The Digital Yoknapatawpha Project

This soldier, "a hulking giant of an Arkansas cotton-field hand" in civilian life (134), performs an act of heroism during the Korean War when he rescues Devries and a sergeant by carrying them both away from enemy fire. For his action, Devries (unofficially) awards him one of his most prestigious medals. We can hear affection and admiration in Devries' voice when he addresses the man who saved him as "you big bastard"; the narrator's tone when he persists in calling this soldier a "field hand" is harder to interpret (134).

This soldier accompanies Devries to the front line and leads the trapped battalion back to safety. He is called a "runner," which probably means he is a soldier assigned to a commanding officer, though it may also mean messenger.

The "exec" in Devries' unit in Korea is the executive officer, the man who is second in command (134).

During a battle in Korea, this Sergeant and Devries "single-handedly" hold off an enemy attack to allow the escape of a trapped battalion (134). He is wounded during the action.

This officer pins a medal on Devries for service during the Korean War.

This icon represents the "Negro troops" that Devries commands in both World War II and the Korean War (134). When Faulkner has the story's narrator say that in Korea, Devries "commands troops containing Negroes" rather than "Negro troops," as in the earlier war (134), he seems to be acknowledging the actual, slow history of racial integration in the military. World War II was the first time the U.S. Army allowed blacks to serve in combat, but kept them in segregated units that were commanded, as the narrator notes, by white officers.

She serves in a field hospital in Korea, and helps Devries reward the soldier who saved him on the battlefield.

When Ratliff calls Devries two nephews "them foreign twin boys" in "By the People," he means they are not from Yoknapatawpha (138). They are apparently old enough to understand "what might happen" if Clarence Snopes' legs are anointed by "damp switches" from the dog thicket, and to know how to do so without getting caught (138).

Not from Yoknapatawpha but, like Devries, a county further east, she is the mother of "them twin boys" who "holp" Ratliff defeat Clarence Snopes (137).

"The owner of the car" in which Clarence Snopes takes refuge from the dogs is apparently not one of the "they" who drive the Senator home and "fetch [him] a pair of dry britches" (138).