Jim Gant

The story begins with Jim Gant, who in its first sentence is described as "a stock trader" (368). The next sentence explains that the stock in this case are "horses and mules," which he sells in the "Memphis markets" (368). He is the father of Miss Zilphia, though he abandons her and her mother when she was a "two-year-old girl" (369), and disappears from the narrative after he and his lover are killed not far from the Memphis markets by his wife, who tracks them down. According to the Yoknapatawpha farmers who see Zilphia in Jefferson, Jim's promiscuity accounts for the bars on her window: as one puts it, "I reckon Mrs. Gant ain't taking no risk" with her daughter's chastity (371).