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Ever since the publication of the novel Sartoria, members of a strange new breed of people by the name of Snopes have appeared in every Faulkner novel and short story which constitutes a part of what is called the Yoknapatawpha chronicle. Heretofore, it has been popular to support the thesis that the Snopeses represented the embodiment of crass commercialism, the inevitable replacement for the dying cotton aristocracy, and the direct retribution for the sins that had caused the downfall of these degenerate Southern gentry. This thesis will attempt to show, not that such a contention is wholly wrong, but that the real meaning of Snopesism lies much deeper than this, far beyond such a simple interpretation.

This thesis evaluates how effectively the trilogy's laws and law enforcers further the ends of the fictional laws. The study examines the trilogy's law enforcers' responses to Snopes violations and bendings of the laws to evaluate the laws and their enforcers. The enforcers' responses to Snopes wrongs make clear how well the laws are written. These responses also reveal how well the enforcers themselves are able to achieve the objectives of the laws. It is argued in the thesis that although the laws are effectively written, the law enforcers fail to enforce the laws and, consequently, fail to achieve the laws' ends. It is also shown that the enforcers invariably harm innocent persons when they fail to enforce the law.

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