The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

Luther Biglin's mother is the "sister of the rural political boss whose iron hand ruled one of the county divisions" (448). This connection helps explain how Luther got the job of county jailer.

Biglin's wife has some political clout because she is the "niece of the husband of the Sheriff, Ephraim Bishop's wife's sister" (448).

This "Negro boy on [a] bicycle" is the first person Mink sees when he finally reaches Jefferson (451). He gives Mink directions to Flem Snopes' place.

As part of his cover story about spending a year in the "Govment Vetruns Hospital" in Memphis, Mink claims that a doctor there told him walking was good for him, and that's why he is "on the road instead of the train" (439).

This icon represents the "girls" and "young men" - "probably the neighbors swapping the work" - who are helping to pick the unnamed Negro farmer's cotton (438).

The cotton farmer with whom Mink briefly stays has five children between the ages of "five or six and twelve" (438). All five work with their parents picking cotton. Only one is individuated by the narrative: the "oldest girl" (440), who is the "twelve-year-old" and who helps her mother prepare supper (441).

The wife of the cotton farmer in works with him and the whole family picking cotton, and then, with her daughter, she prepares supper according to the etiquette of Jim Crow - that is, first she serves the meal for Mink Snopes to eat alone, and then "the meal for the family" (440).

This cotton farmer allows Mink to work and stay the night at his place. As a Negro he expresses himself carefully when talking with the white Mink, but he clearly has doubts about the story Mink has told him about himself.

The Sheriff deputizes "two boys at Varner's store" to keep a look out for Mink Snopes (434). "Boys" of course is a colloquial southern term for lower class men - as in 'good ole boys' - and these "boys" must be full-grown men, since they claim to "remember" Mink from before he went to prison. (In the same vocabulary, "boy" is also a derogatory term for adult black men, but it's not likely that blacks would be "at Varner's store" - and even less likely that they would be given an unofficial job in law enforcement.)

The "Commissioner" in Memphis is an acquaintance of Gavin Stevens's Harvard friend (426). Presumably he's the Commissioner of Police, though that isn't made explicit. Gavin's friend enlists his help in the attempt to locate Mink Snopes.