Abstract
When William Faulkner created his works, he tried to put everything not into one volume, but on “one pinhead.” He himself says because of this attempt, he often receives criticism of his works that points out its ambiguities. Among others, “That Evening Sun” is so ambiguous that reading only once is not enough to judge even what happened and what did not.
However, reading it again and again, this “pinhead-like” story ably describes a universal circumstance of human life. In this paper, I examine the psychology behind Nancy's action to clarify the ambiguity and the essence of her agony. By my study, it became clear that Nancy's agony is caused by the abyss which yawns between men and women, or whites and blacks. Throughout the story, Nancy acts aggressively longing for the comfortableness of the “white world.” In other words, she struggles frantically to be a white woman. at a pity it is that this attempt is completely empty, for the gulf between her side and the other is bottomlessly deep. Eventually, realizing that, she falls down in the land of black folks' world like an evening sun.
The last scene of this work is so desperate as to be associated with death. In a sense, it may be proper to judge that Nancy passed away in the end. It is Nancy, to be accurate, who wants to be a white to end up with death. I can say she will rise up in the next morning with her delight in being black. It is because her sound can be heard after falling. Moreover, this rising of Nancy is based on the author's belief that “man will not merely endure: he will prevail.”
