McCaslinsInLIO

"Uncle Ike McCaslin" makes his second appearance here, again in the woods. He plays a larger role in the story, and it now seems plausible that his title "Uncle" is a form of deference to his age and to his skill as a woodsman, as it will be in later fictions. But the role he will come to occupy in Faulkner's imaginative world is still unformed. In this story "Uncle Ike" is the grandfather of a young hunter named Theophilus McCaslin. In those later fictions Theophilus will be the name of Ike's father, and Ike himself will largely be defined by the fact that never had a son, much less a grandson - or any children at all.