Earl

In The Sound and the Fury Earl owns the hardware store on the Square in Jefferson where Jason Compson works. He tells Jason that Mrs. Compson is "a lady I've got a lot of sympathy for" (227), and apparently for her sake, he puts up with Jason's inadequacies as his employee. When Earl re-appears in The Mansion he gains a last name but loses possession of the store: he manages it for Ike McCaslin, though since Ike "spends most of his time" fishing and hunting he essentially runs it until Jason "eliminates Triplett in his turn" (355).