William Faulkners Spotted Horses and Mule in the Yard

A detailed Summary of William Faulkners Spotted Horses and Mule in the Yard

"Spotted Horses" and "Mule in the Yard" are two short stories by William Faulkner that deal with comedic animal chases. Although both provide entertaining examples of Faulkner's work in very similar settings, on the scale of literary value, "Spotted Horses" rises above "Mule in the Yard" in depth and insight. This superiority is result of both it's narrative style and character development, which causes "Spotted Horses" to produce an overall more powerful effect than "Mule in the Yard".

The most notable and important difference between the two stories is the contrasting narrative style. In "Spotted Horses", the story is told in first person point of view by a narrator who observes the major events of the story but is involved in only a minor fashion. His narration provides the audience with a look at the town and it's inhabitants through the eyes of someone living in the county of Mississippi. This adds a realistic dimension to the image of the story. It is also through this narrative style that Faulkner weaves humor into "Spotted Horses". The narrator shows the

story in a comic light simply through his words right from the introductory paragraph. For example, the audience is introduced immediately with a casual "Yes, sir. Flem Snopes has filled that whole country full of spotted horses. You can hear folks running them all day and night, whooping and hollering, and the horses running back and forth across those little wooden bridges ever now and then kind of like thunder." (349) In contrast, "Mule in the Yard" is told in the objective viewpoint. With this type of information, the reader can only observe what is seen and heard. Therefore, it follows that the reader must infer everything about the characters and their motivations from only their actions and dialogue. Faulkner weaves humor into the story through the distinct dialogue and ironic situations that occur in "Mule in the Yard". For example, in the opening scene, Mrs. Hait and old Het are chasing a mule out of their yard. If the reader imagines the scene that Faulkner writes about with "...old Het...waving a shopping bag. [Yelling] 'Hoo!' [As] Mrs. Hait whirled. Again she skidded savagely on the greasy planks as she and the mule rushed parallel with one another..." (364), there is definitely humor within it. Yet, the humor is not as effective as it is in "Spotted Horses" where it is a part of the entire tone of the story, not only in the situations but also with the interior involvement of the narrator and his interaction with the characters.

This different character development can be seen in examination of the character that the two stories have in common, I.O. Snopes. In "Mule in the Yard", the objective narrator shows us I.O. Snopes by describing him as "a squat, pasty man perennially tieless and with a stained, harried expression" (365) who buys unruly mules from Memphis and brings them to the town where Mrs. Hait and old Het live, where they constantly get loose. While this descrip

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Approximate Word count = 1292
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: Foreign