Herman Basket

Submitted by sfr on Tue, 2020-01-28 13:51
Character Key Number: 
2031
Display Name: 
Herman Basket
Sort Name: 
Basket, Herman
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

In "A Justice," the Choctaw man named Herman Basket is Sam's primary source of information for the story he tells Quentin about how his parents met. Basket and Sam's "pappy" have known each other since they were children "sleeping on the same pallet and talking at night, as boys will" (345). Although the exact nature of Basket's relationship with Doom is unclear, he is a confidant of the chief. As a Chickasaw in the later story "A Courtship," where "Herman Basket's sister" and "Herman Basket's aunt" are central characters, he himself appears directly only once, when he asks his sister's suitors to "be reasonable" (368). (His name makes it sound like he should be related to "Three Basket" in Faulkner's first Indian story, "Red Leaves," but there is no specific evidence of any relationship.)

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