V.K. Suratt

Character Key: 
Display Name: 
V.K. Suratt
Sort Name: 
Suratt, V.K.
AKA: 
V.K. Ratliff
Race: 
White
Gender: 
Male
Class: 
Lower Class
Rank: 
Secondary
Vitality: 
Alive
Occupation: 
Sales and Service
Specific Job: 
Sewing Machine Salesman
Date of Birth: 
Wednesday, January 1, 1879 to Tuesday, December 31, 1889
Origin: 
Yoknapatawpha
Biography: 

Suratt plays a minor role in Faulkner's first Yoknapatawpha novel, but in time will re-appear in nine more of Faulkner's works, though beginning with "A Bear Hunt" (1934) he is named V. K. Ratliff; Faulkner made the change after a real person named Suratt objected. A traveling salesman, based in Jefferson, who sold mainly sewing machines, but also on occasion parlor organs, radios, and televisions, Suratt grew up on a farm, and was a neighbor of the Snopes family. Much later in Faulkner's career he reveals that Ratliff is descended directly from one of the first white inhabitants of Yoknapatawpha, and that the "V.K." stands for "Vladimir Kyrilytch." In the last two volumes of the Snopes trilogy Faulkner uses him as one of the books' three narrators.

Individual or Group: 
Individual
Character changes class in this text: 

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