Dry September

Henry Hawkshaw, the protagonist of “Dry September,” is a barber at the local barbershop. He believes in Will Mayes’s innocence even though the other men question his white Southern manhood and cultural allegiance: “Find out the facts first, boys. I know Willy Mayes. It wasn’t him” (172). He urges the others to discover the facts and let the police do their job. As Hawkshaw defends Mayes, he risks alienation from his community and retaliation by its citizens. 

Judged harshly, Hawkshaw symbolizes the complicity and moral ambiguity of the community because he joins the mob and does not respond to Will Mayes when he calls Hawkshaw by name; a more sympathetic interpretation is that he’s the rational conscience of the narrative as he pleads for patience over vigilante justice. When Hawkshaw joins the lynch mob in search of Mayes, he hopes to protect him or to deter the men. When Mayes calls him by name for help, Hawkshaw doesn’t respond because he realizes that Mayes’s fate is sealed and that he (Henry) is powerless over the clan mentality. Unable to witness the inevitable crime, Hawkshaw leaps from the moving car. He lands, retching in the