Teaching Faulkner's Go Down, Moses

Abstract

This study presents a model and, more importantly, a framework, with which to approach the teaching of Faulkner's Go Down. Moses. Written primarily for teachers of Advanced Placement literature classes, this study will help to make Go Down, Moses more accessible to students without minimizing the demands and challenges posed by the novel. General overviews present a rationale for teaching the novel as well as a strategy for teaching that is based on Faulkner's technique of "deliberately withheld meaning". A chapter-by-chapter discussion focuses on the development of major themes which link the seemingly discreet stories. These themes explore the changing relationships between the races, the disappearance of the wilderness, and the influence of the past on the present. This discussion offers questions that are significant and appropriate for teaching the novel.