A Measure of Victory: Go Down, Moses and the Subversion of Racial Codes

Abstract

This article studies the way white and black characters in Go Down, Moses engage with the racial codes inside the McCaslin plantation. It tries to examine the impact of William Faulkner's engagement with social change and race relations on the structure of the seven stories that make up the text of Go Down, Moses. It argues that there is a measure of triumph in the continuous attempts by both black and white characters at subverting the racial order in the southern plantation even though these attempts are quite often subverted by counter attempts at maintaining the status quo. The book achieves a “measure of victory” in the way its narrative techniques acknowledge and respect the otherness of black people and, more importantly, in the way its white and black characters maintain their determination to subvert the codes of the Southern racial ideology.