In "Dry September" by William Faulkner, characterization seems like a strong literacy element because through each character you see how a lot of people were during those times, specifically 1931 like it says at the end of the story. There's also a social aspect to it because they acted the way they acted because they believed in the hierarchies that probably was kind of like this:
Rich white man
Middle class white man
Poor white man
Rich black man
Middle class black man
Poor black man
Anyway, this type of scale was what they based everything off of. Well, they brought the white women before the black men, but after the white men because back then, the white men didn't think the women could make their own decisions or have their own opinion which was complete discrimination. In this story, a black man was accused of doing something to a white woman whether it was raping her or just give her a look, but it doesn't specifically say it, but you can infer. One white man stood up for the black man because he knew the guy was good and didn't think he would do anything to harm anyone, so, of course, the other white men get on his case about it. This shows that, socially, a few of the white men actually cared for the blacks, but most didn't. In this, they characterized each person by what they had to say on the fact of the matter, and how they felt about certain things.
Reading Times:
"Waltz of the Fat Man": 25 minutes, "Harrison Bergeron": 25 minutes, "And of Clay we are Created": 35 minutes, "Dry September": 35 minutes, North of Beautiful: 50 minutes
Total: 170 minutes
I agree that setting is the most important part of this story. Setting always tends to be important because it affects the characters in every story.
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