Character Keys

At noon in Rogers' grocery and restaurant in Flags in the Dust are two different groups of people: there are "a number of customers" in the grocery, not otherwise described, and in the restaurant "a number of men and a woman or so, mostly country people" (119).

Jack Crenshaw and this man whom The Town does not name are federal officers, "revenue field agents" (182), who "are just interested in whiskey, not photography" (183). They find the moonshine whiskey in Montgomery Ward Snopes' studio. (As officials whose task it is to make sure all alcohol production is properly taxed, 'revenuers' play a prominent role in the lore of moonshine whiskey.)

The "runaway slave" mentioned in Absalom! is one of the novel's ambiguities. In describing the "posse" that follows and arrests Sutpen, the narrator says that he "had a larger following than if he actually had been the runaway slave" (36). The use of "the" here clearly implies that a runaway slave had been mentioned earlier, but this is the text's only reference to a "runaway" (years later, during the Civil War, many of the enslaved people in Yoknapatawpha will self-emancipate by following the Union Army - but they are not pursued by any "following" whites).

Simon Strother, who was born a slave just before the Civil War began, provides the only depiction in Flags in the Dust of the enslaved men and women who 'belonged' to the Sartoris family. It occurs when he tells Dr. Peabody how the birth of Bayard and Narcissa's son will bring back "de olden times" (391). As his example of those times, he describes "de niggers fum de quawtuhs gethered on de front lawn, wishin' Mistis en de little marster well" when his "Mars' John's" son Bayard was born in 1849 (392).

The children who go to the segregated white school in Jefferson appear several times in The Town: not in class, but coming to school (running "toward the sound of the first strokes of the school bell," 214); leaving school after "the dismissal bell" has rung (216); and even as part of a marriage proposal: in the midst of their "Lilliputian flow," the much older Wallstreet Panic proposes to Miss Vaiden Wyott, his and the other children's teacher (153).

In "Monk" the "country school" that Monk attends as a first-grader almost certainly was a one-room schoolhouse, and his schoolmates probably ranged in age from six to sixteen or so (48). But when Monk describes his experience there, he tells Gavin that "they [the students] would all read together out of the books," and that, although he was illiterate, "it was fine . . . to hear all the voices together," including his (48).

In The Sound and the Fury the unnamed little girl who walks home from school with the Burgess girl is "scared" of Benjy, though her friend assures her that "he wont hurt you" (53).

The children Addie taught before her marriage in As I Lay Dying are described only from her point of view, which is an avowedly hateful one. To her, they are represented by their "little dirty snuffling noses" (169). She takes pleasure in the thought that when she whips them for "faulting" in school, she becomes part of their "secret and selfish" lives (170).

In Absalom! this sentry guards the tent in the Carolina bivouac where Sutpen and Henry meet.

In Flags in the Dust this unnamed woman is pregnant again when she moves from the countryside into Jefferson with her husband and two children. When her husband is drafted and shipped overseas, she is helped by the Red Cross and Narcissa Benbow.

One of the Chickasaws in "A Name for the City" and again in Requiem for a Nun wears a "foxhorn" around his neck which Compson blows to call in "his men" from the search for the missing lock (210, 16).

In Light in August this is the troop of Confederate cavalry under the command of General Van Dorn to which Hightower's grandfather belonged. During the Civil War it rode into Jefferson and destroyed a Union supply depot, after which most of them rode away. (This event that Hightower is obsessed with is adapted by Faulkner from an actual raid that occurred in 1862 in Holly Springs, a Mississippi town near Oxford.)

In "Retreat" and again in The Unvanquished this is the officer in command of the Confederate cavalrymen who warns Granny that she should turn back because "the roads ahead are full of Yankee patrols" (24, 56). He apologizes for saying "hell" in her presence, and is chivalrous enough to offer her "an escort" when she insists on going on (24, 56).

In the story Will Falls tells Old Bayard in Flags in the Dust about the Yankees arriving at Sartoris hoping to capture Colonel John, this is "that 'ere other Yankee" who goes around the house looking for him at the barn (21); John fools him long enough to get around the corner before the man starts shooting at him. When this story is told again in "Retreat" and The Unvanquished this Union soldier, perhaps frustrated by not capturing John Sartoris in the barn, points his "carbine" directly at the two boys, Bayard and Ringo, "and shot at us pointblank" (34, 73).

In "Raid" and again in the chapter titled "Raid" in The Unvanquished, this is the outfit of Union soldiers who are riding through the countryside in Alabama when Ringo stops them in order to requisition additional property.

In "Raid" and again in The Unvanquished this is the Union officer who asks Drusilla to convince the Negroes camped out at the river to return to their former owners.

In "Raid" and again in The Unvanquished this man is identified only as an "officer," but he is distinguishable by the "stubble of beard and long streak of blood" on his "little white face"; he warns Rosa Millard that the army is preparing to blow up the bridge (49, 105).

Colonel Sartoris' first military command was the regiment that he raised at the beginning of the Civil War. According to Uncle Buck McCaslin in "Retreat," Sartoris "bought and paid for" it, which presumably means that Sartoris underwrote the costs of arming and equipping the unit, though no further details about that process are provided (21).

As Rosa Millard and her group return through Alabama in "Raid" and The Unvanquished, they encounter a Union cavalry unit led by this lieutenant who, Bayard says, "didn't look much older than Ringo and me," sounds "like a girl" when he swears, and looks as if he's "fixing to cry" when forced to turn over his troop's horses to her (56, 116-17).

"Brother" Fortinbride is a character in two of The Unvanquished stories. A private in Sartoris' regiment, he was seriously wounded in battle at the start of the war. Invalided back to Yoknapatawpha, in "The Unvanquished" he helps Rosa distribute money and mules to the county's poor: although he is a farmer, and a Methodist, he officiates as a vernacular preacher in the services that Rosa Millard organizes in the Episcopal Church in the absence of the regular minister; his title "Brother" is an unofficial religious one.

In "Vendee" and again in The Unvanquished Brother Fortinbride's eulogy for Rosa Millard expresses his faith that in heaven "there are men, women and children, black, white, yellow or red, waiting for her to tend and worry over" (98, 158). This unseen group is perhaps the most racially inclusive group in all the Yoknapatawpha fictions.

Two of The Unvanquished stories refer to but don't name a Union general in command of the forces in the area of Yoknapatawpha. In "Ambuscade" this general is mentioned by Sergeant Harrison, who heard "the general" in command of the larger unit to which his cavalry troop belongs say that "if he had enough horses, he wouldn’t always care whether there was anybody to ride them or not" (13, 30).

In Absalom! Mr. Compson describes how on Christmas Eve, "the nigger children, with branches of holly and mistletoe for excuses, [lurked] about the rear of the big house to shout 'Christmas gift' at the white people" (84). Traditionally slaves were given holiday at Christmas, and the tradition of being rewarded for being first to wish someone a merry Christmas, while not exclusively southern or interracial, was part of the festivities.

In "Lion" and again in Go Down, Moses, the brakeman on the logging train serving Hoke's lumber mill talks with Boon about the competitive merits and abilities of the dog Lion and the bear Old Ben, as though the two animals were rivals for the boxing championship.

In "Pantaloon in Black" and again in the chapter with that title in Go Down, Moses, the fireman who keeps the fire burning at the sawmill is described as "an older man" (243, 136). He shares his breakfast with Rider.

According to the coroner's official report in "Pantaloon in Black" and again in Go Down, Moses, Rider dies "at the hands of a person or persons unknown" (252, 147), though the deputy's narration leaves little doubt that at least many of the lynchers are members of the Birdsong clan.

In "Pantaloon in Black" and again in Go Down, Moses, Rider is the head of "a mill gang" at the sawmill (239, 129). These other Negroes attend Mannie's funeral, and several of them try to help him in his grief. Some of them are also among the workers who shoot dice after hours at the mill.

In "Pantaloon in Black" and again in Go Down, Moses, this woman is a member of the same social club as the deputy's wife. She insists on a "recount of the scores" of the card game that the wife thought she had won (252, 147).

In "Go Down, Moses" and again in the chapter with that title in Go Down, Moses, the worker for the 1940 U.S. census who visits Samuel Beauchamp in the penitentiary in Joliet, Illinois, is described as a "spectacled young white man" with a "broad census taker's portfolio" (256, 351). He is a "year or two younger" than Butch Beauchamp, and he has probably never been wealthy, since the shoes Beauchamp wears are described as "better than the census taker had ever owned" (257, 352).

In "Go Down, Moses" and again in the chapter with that title in Go Down, Moses, Samuel Beauchamp is convicted of and executed for shooting and killing a "Chicago policeman" (259, 356).

In Go Down, Moses, Miss Worsham tells Gavin Stevens that the "parents" of Mollie Beauchamp "belonged to my grandfather," which means of course that they were enslaved (357). In Intruder in the Dust - where Mollie is named Molly again, Miss Worsham is named Miss Habersham, and Molly's father is not mentioned - the reference to Molly's mother adds the detail that both Molly and Miss Habersham "suckled at Molly's mother's breast" (85).

In "Go Down, Moses" and again in the chapter with that title in Go Down, Moses, Belle Worsham tells Gavin Stevens that the "parents" of Mollie and Hamp Worsham were slaves who "belonged to my grandfather" (260, 357). His last name is probably Worsham, but that is not specified.

In "Go Down, Moses" and again in the chapter with that title in Go Down, Moses, Gavin Stevens calls an undertaker in Joliet, Illinois, to arrange for Samuel Beauchamp's body to be sent back to Jefferson after the execution.

In "Go Down, Moses" and again in the chapter with that title in Go Down, Moses, Samuel Beauchamp was represented at his murder trial by a "good lawyer" (260, 357), at least according to what Gavin Stevens' learns from his calls to the Joliet prison warden and the Chicago district attorney. In his comment in the novel, however, Gavin adds the phrase "of that sort" (357). The text, however, does not explain what "sort" of lawyer he is thinking of.

In "Go Down, Moses" and again in the chapter with that title in Go Down, Moses, the crowd that watches as the coffin carrying Samuel Beauchamp is taken off the train contains a "number of Negroes and whites both" (265, 363). These are the "probably half a hundred Negroes, men and women too," who are there (265, 363).

In "Go Down, Moses" and again in the chapter with that title in Go Down, Moses, the crowd that watches as the coffin carrying Samuel Beauchamp is taken off the train contains a "number of Negroes and whites both" (265, 363). The Negroes include "men and women too," but the white people there are described as "idle white men and youths and small boys"; there do not seem to be any white women among the spectators (265, 363).

Typically, the "Chancery Clerk" mentioned by the narrator of "The Old People" would have been elected to his position (204) . His job would include collecting demographic data and presiding over the chancery court records, which mainly dealt with disputes about property and contracts adjudicated in the court. (Curiously, all mention of this person is gone from the version of the story Faulkner includes in Go Down, Moses: there the phrase is "chancery book in Jefferson," 163).

Although we never learn the name of the "commissioner" mentioned in "A Point of Law" and again in Go Down, Moses, or much else about him, we know the man who signs the indictments against Lucas and George for moonshining is a federal official - his office is in "the federal courthouse" (216), and moonshining was a federal crime.

The "regular customers" for Lucas Beauchamp's moonshine - whom he thinks of in "A Point of Law" as his "established clientele" (213-14) and in Go Down, Moses as his "established trade" (35) - are not described in either text. It can safely be assumed from the other fictions that all are male. And given the way moonshine is bought and consumed throughout Faulkner's fiction, it is probably safe to assume they are of both races and from various levels of Yoknapatawpha society.

In "A Point of Law" and again in Go Down, Moses the "United States Attorney" who is present during Judge Gowan's hearing on the case against Lucas and George is an outsider who "moved to Jefferson only after the administration changed eight years ago" (222, 70). This probably makes him an appointee of President Franklin Roosevelt, though that is not said explicitly. He is described as both "angry-looking" (221, 70) and "angry" (222, 71). Secure in his local knowledge and authority, Judge Gowan ignores his one exasperated but uncompleted remark.

The men who run the company that makes or markets the metal detector Lucas orders work in "St. Louis" (spelled that way in "Gold Is Not Always," 228, but inaccurately as "Saint Louis" in Go Down, Moses, 79) do not appear directly in the text. The salesman whom they send to Yoknapatawpha gives us a good idea of their strictly capitalist ethic when he expresses disbelief that these executives would "send this machine out without any down payment" (228, 78).

In The Mansion the name "Turpin" comes up in two different chronological contexts. Both are associated with Frenchman's Bend, but this is the earlier of the two, the "Turpin" who is listed among the five local young men who are courting Eula Varner in the early 20th century (133).

In "Knight's Gambit" Sebastian Gualdres is "the Argentine cavalry captain" whom Mrs. Harriss and her children meet in South America after Mr. Harriss’s death (170). He is one of the more exotic figures to appear in Yoknapatawpha. The narrative notes the stereotypical assumptions that the people of Yoknapatawpha have about him as "a Latin" (174), but in its depiction of his courtesy, his pride and his machismo, the narrative itself seems not unwilling to reinforce the stereotypes.

The mother of the mail rider in "A Name for the City" and again in Requiem for a Nun was "from old Ferginny" (23). When she named her son "Thomas Jefferson Pettigrew," hoping that that famous name might bring her son some "luck," she also indirectly provided the county seat of Yoknapatawpha with its name (23).

As "Tom-Tom" in "Centaur in Brass" and as "Tom Tom" in The Town, he works as the day fireman for Jefferson's power plant. (In this context a 'fireman' is someone who keeps a fire in a boiler burning, not one who puts fires out.) In both texts he is a "big bull of a man weighing two hundred pounds, "sixty years old," and married to a young wife he maintains "with the strict jealous seclusion of a Turk in a cabin about two miles down the railroad track from the plant" (16, 152).

Hoake McCarron's father makes a dashing figure in The Hamlet: a "handsome, ready-tongued, assured and pleasant man who had come into the country without specific antecedents and no definite past" (148). He makes a living gambling "in the back rooms of country stores or the tack rooms of stables" (149) until he elopes with Alison Hoake, returning ten days later to become a good husband and father. He is killed, however, in a gambling house and was allegedly shot by a woman.

In The Town, as the florist in Jefferson, "Mrs Rouncewell" gives her name to a memorable event in Jefferson history, the "Mrs Rouncewell panic" (81). This ensues when her shop runs out of flowers before a major dance. "She ran the flower shop; not . . . because she loved flowers nor even because she loved money but because she loved funerals; she had buried two husbands herself and took the second one's insurance and opened the flower shop and furnished the flowers for every funeral in Jefferson since" (73). In the next novel in the Snopes trilogy, The Mansion, Mrs.

The 'bailiff' who appears in Intruder in the Dust is a product of Chick Mallison's imagination, as he fantasizes about how the character of the white population of Beat Four might be put on trial.

The character named George who appears in The Hamlet is one of the deputies who help the Sheriff capture Mink. He objects to the Sheriff's decision to take Mink to jail by a back route.