Dry September

A word used to describe a traveling salesman peddling his wares across the countryside, drummers typically carried their goods in square leather boxes as they traveled. Particularly popular in the South during the Civil War era (1861-1865), drummers got their name because they pounded on their boxes with drumsticks to announce their presence as they walked along the lanes leading to plantation homes, lest they be shot if they caught the owner unaware or if they were suspected of being a Yankee spy. At least two different drummers make appearances throughout “Dry September.” While the locations of their homes are not revealed to the reader, their occupation as drummers implies they travel throughout the South, symbolizing the widespread influence of prejudice and racial violence.

The title “Dry September” is a metaphor for the period of rapid change in the early 20th century that sacrificed tradition, challenging the conventional view of the world. As the values and traditions of the Old South waned, September signifies not only the changing of seasons from fall to winter but also a bygone era replaced by a new one.

As progress fractured many aspects of American life that Modernism sought to reassemble in new and exciting ways, the title “Dry September” further satirizes the construct of womanhood in terms of reproduction synonymous with the changing of seasons.