--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: With the gun which was too big for him…" description: "\"“With the gun which was too big for him, the breech-loader which did not even belong to him but to Major de Spain and which he had fired only once, at ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/48e/william-faulkner-306_civil-war_with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-t_3072348.jpg" --- # With the gun which was too big for him, the breech-loader… ![“With the gun which was too big for him, the breech-loader which did not even belong to him but to Major de Spain and which he had fired only once, at a stump on the first day to learn the recoil and how to reload it with the paper shells, he stood against a big gum tree beside a little bayou whose…” quote by William Faulkner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/48e/william-faulkner-306_civil-war_with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-t_3072348.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/48e/william-faulkner-306_civil-war_with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-t_3072348.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/48e/william-faulkner-306_civil-war_with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-t_3072348.jpg) > ““With the gun which was too big for him, the breech-loader which did not even belong to him but to Major de Spain and which he had fired only once, at a stump on the first day to learn the recoil and how to reload it with the paper shells, he stood against a big gum tree beside a little bayou whose black still water crept without motion out of a cane-brake, across a small clearing and into the cane again, where, invisible, a bird, the big woodpecker called Lord-to-God by negroes, clattered at a dead trunk. It was a stand like any other stand, dissimilar only in incidentals to the one where he had stood each morning for two weeks; a territory new to him yet no less familiar than that other one which after two weeks he had come to believe he knew a little--the same solitude, the same loneliness through which frail and timorous man had merely passed without altering it, leaving no mark nor scar, which looked exactly as it must have looked when the first ancestor of Sam fathers' Chickasaw predecessors crept into it and looked about him, club or stone axe or bone arrow drawn and ready, different only because, squatting at the edge of the kitchen, he had smelled the dogs huddled and cringing beneath it and saw the raked ear and side of the bitch that, as Sam had said, had to be brave once in order to keep on calling herself a dog, and saw yesterday in the earth beside the gutted log, the print of the living foot. He heard no dogs at all. He never did certainly hear them. He only heard the drumming of the woodpecker stop short off, and knew that the bear was looking at him. he did not move, holding the useless gun which he knew now he would never fire at it, now or ever, tasting in his saliva that taint of brass which he had smelled in the huddled dogs when he peered under the kitchen.”” [William Faulkner](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-faulkner/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A soldier confronts alienation and the weight of history in a foreign landscape, feeling both unfamiliarity and deep connection. **In simple terms:** A man feels isolated yet linked to the past. Key Takeaway Embrace the unknown while honoring heritage. Themes war alienation history nature Mood melancholic reflective Type literary descriptive When to use this quote - combat zones - colonial settings - personal reflection - historical research Key Concepts existentialism memory identity Questions to Reflect On - What does the gun symbolize for him? - How does the environment mirror his inner state? 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It was a stand like any other stand, dissimilar only in incidentals to the one where he had stood each morning for two weeks; a territory new to him yet no less familiar than that other one which after two weeks he had come to believe he knew a little--the same solitude, the same loneliness through which frail and timorous man had merely passed without altering it, leaving no mark nor scar, which looked exactly as it must have looked when the first ancestor of Sam fathers' Chickasaw predecessors crept into it and looked about him, club or stone axe or bone arrow drawn and ready, different only because, squatting at the edge of the kitchen, he had smelled the dogs huddled and cringing beneath it and saw the raked ear and side of the bitch that, as Sam had said, had to be brave once in order to keep on calling herself a dog, and saw yesterday in the earth beside the gutted log, the print of the living foot. He heard no dogs at all. He never did certainly hear them. He only heard the drumming of the woodpecker stop short off, and knew that the bear was looking at him. he did not move, holding the useless gun which he knew now he would never fire at it, now or ever, tasting in his saliva that taint of brass which he had smelled in the huddled dogs when he peered under the kitchen.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "William Faulkner" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-faulkner/with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-the-breech-loader-which-did/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Civil war" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-faulkner/with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-the-breech-loader-which-did/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/48e/william-faulkner-306_civil-war_with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-t_3072348.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/48e/william-faulkner-306_civil-war_with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-t_3072348.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/48e/william-faulkner-306_civil-war_with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-t_3072348.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“With the gun which was too big for him, the breech-loader which did not even belong to him but to Major de…” — William Faulkner", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "William Faulkner", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/william-faulkner/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“With the gun which was too...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-faulkner/with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-the-breech-loader-which-did/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/william-faulkner/with-the-gun-which-was-too-big-for-him-the-breech-loader-which-did/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```