Vernon Tull's Mother
Character Key Number:
1336
Display Name:
Vernon Tull's Mother
Sort Name:
Tull, Mother of Vernon
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?:
Yes
Biography:
The "mammy" that Vernon Tull speaks of in As I Lay Dying is his biological mother - not a black caregiver or wet nurse, as would be the case with a 'mammy' in an upper class white Yoknapatawpha family. Vernon thinks of her in reference to the hard lot women have in life: she "lived to be seventy and more" having worked everyday of her life and never having been sick (30). At the end of that life she puts on "that lace-trimmed night gown she had had for forty-five years and never wore," lays down, and tells her family "I'm tired" (30).