In the hallway of the Negro brothel that Clarence takes them to, Virgil and Fonzo see "a drunk white man in greasy overalls" arguing with two Negro men (198). His overalls identify him as lower class, and tell us something about the socio-economic standing of the brothel's clientele, but no other details, about the man or the argument, are given.
The "two shabby negro men" whom Clarence, Virgil and Fonzo see arguing with a white man in the hallway of the Negro brothel may work there (as bouncers, perhaps), or may be customers themselves (198).
This fellow student at the barber school with Fonzo and Virgil is presumably the person who, twelve days after they have started sleeping at Miss Reba's, tells Fonzo about the existence in Memphis of a house of prostitution. At any rate, he accompanies them to "that house" after Fonzo convinces Virgil to go (196).
Standing outside Miss Reba's brothel, Virgil and Fonzo see this man and a "plump blonde woman" get out of a taxi (192). The couple's behavior outside the door causes Fonzo to suck in his breath, and Virgil to assume that they must be married, but while the narrator never says so explicitly, it's clear enough that she is a prostitute and he is one of her customers. He leaves in the taxi after dropping her off at the house.
Standing outside Miss Reba's brothel, Virgil and Fonzo see this "plump blonde woman" and "a man" get out of a taxi (192). The couple's behavior outside the door causes Fonzo to suck in his breath, and Virgil to assume that they must be married, but while the narrator never says so explicitly, it's clear enough that she is a prostitute and he is one of her customers. She disappears into the house.
This icon represents the various people whom Virgil and Fonzo see in the train station and on the streets of Memphis when they arrive there in Chapter 21. None are given any individuality, but they are identified as "a stream of people" who "jostle" the newcomers in the depot, where they are also beset by cabmen and a redcap, and, in the Hotel Gayoso and another, unnamed hotel, a porter, bellboys, and "people sitting among the potted plants" in hotel lobbies (188-90).
All we know about Mr. Harris, the owner of the livery stable, is that he is suspicious enough of Eustace Graham to fold a hand during a poker game, because Graham had dealt the cards.
"Behind drawn shades" in the office of the livery stable is where Eustace Graham plays poker for money during the three years he spends in college and law school (262). The narrative does not explain how he could be both "at the University" and in Jefferson during that time. It may be that Faulkner temporarily forgot that, though based on Oxford, where the University of Mississippi (including its Law School) is located, his fictional "Jefferson" was not a college town.
Eustace Graham, the District Attorney who prosecutes Lee Goodwin, grew up in Jefferson. According to Horace, he is a "damn little squirt" (185) who probably pressured the hotel into turning Ruby out. According to the narrator, he has "a club foot, which had probably elected him to the office he now held" (261). He earned the town's sympathy by his hard work, which got him into the State University, but at the same time made money, and acquired a reputation for unscrupulousness, playing poker "behind drawn shades" in the office of the livery stable (262).
Submitted by napolinj@newsch... on Sat, 2014-03-15 21:40
Built before the Civil War as the "big house" of a prosperous plantation, the Compson house has been slowly deteriorating almost ever since. When the narrator describes it in the novel's last section, we see it from the outside as a "square, paintless house with its rotting portico" (298). After Mr. Compson's death, Mrs. Compson says, "I was forced to sell our furniture" (262), so inside the house is also defined by the contrast between what it once was and its present dilapidation.
