Unnamed Children at Play

Character Key Number: 
1596
Display Name: 
Unnamed Children at Play
Sort Name: 
Unnamed Children at Play
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

This represents four different groups of children in Flags in the Dust: (1) The children playing in the street whom Bayard, riding the wild stallion, swerves to avoid running into; only one is individualized: "a small figure in a white shirt and diminutive pale blue pants" (130). (2) The "neighbors' children" who play "quietly" among the flowers and trees on the lawn at the Benbow house (164). (3) The children playing "quietly and a little stiffly" in the cemetery that Jenny and Isom visit at the end of the novel (399). All these groups appear in Jefferson. In addition, when Bayard reaches the town outside Yoknapatawpha on Christmas, he sees "children in bright sweaters and jackets" in the streets, playing "on shiny coasters and skates and wagons" (368).