Go down, Moses: The New Possibility of Lucas Beauchamp as a Mulatto Hero

『내려가라, 모세여』(Go Down, Moses): 루카스 보챔프가 제시하는 뮬라토 주인공의 가능성

In Faulkner's many works, most Mulattoes are represented as tragic characters who feel confused with their racial identity and are sacrificed by the Southern racism in the end. However, in Go Down, Moses Lucas Beauchamp is an exceptional mulatto in that he survives the Southern racism and achieves some dignity as a human. It is because he maintains the relationship with his family and environment as a skilled farmer. Although Southerners idealized their lives in plantations as nature-friendly and ecological way of life, plantation owners had little direct relationship with land as plantations were cultivated by black slaves' labor. Therefore, white landowners had little knowledge about cultivation and ecological awareness. Although Lucas Beauchamp is criticized as he has the strong will to power and patriarchal attitude, it is partly caused from endeavor to overcome the suppression as a black male whose masculinity is denied in the Southern society. In spite of his limitation, he shows the possibility to escape from the curse prevailing in the South, which abuses land and other races through the relationship with others and land. He has positive aspects in that he has genuine relationship with land and others and takes his responsibility for others, searching the most suitable way to survive as a black.