Whit Rouncewell

Character Key Number: 
3272
Display Name: 
Whit Rouncewell
Sort Name: 
Rouncewell, Whit
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?: 
Yes
Biography: 

In The Town Whit Rouncewell first appears when he tries to find the town's night marshal Grover Cleveland Winbush after seeing "them two fellows in Christian's drug store" (169). He is probably a relative of Mrs. Rouncewell, perhaps her son; he is definitely a contemporary of Linda Snopes: later in the novel, he is one of Linda's adolescent admirers and escorts during her last year in high school (222). He appears again in The Mansion, the next and last book in the Snopes trilogy. There he is referred to by Ratliff only as "that durn boy that seen them two robbers in Uncle Willy's drug cabinet" after leaving "the late picture show" (61), an event that leads to the discovery of Montgomery Ward Snopes' "Atelier" (60). This boy's unnamed "paw" is also referred to in this passage, but again no explicit connection with any of the other Rouncewells in the fictions is made.