The Art Of Go Down, Moses

William Faulkner's Go Down, Moses is a famous American novel. It causes controversies immediately when it first gets published because of its special construction. Since then, all major literary critical schools have all tried their theories on this novel. However, none of them is adequate in its analysis of Go Down, Moses, or is able to exhaust its meaning.This thesis attempts to interpret Go Down, Moses from a new perspective to reveal its art by focusing on the dualities and interrelations of its structure, characters, and themes of the novel in the context of American culture and history.The introduction takes a brief look into American society in its transition from the 1870s to the 1950s, which shaped the development of American literature in that period. This may help us better understand Faulkner's mind and the art of Go Down, Moses.Chapter One discusses the structure of Go Down, Moses, focusing on its duality of unity and looseness. The artistic structure of the novel corresponds to the uncertainty of the social reality of American South. Chapter Two gives a detailed analysis of three main characters in the novel. Being descendants of one family, they share some qualities of the McCaslins and at the same time contrast with one another in many aspects. Their contrastive characteristics reflect people's worldviews and lifestyles in the era of transition in the American South. Chapter Three illuminates two contrastive themes in this novel: the black and white relationship and the relationship between wilderness and civilization.The concluding chapter emphasizes that Go Down, Moses, created in the entangled American South, is naturally influenced by its social disturbance and cultural change. The duality of the novel's structure, the contrasts of characters, the complexity of themes artistically reflectthe reality of the American South.