Unnamed Young Writer

Identified as the "son of a carpenter," this "youth" in Flags in the Dust occupies only half a paragraph of text, but his story contains a number of intriguing details (181). Despite his blue-collar origin, Belle Mitchell decides to "make a poet" of him, and sends him to New Orleans presumably as part of that process (181). Faulkner also wanted to be a poet, and went to New Orleans at the start of his writing career. The new stories diverge, however, when this "youth" becomes a "conscientious objector" at the start of the war, and moves to Texas where he "now serves in a reportorial capacity" (182).