Summary Of Rider's Pantaloon In Black

It is not that we are selfish, but that we only see the world from our own point of view. We only feel our own emotions, and not others. Language has been used a tool used to communicate emotions and thoughts to others, but that is not its true form. Faulkner illustrates the track of the human mind and the inadequacy of human language as communication, through the grief and interactions of Rider.

In Pantaloon in Black, Rider struggles with verbalizing his emotions and how he understands the world around him. Rider connects with the dog, not only because it is the only living thing connected to his home and wife, but because the dog is nonverbal. This connection is shown through prolonged contact and the fact that the dog is the only being

able to travel with Rider. The dog makes no demands, no judgements, and physically rather than verbally, connects with Rider. Rider cannot talk about how he feels, and the dog is becomes Rider’s outlet. The dog and Rider are very much alike then, maybe not by choice, but both are more able to express their meanings through physical movements and looks. Rider seems to have no feasible relationships with any verbal characters. The Deputy believes that Rider has no emotion and does not understand Rider cannot cope with his wife’s death and that is why he throws the dirt on the grave, and immediately walks home. His care is shown through the illusion of the ghost of his wife, which includes his want to travel with her-and leave his current life. This is also shown through his small observations of the wife's past roles, like her footprints in dirt. Rider drinks to clear his mind, because that is the only way he knows how to cope (found in excerpts of his past life before his wife). When Rider is drinking, there is heavy description and use of metaphors. This diction implies importance on physical movement and emotional reactions by Rider and the reader. His actions of throwing the logs is important as well. The log being thrown, and being very hard to be thrown, represents how he feels about life after the death of his wife. It is difficult for Rider to give up on life, to “throw it” perhaps, but he does it anyway, and during all of these events, we see him and his train of thought, and then reactions of others. The reactions of others are their to help the reader see the disconnect between people.
The deputy provides an outside look on Rider. The deputy goes into intense description defining the moments before, during, and after Rider imprisonment. The deputy describes Rider and then proceeds to ask his wife, “‘with tears big as glass marbles running across his face and down past his ears and making a kind of popping sound on the floor like somebody dropping bird eggs, laughing and laughing and saying, “hit look lack Ah just can’t quit thinking. Look lack Ah just can't quit.’ And what do you think of that?’”, His wife responds with “‘I think if you eat any supper in this house you'll do it in the next five minutes,’ his wife said from the dining room. ‘I’m going to clear this table then and I’m going to the picture show.’” (Faulkner 373). The wife does not seem to care, she has ignored her husband's obvious desire to gauge a reaction out of her. This shows the disconnect between people, that although he has tried so hard to understand and help his wife understand, she cannot. Even descriptive language is unable to suffice the wanted portrayed emotion. The deputy himself is representational of disconnect. The Deputy does not understand or connect with Rider, nor his wife. All characters that have come into contact with Rider, have been unable to understand what he is doing, and why.
The deputy believes that Rider performed these heinous actions because Rider has no feeling, no emotion. The deputy describes Rider with little emotion but judgement, as he compares him to a white man, placing Rider in a negative light. The deputy describes him this way because he does not understand him, the way he feels, or why he acts. It is known that he does not understand because of the way he asks his wife. The Deputy asks his wife in reassurance of his idea, to further help use her opinion to form his.
The order of the story matters in terms of Rider as well.

The order of Pantaloon in Black matches the track of the human mind. The story begins with the burial of Rider’s wife, Mannie. The story sweeps across certain aspects and details and focuses on things like people would. The very first paragraph is mainly dedicated to how Rider is flinging dirt across his wife’s grave. As the story progresses, details are orientated around Rider and changing physical aspects. As Rider is talking to his Aunt, Rider is described as, “Glancing down at the other, his eyes red at the inner corners, in his high slightly back tilted head.” (Faulkner 358). This places importance on his physical movement rather than the dialog between him and his aunt which had just preceded his description. Throughout the entire story, there is an importance placed on description of Rider and emotion instead of dialog. When dialog is introduced it further complicates Rider’s or the Deputy’s situation. When Rider talks to his Aunt, she tries to make Rider stay away from home, but Rider dismisses her readily replying “Ah’m goan home”, Faulkner then writes, “walking out from under her hand, his forearm like iron, as if the weight on it were no more than that of a fly” (358). This implies that dialog, and speech is not sufficient for communication and stability for Rider, and he is more focused on physical and mental feeling. As Rider sees the illusion of his wife faulkner writes, “She was going fast now, he could actually feel between them the insuperable barrier of that very strength which could handle, alone a log which would have taken any two other men the handle, of the blood and bones and flesh too strong, invincible for life, having learned at least once with his own eyes how tough, even in sudden and violent death, not a young man’s bones and flesh perhaps but the will of that bone and flesh to remain alive, actually was.” (361). This scene also places importance on non-spoken bonds. As people

we generally remember things in small fragments of detail and our general emotion towards that being or thing, not by words spoken.