Unnamed Young Men in Jefferson

Character Key Number: 
2967
Display Name: 
Unnamed Young Men in Jefferson
Sort Name: 
Unnamed Young Men in Jefferson
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

This is the group that the narrator of Intruder in the Dust refers to (twice) as "the young men and some not so young" (27, 39) who "work hard all week [hanging around] in the poolhall" (39). They are also identified with the barber shop, and on ordinary evenings after the movie ends at least some of them can be found "drinking coca cola and playing nickels into the drugstore jukebox" (208). Some of them "have some vague connection with cotton or automobiles or land- and stock-sales"; all of them bet on "prize fights and punchboards and national ballgames" (39). Apparently they see the possibility of a lynching as another exciting spectator event: they rush out to Beat Four on Saturday, and form part of the mob that fills up the Square on Sunday and Monday.