McCallum Graveyard (Location Key)
At the top of a slope behind the McCallum house, in "a small clump" of cedars "somehow shaggily formal against the starred sky," is the McCallums' family burial place (59). "The Tall Men" ends in this "small rectangle of earth enclosed by a low brick coping" (59). At present it contains only "two plain granite slabs set upright in the earth" marking the graves of "Old Anse and Mrs. Anse" (59-60). But the future resting places for the family's next two generations have already been determined, so Gombault knows where to put Buddy's leg.
Faulkner's 1941 short story "The Tall Men" ends in the McCallum family graveyard, "a small rectangle of earth enclosed by a low brick coping" in a "small clump" of cedar trees up a slope from the McCallum house ("The Tall Men," 59). The "old deputy marshal" and "the state draft investigator" (45) climb the slope in order to bury the amputated leg of Buddy McCallum in the ground where Buddy himself will one day lie. Already buried there are Buddy's parents, "Old Anse and Mrs. Anse" (60), their resting places marked by "two plain granite slabs set upright in the earth" (59). Buddy's deceased wife is not there; the marshal explains that she "wanted to be buried with her folks" (60), a preference that recalls Addie Bundren's wish. 'Mrs. Buddy' may lie in yet another family graveyard, but the story itself gives no hint where "her folks" are buried. The story's surprisingly preachy moral is delivered by the marshal while he digs and then fills in the hole for Buddy's leg.
Occupants:Old Anse McCallum, Mrs. Anse McCallum, Buddy McCallum's leg.
Linked Locations
digyok:node/location_key/11019