Mrs. Charles Etienne Saint-Valery Bon

Character Key Number: 
109
Display Name: 
Mrs. Charles Etienne Saint-Valery Bon
Sort Name: 
Bon, Mrs. Charles E. S-V.
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

The "inescapably negro" woman whom Charles Etienne Saint-Valery Bon marries in Absalom! (168) is apparently somewhat mentally deficient; at least, "her mentality" is mentioned disparagingly (167), and she is described as "existing" in an "automaton-like state" (166). The phrase "inescapably negro" is attributed to Judith; the phrases that Mr. Compson uses to describe her include "coal black and ape-like" (166); "resembling something in a zoo" (169), and "the black gargoyle" (170). She is from a "two dimensional backwater" somewhere (166) outside Yoknapatawpha, and is already pregnant when she and Bon come to Sutpen's Hundred to live. She is not mentioned again after her husband's death, but since Clytemnestra assumes guardianship of her child, it seems likely that she also dies - though there is no stone for her in the Sutpen graveyard.