40 pages • 1 hour read
William FaulknerIntruder In The Dust
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1948A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Charles and his uncle follow the sheriff to the cemetery. As they pass through the rural, desolate setting, Charles reflects on how he found himself in this situation. They pass a solitary African American man plowing a field. In spite of the events in the town, Gavin says, the season still demands that men work in the fields. Other than Aleck Sander and Paralee, this is the only Black person Charles has seen all day. The man, Gavin says, must be from the North. Gavin launches into a discussion about the difference between the North and the South. In the North, he says, the laws are different. Ever since the end of the Civil War, African American people have been free to come and go between the North and South as they please. In the South, Gavin suggests anything of value can only be built “from homogeneity,” so the people of the South should resist influence from the North. Gavin finishes his pontificating on the political future of the desegrated South as they arrive at the cemetery.
They pass the cheaply made church and Charles leads the men to the grave. When they arrive at it, the sheriff asks why the flowers were not put back. Charles is certain that they were. The sheriff tells the prisoners to start digging. They are interrupted by the arrival of three men, armed and with dogs. The men are Mr. Gowrie, Vinson’s father, and Mr. Gowrie’s twin sons, Vardaman and Bilbo. Vinson was the youngest Gowrie son. Forrest is the eldest and Bryan is the third eldest, though neither appears in the novel. The second eldest son, Crawford, found himself in trouble with the law when he deserted from the army during World War I. He hid in the hills around Jefferson, armed with “an automatic pistol which one of the McCallum boys had taken from a captured German officer” and traded to Crawford (164). After serving time in prison, Crawford is now known for “dealing in a little timber and cattle” (165). Mr. Gowrie, who only has one arm, issues a threat against the sheriff and the men seemingly trying to dig up his son’s grave. The sheriff defuses the situation and, when the Gowrie twins dig up their brother’s coffin, they find that it is empty.
Chapter 8 Summary
Staring down at the empty coffin, the men listen to the sheriff’s theory. He believes that the mysterious stranger who passed by on the mule the previous night has now “got two of them” (167). The sheriff suggests that anyone carrying two dead bodies cannot have traveled far. He believes that the other bodies must be nearby. They search the surrounding area, following the “narrow delicate almost finicking mule-prints” until the dogs begin to bark (172). They uncover the body of Jake Montgomery in shallow, sandy dirt. The sheriff suggests that this grave must have been made in a desperate hurry after Charles and the others dug up the grave the previous night. Surmising that Vinson’s body must be buried nearby in a similarly desperate fashion, Gavin recalls that Aleck Sander mentioned quicksand near the road. They reach the quicksand and Mr. Gowrie throws himself into the sinking sand to fetch his son’s body while the others help him. Once the body is recovered, the sheriff turns to Mr. Gowrie to clarify that Lucas Beauchamp didn’t murder Vinson. Jake Montgomery attended Vinson’s funeral, he points out, and Lucas was locked up in the town jail during this time. The type of gun used in the killing also does not match Lucas’s gun. Instead, the sheriff says that Vinson was killed by a German Luger automatic, just like the one Crawford acquired through a trade. Mr. Gowrie orders his sons to take Vinson’s body home.
Chapters 7-8 Analysis
During the second visit to the cemetery, the group of men is joined by representatives from the Gowrie family. The appearance of Mr. Gowrie and his twin sons is, at first, intimidating. Mr. Gowrie demands that the sheriff stop digging and holds up his gun in his one arm as a threat. However, the sheriff does not react to this threat. He defuses the situation in a calm, careful manner. This scene illustrates the disparity in the way the law is applied to people of different races, highlighting the theme of Race and Justice. An African American man like Lucas is locked up immediately and everyone assumes that he will be killed, if not by the state then by a violent mob. Mr. Gowrie, a white man, is able to threaten the local sheriff with a gun, confident that he will not experience any repercussions for doing so. The sheriff accommodates Mr. Gowrie, but for reasons other than his race. Gowrie’s presence at this second exhumation is essential: Mr. Gowrie must see for himself what is in the box. The burden of proof that must be achieved when protecting non-white lives is far higher than that which is needed to condemn non-white lives. Mr. Gowrie is tolerated precisely because the law treats Black and white people differently.
When the grave is exhumed, the coffin is found to be empty. This discovery warrants a search, in which Charles, Gavin, the sheriff, and others join forces with the Gowrie family in search of the bodies. By this time, however, Charles has come to suspect that Mr. Gowrie already knows that Lucas is innocent. He studies Mr. Gowrie’s face, looking for any sign of shock or surprise. When he finds none, he becomes convinced that Mr. Gowrie knew exactly what happened to his son. The only emotion shown by Mr. Gowrie comes when he finds his son’s body in the quicksand pit. Rather than relief or grief, however, he feels disgust that one of his sons could dispose of another in such a disrespectful manner. To Mr. Gowrie, Lucas and the potential lynching are utterly inconsequential. He cares more about the manner of his son’s burial than the potential miscarriage of justice that might have resulted from his son Crawford’s actions. The men are searching for the bodies, which is really a search for truth. But ultimately truth does not come from finding the bodies; it comes from Charles studying Mr. Gowrie and seeing how little he values Lucas’s life.
When Vinson’s body is recovered, Lucas is proved correct. The bullet that killed Vinson does not match the caliber of Lucas’s gun. By the time the body is recovered, however, the actual caliber of Lucas’s weapon has become irrelevant. The sheriff identifies the bullet as coming from a very specific weapon, one taken from a German officer in World War I that then found its way into the hands of Crawford Gowrie. The gun is notoriously the property of Crawford, which turns the recovery of the body into a damning indictment of the Gowrie family. At the same time, Charles is thinking about Lucas. As serious as the situation might be for the Gowries, Lucas’s life is still under threat for a crime that he demonstrably did not commit.
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By William Faulkner
