Caspey Strother

Character Key Number: 
43
Display Name: 
Caspey Strother
Sort Name: 
Strother, Caspey
Parent Character Key: 
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

In Flags in the Dust Caspey is the son of Simon Strother and the brother of Elnora. He is also one of the five men in the novel who are returning from France after the end of World War I. Caspey served in a non-combatant role with the U.S. Army over there; when he returned home to Jefferson, he brought with him some wildly exaggerated tales about his military service, and a set of new ideas about racial equality which made his family very nervous and drove Old Bayard to knock him down with a stick of stove wood. After that he seems willing to accept his place as a servant of the Sartorises, at least for the rest of the novel. He is mentioned again in "There Was a Queen," where he is now identified as "Elnora's husband" (727). He is no longer on the Sartoris place, but instead serving a sentence in the penitentiary "for stealing" (727). No other details about his life are provided.