Anse Holland's Place (Location Key)

Although "Fool about a Horse" and the re-told story about trading horses with Pat Stamper in The Hamlet have different protagonists and different first-person narrators, in both the farmer who lives within walking distance of the protagonist is "Old Man Anse Holland" (118, 33). Old Anse is clearly wealthier than most of the farmers in the area. In the short story it is implied that the protagonist, Pap, is a tenant on a farm Holland owns; in the novel that is made explicit. While the two texts locate the farm in different parts of the county, they are essentially the same place. Whether they are the same as the place owned by Anselm Holland in "Smoke" is a question we can't answer. "Smoke" was published in 1932, just four years before "Fool about a Horse," and some commentators assume that Anselm Sr. and Anse are the same character, but others don't. We are in that second camp, and don't assume there any textual or biological connection between these Hollands.