted-horses/introduction
- ↑ http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/faulkners-short-stories/summary-and-analysis-spotted-horses/introduction
- ↑ http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/faulkners-short-stories/summary-and-analysis-spotted-horses/part-i
- ↑ http://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/f/faulkners-short-stories/summary-and-analysis-spotted-horses/part-i