"That Evening Sun Goes Down" William Faulkner 1931

In William Faulkner's "That Evening Sun Goes Down"  the story centers around a black woman Nancy who in is fear of her life by her ex.  She has many emotional problems, she is scared of the dark, had done cocaine, tried to commit suicide, and had gotten pregnant while prostituting herself to a white man.  Her ex Jubah carried  a razor with him and Nancy fears that this razor will end her life.  Faulkner wrote much about the decay of the "Old South" while examining the complicated relationships between blacks and whites.  The main feeling towards Nancy is that sometimes she is cared for by whites and other times reduced to nothing more than an animal, the first example is when she tried to hang herself in jail by hanging herself from the bars.  The jailer caught her doing this cut her down revived her then he beat her.  She was worth reviving but not worth a thing in the very next moment.  The man she worked for walked her home in the dark for protection but then had to stop because his wife felt like she was being neglected so he could be nice to a "nigger" who was worthless.  The children whom Nancy works for also enjoy and sometimes even show love for Nancy and then later would say "I ain't a nigger" showing their growing racism, the rasicm that surrounds them.  This story shows the process of change from old thinking to new thinking and taking two steps towards humanity then immediately taking one step back.