Submitted by kristi.humphrey... on Wed, 2014-12-10 18:34
The Compsons are among Yoknapatawpha's oldest inhabitants, and their big mansion house appears in a number of other Faulkner fictions. In this story, the only part of their plantation that is mentioned is the "creek" where "Mrs. Compson's husband" makes slave children stand while he shoots sweet potatoes off their heads (62). It's a confusing event, because it's hard to figure out who this "husband" might be.
Submitted by kristi.humphrey... on Wed, 2014-12-10 18:26
Although there must have been a number of slave cabins in the quarters of the Sartoris place, Faulkner only mentions two, both identified with the slaves who worked in the big house rather than in the fields; after the Yankees burn down the mansion, both cabins are eventually occupied by members of the white family. This one is called "the other cabin" (62). In the earlier "Ambuscade" it was where Loosh and Philadelphy lived; now Joby and Louvinia are there, and it is to this cabin - and Louvinia - that Drusilla goes for comfort after Mrs. Habersham condemns "her condition" (64).
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Tue, 2014-12-09 17:11
The narrator mentions "the old fathers in Genesis and Exodus that talked face to face with God" (111), the patriarchs like Abraham and Moses, as a reference point for the age of his father's Grandfather.
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Tue, 2014-12-09 09:18
At the conclusion of "Shall Not Perish," the narrator identifies the group he calls "America": "the men and women who did the deeds . . . who lasted and endured. . . . I knew them too: the men and women . . . still powerful and still dangerous and still coming, North and South and East and West" (115).
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Tue, 2014-12-09 09:07
The narrator notes that Colonel Sartoris's "people still lived in our county" (112). The Sartoris family is one of the oldest and most prominent in the county, but as readers of the other Yoknapatawpha fictions would know, the only Sartoris who could still be alive in 1942 is Benbow Sartoris, the child of Bayard and Narcissa who was born at the end of Flags in the Dust (1929). He would be in his early 20's at the time of this story.
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Tue, 2014-12-09 09:01
Rosa Millard is the mother-in-law of Col. John Sartoris and the grandmother of Bayard Sartoris. The heroic way she "stood off the Yankees" during the Civil War is described in The Unvanquished, though in that text she dies before the end of that war brought any "carpetbaggers" into Yoknapatawpha (112).
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Tue, 2014-12-09 08:55
A major character elsewhere in Faulkner, Colonel Sartoris, the patriarch of the Sartoris family and a Confederate officer, occupies a peripheral role in "Shall Not Perish." The Grier narrator notes that his great-grandfather would holler "Colonel Sartoris," among other heroic names, while dozing "in his chair under the mulberry in the yard or on the sunny end of the front gallery or in his corner by the hearth" (112).
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Tue, 2014-12-09 08:46
Ulysses S. Grant became the Commanding General of the U.S. Army during the Civil War. He later served as President from 1869-1877. The Grier narrator notes that his great-grandfather would holler "Grant," among other names, while dozing "in his chair under the mulberry in the yard or on the sunny end of the front gallery or in his corner by the hearth" (112).
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Tue, 2014-12-09 08:41
Earl Van Dorn was a Major General who led Confederate forces during much of the fighting in Mississippi until he was murdered on May 7, 1863, by a man claiming that Van Dorn had carried on an affair with his wife. The Grier narrator notes that his great-grandfather would holler "Van Dorn," among other names, while dozing "in his chair under the mulberry in the yard or on the sunny end of the front gallery or in his corner by the hearth" (112).
Submitted by scott.t.chancel... on Tue, 2014-12-09 08:35
Abraham Lincoln, the 16th U.S. President, died from gun shot wounds on April 15, 1865. The Grier narrator notes that his great-grandfather would holler "Abe Lincoln," among other names, while dozing "in his chair under the mulberry in the yard or on the sunny end of the front gallery or in his corner by the hearth" (112).
