What Does Tomey's Turrl Symbolize

“Was” is a short story written by William Faulkner that embodies the white South at this time, around 1859. Slavery is still going on, and the story focuses on slave, Tomey’s Turl. This slave is front and center. He controls most of the story and his masters’, Uncle Buck and Uncle Buddy, actions. I think Faulkner lets Tomey’s Turl dominate the story to allow his readers to step inside Tomey’s Turl’s mind. We see that nothing really phases Tomey’s Turl, except the affection of his girlfriend Tennie. Tomey’s Turl is also always able to escape like a fox, only to be hunted down by the dogs later. Faulkner writes, “Tomey’s Turl should have jumped down and run for it afoot as soon as he saw them. But he didn’t; maybe Tomey’s Turl had been running …show more content…
Due to miscegenation, Tomey’s Turl is a threat. No one else in the community will take him. Even though Tomey’s Turl is blood to the brothers, the bothers choose to treat him as an outsider. They only keep him out of honor and respect for the other slaveholders. Faulkner says, “They couldn’t sell Tomey’s Turl to Mr. Hubert because Mr. Hubert said he not only wouldn’t buy Tomey’s Turl, he wouldn’t have that damn white half-McCaslin on his place even as a free gift, not even if Uncle Buck and Uncle Buddy were to pay board and keep for him” (86). They choose to ignore the blood times, and only focus on race. The brothers view money as stronger than blood. For example, Mr. Hubert says, “‘If I win, you take Sibbey without dowry and [Tomey’s Turl and Tennie], and I don’t owe ‘Filus anything. If you win—’” Uncle Buddy interrupts and says “‘— Theophilus is free, and you owe him the three hundred dollars for Tomey’s Turl’” (106). It was all about the money and who would take the white woman. No one thought about compassion and empathy for the black slaves or what Sibbey, Mr. Hubert’s sister, wanted. The slaves were viewed as inhumane, and the woman too incapable of taking care of herself. This story aims to prove that Uncle Buck, Uncle Buddy, and other white men in the South, believed that they were racially superior to the black people and that women truly had no power.. They did not take the black man’s emotions or heart into account. …show more content…
There is also a value of pride and self-sufficiency with the nature of inheritance. Uncle Buddy and Uncle Buck give up their inherited plantation house to instead live in the slave quarters. This was a unique approach that Faulkner took. It demonstrates that possibly the brothers were so appalled that black blood has dripped down into their blood line that they could not handle being reliant on the black man. At the beginning of Malcolm Cowley’s Portable Faulkner it says, ““Was” is the opening chapter of Go Down Moses. It introduces Uncle Buck and Uncle Buddy McCaslin, the two poker-playing bachelors who lived in a cabin built with their own two hands, because – although they had inherited a big plantation – they refused to profit from the fruits of slavery” (2). This shows a self-resilience to try and maintain some level of control over slavery. The brothers did not want their slaves’ work to be the image of their success. They wanted to be successful by their own right, and not because of a black man. This is an interesting and uncommon approach in the South at this time. We also see, as readers, what value white, Southern men place on themselves. They believe they are capable of anything simply because they were born into this world. They view a black as a fyce. The viciousness of being a fyce is represented by how whites treat the blacks. The white community is seen as