Little Zilphia
Character Key Number:
2093
Display Name:
Little Zilphia
Sort Name:
Little Zilphia
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?:
Yes
Biography:
"Miss Zilphia Gant" leaves it up to its readers to decide for themselves about the identity of the girl that Zilphia brings back to Jefferson at the end, claiming that she is her own daughter. The cues provided by the text, however, make it probable that this girl (whom the narrator calls "little Zilphia," 381) is the daughter of the painter Zilphia married many years earlier and his second wife: for example, the girl has "eyes like wood ashes and dark hair," both traits she shares with that husband (381, 375). As Zilphia did in her own childhood, this girl goes "to and from school" holding hands with her 'mother' (381).