Redneck

‘Redneck’ is a term that became popular in the early twentieth century used to describe a poor, uneducated, and agricultural white person of the American South. The term ‘redneck’ is often used negatively as to describe a class difference amongst the whites in the antebellum and post antebellum South. Keeping in mind with the Southern racist ideology of the time that blacks are inferior to whites, rednecks were looked down upon, however they did have an advantage as a “poor white man will always be a //white// man.” 1 ‘Rednecks’ is also a term commonly referred to when discussing Populism in the South. ‘Rednecks’ were known to be vulgar supporters of populist politicians such as Bilbo and Vardaman whom often wore red ties as a sort of joke to their ‘redneck’ roots. While "adversaries hurled the term redneck at them in derision...the followers of Vardaman and Bilbo received it with pride, often sporting red neckties as a sort of perverse badge of honor" 2. Bilbo, in particular, "carried matters into extravagance, wearing red pajamas, red socks, and red galluses" 2.
 * Redneck**


 * Rednecks in Faulkner’s Works**


 * //As I Lay Dying//**

//As I Lay Dying// is a different novel of Faulkner’s in that it gives its reader insight into a different type of Southern class system, that of the white poor. This novel opens up the mentality of this social type as this socio-economic position is usually seen from the outside. The novel moves topographically to the east of Jefferson to a flat, productive, farmland space that is occupied by mostly poor whites. It is important to note that since this population of people was not financially stable they were unable to be plantation slave owners and furthermore the area was occupied predominately by whites. The initial separation of Addie from her family members is that she “is from Jefferson” furthermore making her “‘town folk’ alienated from the ‘redneck’ rural area in which she lives both by reason of her origin and by her intelligence and formal education” 3. It can be said that because of this initial class difference between herself and Anse, and furthermore her children, that she hates her life and begins her slow death. Addie wants to be buried in Jefferson, away from the rural redneck area she began her family in, and thus lies the premise of the novel: the Bundren’s journey with Addie’s dead body into Jefferson. There is a clear separation between the rural rednecks who believed roads were meant to “stay put like a tree or a stand of corn” (36) verses the somewhat modern townie industrialists who used their roads to build houses, “drug stores, clothing stores,…and cafes”(226).

When the Bundren's finally approach Jefferson, Darl begins to notice the townspeople beginning to look at the family. "We follow the wagon, the whispering wheels, passing the cabins where faces come suddenly to the doors, white-eyed. We hear sudden voices, ejaculant" (229). The Bundren's are immediately alienated among entry into the town because "town folk" notice how the different, outdated, and 'redneck' the family appears. Firstly, the Bundren's are delivering Addie's body via wagon as opposed to the modern car. Secondly, the appearance of each family member is fairly ragged (i.e. Cash with a broken-leg covered in cement, tooth-less and lazy Anse). Thirdly, and probably most appalling, the stench of Addie's rotting corpse coming from the wagon.


 * //The Sound and the Fury//**

Miss Quentin has a secret love affair with a man that is never given a name but rather referred to as “the man with the red tie.” When Jason discovers his niece with this man he is enraged. The text alludes to Miss Quentin's lover being a man of color as he is "one of those show folks" (232) and that he’s “got a position in this town, and [he’s] not going to have any member of [his] family going on like a nigger wench” (189). After Jason discovered Miss Quentin with the man in the red tie, he "saw red" (238). Jason seeing red is not only symbolic of his obvious anger, but also his hostility towards blacks which is commonly associated with the populist party.

"..it's letting your own uncle be laughed at by a man that would wear a red tie. They come into town and call us all a bunch of hicks and think it's too small to hold them. Well he doesn't know just how right he is. And her too. If that's the way she feels about it, she'd better keep right on going and a dam good riddance" (243).

Ultimately, Jason is embarrassed that Miss Quentin not only allows this man of color to "laugh at"/ her uncle, but also that they were able to successfully steal "his" money and run-away with it. "For Jason, between the Northern racketeers (the 'New York Jews,' of course) who manipulate the economy to their advantage, and the Southern blacks (to Jason the lazy, parasitical 'niggers') the real, hard-working Southerner has no chance, especially when...the very women whose feminine indulgences he supports with his labor are working to undermine his authority and abuse his trust" 4. This mindset and Jason's fury is clearly rooted in populist rhetoric.


 * Works Cited**

1. Callen, Shirley. “Planter and Poor White in ‘Absalom, Absalom!’ ‘Wash’, and ‘The Mind of the South’” //The South Central Bulletin//, 23.4 (1963) 24-36. JSTOR.

2. Morgan, Chester M. //Redneck Liberal: Theodore G. Bilbo and the New Deal.// Louisiana. Louisiana State University Press. 1985.

3. Alldredge, Betty. "Spatial Form in Faulkner's 'As I Lay Dying.' //The Southern Literary Journal,// 11.1 (1978). 3-19. JSTOR

4. Paradis, Kenneth. //Sex, Paranoia, and Modern Masculinity.// New York. State University of New York Press. 2007.