Buck Hipps

Submitted by sfr on Wed, 2019-07-31 15:31
Character Key Number: 
327
Display Name: 
Buck Hipps
Sort Name: 
Hipps, Buck
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

Faulkner recounts or mentions the auction of the wild horses in Frenchman's Bend in four different texts. The auctioneer is a "Texas man," as the narrator of "Spotted Horses" repeatedly calls him (167), a "broad-hatted stranger" in "Centaur in Brass" (150), "that Texas feller" in The Town (35), and Buck Hipps in The Hamlet. His character is displayed in detail in that novel and "Spotted Horses." In both texts he is armed with an "ivory-handled pistol" - though he also carries "a box of gingersnaps" right next to the gun (167, 300). He is Flem Snopes' accomplice in fleecing the men of Frenchman's Bend, but unlike Flem he displays a conscience when he tries to return to Mrs. Armstid the five dollars her husband spent on a pony. And like the hero of a western, he rides off at the end of the auction - though in his case the goal is to get away before the hapless men of the Bend try to capture the horses they've bought.

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