The Use of Imagery in Fitzgerald's "May Day"

and Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury"

Michael Stutz

Intro To Fiction

Dr. Burchmore
 In "May Day", F. Scott Fitzgerald uses his unique descriptive

writing style which is loaded with imagery. This is characterized

partly by his sensitive desciptions of inanimate objects. For

example, "When Edith came out into the clear blue of the May night

she found the Avenue deserted." (The Stories of F. Scott Fitzgerald,

pg. 126) The 'clear blue' referring to the May night says is all,

and reinforces the tone of the novelette. Also, "The wealthy, happy

sun glittered in transient gold through the thick windows of the

smart shops, lighting upon mesh bags and purses and strings of pearls

in gray velvet cases; upon gaudy feather fans of many colors; upon

the laces and silks of expensive dresses; upon the bad paintings and

the fine peroid furniture in the elaborate show rooms of interior

decorators." (pg. 104) These still-life images are so vivid that one

can see the quiet, dusty shops, and almost feel the passing threads of

hope that Gordon Sterrett felt before his untimely suicide at the end of

the story. Fitzgerald makes the reader feel for Mr. Sterrett through

the use of these subtleties. By the end of the story, one actually

feels the complete despair that Mr. Sterrett feels, partly due to the

images Fitzgerald uses: "He looked at the dusky gray shadows in the

corners of the room and at a raw place on a large leather chair in the
corner where it had long been in use. He saw clothes, dishevelled,

rumpled clothes on the floor and he smelt stale cigarette smoke and

stale liquor. The windows were tight shut." (pg. 141) Furthermore,

I noticed that Fitzgerald uses a lot of metaphors and similies, which

brings to mind English poets such as Robert Browning in his "Prospice."

For example, "The windows of the big shops were dark; over their doors

were drawn great iron masks until they were only shadowy tombs of the

late day's splendor." (pg. 126), compares the closed doors of the shops

to places of burial not unlike Browning compared death to fighting a

battle. And like Keats, in his "Ode to a Grecian Urn", where he

addresses the urn as is it was a human being, Fitzgerald uses the

abstract images of a "Mr. In" and a "Mr. Out", two doors, walking down

Broadway at dawn, and makes colorful images of them "...dizzy with the

extreme maudlin happiness that the morning had awaken in their glowing

souls. Indeed, so fresh and vigorous was their pleasure in living that

they felt it should be expressed by loud cries." (pp. 135-6) This almost

comic passage relates deeper images on the moods of life and the fact

it does keep moving even when one has left it, which is part of the

central theme of "May Day."

In "The Sound and the Fury", William Faulkner's imagery is

characterized by the fact that almost all of it takes place through the

minds of the narrators Benji, Quentin and Jason. The Dilsey section is

the closest to his own thoughts and images. In the Benji part of the

novel, all of the imagary is very basic and physical, but Faulkner has

mastered this so well that it is hard to believe that the words were

written by a sane, educated man. For example, "Versh's hand came with the

spoon, into the bowl. The spoon came up to my mouth. The steam tickled

in my mouth." ("The Sound and the Fury", Norton Critical Edition, pg. 16)
This is so simple and basic that it is great. I would have never thought

of 'the spoon' moving as an inanimate object; a regular narrator would

have said something to the effect of 'Versh's hand guided the spoon'.

Also, the steam 'tickling my mouth' is a simple observation reinforcing

my point about the section being more physical/sensory than anything else.

"We watched the tree shaking. the shaking went down the tree, then it

came out and we watched it go away across the grass." (pg. 46) This is

another example of Benji's simple, idiotic but observant view of the

world. Moreover, in the Quentin section, the imagery tends to be more

like Faulkner's own words, like "Through the wall I heard Shreve's bed-

springs and then his slippers on the floor hishing. I got up and went to

the dresser and slid my hand along it and touched the watch and turned

it face-down and went back to bed." (pg. 47) The slippers 'hishing' is

a staple Faulkner image, which I will discuss shortly. This passage

also shows Quentin's unrest and mental despair, like Gordon Sterrett's

in "May Day", through the use of small descriptive images, the ones in

this section coming from Quentin's mind/mouth rather than an omniscient

narrator. The slight action Quentin made with his watch is a nervous one

which foreshadows his destruction of it, and later his eventual suicide.

"...feeling the eyes animals used to have in the back of their heads when

it was on top, itching. It's always the idle habits you acquire which you

will regret." (pg. 47) This comes almost directly after the first quote,

and it reinforces the nervous, 'I-can't-run-away-from-it' feelings that

Quentin has. And furthermore, in Jason's section of the book, his

images and descriptions show his as the shallow, evil person that he is.

"...gobbing paint on her face and waiting for six niggers that cant even

stand up out of a chair unless they've got a pan full of bread and meat

to balance them, to fix breakfast for her." (pg. 109) This, part of

Jason's opening statements, displays his complete lack of respect and

'gobbing paint' on her face rather than 'applying makeup to her face'

or something or other clearly shows this. And his view of Dilsey: "She

was so old she couldn't do any more than move harldy. But that's all

right: we need somebody in the kitchen to eat the grub the young ones

cant tote off." (pg. 112) The images of her 'eating grub' and of him

pushing her around is another display of his dastardly evilness. And

he views the music being played: "The band was playing again, a loud

fast tune, like they were breaking up." (pg. 148) This and all of the

other images used throughout this section portray Jason as the bastard

he is. Lastly, in the last, narrative Dilsey section, Faulkner's own

thoughts and images are pictured. The first sentance, like Quentin's

slippers, has many of the sensitive, subtle Faulkner images along with

his other technical, observant ones: "The day dawned bleak and chill, a

moving wall of gray light out of the norteast which, instead of

dissolving into moisture, seemed to disintegrate into minute and

venemous particles, like dust that, when Dilsey opened the door of the

cabin and emerged, needled laterally in her flesh, precipitating not so

much a moisture as a substance partaking of the quality of thin, not

quite congealed oil." (pg. 158) The paragraph continues into more

description of the same vein, getting technical and prescise, but at the

same time letting Faulkner keep his composure as the observant Southern

gentleman. This displays his brilliance as a writer and his ability to

create moods and tones with his scenes. In my opinion, a whole paper

could be written on just the words he uses in those first five

paragraphs, creating a breathtaking view of a common scene. The images

he uses to describe Jason in this section portrays him just like the

reader had already pictured him: "...cold and shrewd, with close-

thatched brown hair curled into two stubborn hooks, one on either side
of his forehead like a bartender in caricature, and hazel eyes with

black-ringed irises like marbles..." (pg. 167). His use of images and

the descriptiveness of them gives a firm base to the ideas and themes

that the reader interprets through the reading of the novel. These

images build upon the 'disintegration' theme as well as all others, and

probably in different ways to different readers. But there is no question

that the images get ideas across.

From this comparison I learned that both authors use slightly similar

images (they are both sensitve, Fitzgerald has a more apostrophic,

metaphorical approach in this novel, and Faulkner is more technical and

'scientific', for lack of a better term) in their works to portray the

central theme along with subthemes, which for the most part I believe are

up to the individual for interpretation. Both are masterpieces which

were not as accepted in their time as they are today (Fitzgerald received

only $200 for his work, and the critics didn't exactly jump on Faulkner's

boo, they said it was confusing among other things). I believe that

imagery is an integral part of both these author's styles, and I hope that

I made it clear through this essay.