Gowan Stevens

Concerning "Cousin Gowan," Charles Mallison says, "his grandfather was Grandfather's brother . . . he just called all of us except Grandfather 'cousin' and all of us except Grandfather called him 'cousin'" (3). He returns to Jefferson to live with the Mallisons while his parents are abroad, and while living there becomes part of Gavin Stevens and V.K. Ratliff's unofficial campaign against Snopesism. Later he is the reliable source for much of what Charles himself narrates about the early years of that campaign, since Charles, as he says in the novel's first words, "wasn't born yet" (3). To build his strength before "going out for the football team," he works one summer in the power plant, where he comes into direct contact with one of Flem's schemes (17). Although Gavin's narrative is pervasively mediated by Charles' voice, Gavin's own perspective can be identified as that of a youth becoming an adolescent, and curious about the ways adults behave.