In keeping with SAMLA's theme for this year (Human Rights and the Humanities) this panel aims to examine the ways in which the scrutinizing view of the public eye impacts the construction of a character's identity in the work of William Faulkner. For example, in her book Race, Ethnicity and Sexuality (2003), Joane Nagel argues that race is a social construction rather than an inherent aspect of identity and writes that racial divisions are created in order to "form a barrier to hold some people in and keep others out, to define who is pure and who is impure, to shape our view of ourselves and others." How do racial divisions—or other socially constructed divisions, such as sexuality, nationality, ethnicity, etc.—impact relationships within a society?