Predatory Men in William Faulkner’s Novel, Sanctuary Essay -- Faulkner

Predatory men in William Faulkners Novel, SanctuaryWilliam Faulkners novel, Sanctuary, is replete with subtlety and symbolism. En route to Old Frenchmans home base, Temple Drake thinks of baseball players in the Saturday stake she is missing as crouching, uttering short, yelping cries like marsh-fowl disturbed by an alligator, not certain of where the danger is, motionless, poised (37). In creating such an image of predation, Faulkner prepares the ratifier for Temples arrival at Old Frenchmans Place the prey/predator metaphor lending itself perfectly to Temples situation vis--vis the men there. Throughout the novel, Faulkner portrays Temple as feline or animal-like. When she objects to Gowan Stevens driving to Lee Goodwins in search of alcohol, he tells her, put one acrosst get your back up, now (37) and she is constantly springing from come on to place and clawing at doors or blankets, as if she were an agile and jumpy cat. When Goodwin finds her crouching in the control of h is kitchen he lifts her by the scruff of the neck, like a kitten (52), and Popeye similarly grips her b...