Returning to One's Desk, by Anjelo Reyes

 Returning to One’s Desk: Lingering Questions About Go Down, Moses, by Anjelo Reyes

“‘Is you gonter put hit in de paper? I wants it all in de paper. All of hit.’ And I wanted to say, ‘If I should happen to know how he really died, do you want that in too?’ And by Jupiter, if I had and if she had known what we know even, I believe she would have said yes. But I didn’t say it. I just said, ‘why you couldn’t read it, Aunty.’ And she said, ‘Miss Belle will show me whar to look and I can look at hit. You put it in de paper. All of hit.’”

“Oh,” Stevens said. Yes, he thought. It doesn’t matter to her now. Since it had to be and she couldn’t stop it, and now that it’s all over and done and finished, she doesn’t care how he died. She just wanted him home, but she wanted him to come home right. She wanted that casket and those flowers and the hearse and she wanted to ride through town behind it in a car. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go back to town. I haven’t seen my desk in two days.” (Faulkner 365)

Throughout the entirety of “Go Down, Moses,” Faulkner emphasizes the importance of giving an honest account. Even from the very first chapter, “Was,” we see that Faulkner writes about a family story passed down, and thereafter writes a series of vignettes that continues this unfolding of the family history in a similar manner. But what is the importance of history—of giving an honest account? Why must one always tell it or write down no matter how ugly it may be? Why does Mollie want the her grandson on the paper even if he did something terrible? 

In conjunction with these lingering questions, it is interesting to me that Stevens is eager to return to his desk. He cannot take the gravity and perhaps the “white guilt” that he feels when he sees Mollie crying or when he sees the funeral procession. It is too much for him; he must go back home. Even though Stevens is eager to run away, however, it is still clear that throughout the story he does so much for the black family, and is the one responsible for making the funeral possible. Nevertheless, there seems to be a guilt, one that he cannot handle and must get away from. He must return to his desk, an implication that he must write.

And so we return to the matter of writing—of giving an account. In a certain ways, that seems to be Stevens’ job throughout the story in general: to report back, to give an account. Does Faulkner in some way reveal his own shortcomings as a writer when he writes about Stevens’ character? Does he, too, feel guilt despite writing in advocacy for black lives and stories?