去吧，摩西 (1942)

《去吧，摩西》（英语：Go Down, Moses）是威廉·福克纳的一部长篇小说，1942年5月11日出版。小说由从属于同一主题的多篇故事组成，讲述了麦卡斯林家族的命运。这个家族是约克纳帕塔法县的几个庄园主家族之一，有着纯种白人和黑白混血两个支系。全书的时间跨度从1859年持续到1941年，是揭露种族主义、物质主义的一部力作。麦卡斯林与一女黑奴生有一女和一个儿子泰瑞乐。泰瑞乐与庄园主布钱普的儿子女奴谭妮结婚，生的后代都姓布钱普。麦卡斯林的外孙女则嫁给了爱德蒙兹。全书讲述的就是这三个家族的故事。

《去吧，摩西》是由7个相互独立的短篇故事组成的。这些故事有些曾单独发表过，但收入该书时做了大量修改。该作讲述了麦克斯林家一个多世纪的历史，探索了黑人和白人两个支系的关系。《熊》是其中最著名的一篇。主人公艾萨克从小就是孤儿，他继承祖业，山姆·法泽斯是他的精神导师，大熊“老班”也在他的精神生活中扮演了重要角色。16岁那年，他在山姆驯化的猎犬“狮子”帮助下，杀死了“老班”，从而走向了成熟。这篇故事写了与命运的搏斗，强调人类只有通过自己的选择来完成对自身的超越。

Go Down, Moses is a 1942 collection of seven related pieces of short fiction by American author William Faulkner, sometimes considered a novel. The most prominent character and unifying voice is that of Isaac McCaslin, "Uncle Ike", who will live to be an old man; "uncle to half a county and father to no one". Though originally published as a short story collection, Faulkner considered the book to be a novel in the same way The Unvanquished is considered a novel. Because of this, most editions no longer print "and other stories" in the title.

The year is about 1859. "Cass" lives with his great-uncles Theophilus and Amodeus McCaslin, called "Uncle Buck" and "Uncle Buddy" respectively by most of the characters in the book. The story opens with the news that Tomey's Turl, a slave on the McCaslin plantation, has run away. But this is not the first time this has happened and Uncle Buck and Buddy know where he always goes, to Hubert Beauchamp's neighboring plantation to see his love, a slave girl named Tennie. Beauchamp himself has an unmarried sister, Sophonsiba, nicknamed "Sibbey", who seems romantically interested in Buck. Forced to stay the night to look for Tomey's Turl, Buck and Cass accidentally enter Sophonsiba's room, thinking it to be their room. This situation is exploited by Hubert who tries to press Buck into marrying Sophonsiba. Buck does not agree to Hubert's exploitative interpretation of events. Buck, Buddy and Hubert settle both their situation and that of Tomey's Turl by tying them to the outcome of a poker match. If Buck loses, he is to marry Sophonsiba and must agree to buy the slave girl Tennie so Turl will stop running away to see her. Buck loses, but coaxes Hubert into allowing another game, Hubert against Buddy, to determine the marriage and property issues. The stakes are changed many times, but in the end Buddy wins and the McCaslins take Tennie for free.

Uncle Buck and Sophonsiba Beauchamp eventually marry and become the parents of Isaac McCaslin, the central character who serves to unify most of the stories in the novel.

"Was" serves to introduce the reader into the practices and mentality of the antebellum South. Where Tomey's Turl is first introduced, he seems to be referred to more as an animal, such as a horse, than a person. When Hubert and Buck are taking bets on where Tomey's Turl will show up, the reader further sees how far removed from human the slaves are in the eyes of the owners. (Faulkner later reveals that Tomey's Turl is Buck and Buddy's half-brother, the son of their father, Lucius Quintus Carothers McCaslin, and his slave Tomey.) Additionally, it is possible Faulkner intends for the entrapment of Buck into marriage with Sophonsiba to be analogous to slavery, although Buck seems to accept it silently.

"Was"

Summary

Old Isaac McCaslin heard this story, relating events that took place before he was born, from his older cousin, McCaslin Edmonds, who was 16 years his senior and like a father to him.

A young child, McCaslin Edmonds, rides with his Uncle Buck to the neighboring plantation of Hubert Beauchamp, in pursuit of an escaped slave. The slave, Tomey's Turl, runs away frequently to visit Tennie, a slave of the Beauchamps with whom he is in love. Tomey's Turl eludes McCaslin and Uncle Buck, who are forced to rely on the leisurely Hubert Beauchamp for help. They are forced to eat dinner with Beauchamp and his sister Sophonsiba, "Sibbey", who is looking for a husband and has Uncle Buck in mind. Hubert and Buck search through the woods for Turl and make a 500-dollar bet over whether he will be caught outside Tennie's cabin that night. That night he is indeed at the cabin, but he runs past them and eludes capture. Buck and young McCaslin are forced to spend the night at the plantation house.