Delta Autumn

Commentary

The hugely significant event in this story, set again in Isaac's advanced old age, is the reunification of the "black" branch of the McCaslin family tree with the "white" branch. Carothers Edmonds is Carothers McCaslin's great-great-great-grandson and the heir of the white branch; his lover is McCaslin's great-great-granddaughter and the heir of the black branch. Their child stems from both sources and from the single ultimate source, Carothers McCaslin (who is described as self-engendering, despite all biological evidence). Nevertheless, Isaac is upset by the revelation; he believes that history is not yet ready for the union of the branches and of the races. But Faulkner suggests that history marches on despite human opinion of it; the child of Carothers Edmonds and Tennie's Jim's granddaughter will carry the McCaslin family forward into the future.

Around this revelation, the story takes up the question of gender difference--not so much in political terms as in psychological terms and in terms of the regeneration of the species. The symbolism is a bit heavy-handed (the men are no longer allowed to kill does, only bucks; Carothers Edmonds says that history is never lacking in does and children), but it becomes more central to the novel's main concerns when we remember that Carothers Edmonds is the heir to the female branch of the McCaslin family tree, the Edmonds branch, just as Isaac is heir to the male, McCaslin, branch. When Carothers Edmonds kills the doe at the end of the story, it is a kind of act of self-obliteration.

The killing of the doe is also illegal and references the argument Edmonds has with Isaac over the nature of human moral behavior. Isaac, taking a more optimistic tone from his youthful obsession with historical shame and the curse of ownership, argues that people are essentially good but are held down by their circumstances. Edmonds argues that people behave because they are afraid of the police, afraid of punishment. By killing the doe, Carothers Edmonds steps outside that fear but without proving himself any better than his circumstances.