Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Sun, 2017-08-27 17:02
In The Town the Widringtons live in one of Jefferson's new developments, built after the streets were paved. The Widringtons have a Cadillac and a dog "that they said cost five hundred dollars" (380). When not riding in the Cadillac, the dog is seen "sneering out through the window in the house where it - they - lived" (381). (See also the entry for New Subdivisions in Jefferson in this index.)
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Tue, 2017-08-22 21:05
It is from Kansas City (the city in Missouri) that Wall Snopes' butcher orders "special meat" for Mrs. Widrington's Pekingese (380). (From 1871 till the great flood in 1951, Kansas City was well known for its stockyards, and thus for its beef, in particular the Kansas City strip steak.)
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Tue, 2017-08-22 20:54
Coca Cola opened bottling plants throughout the state of Mississippi beginning in 1906. The plant appears to be on the outskirts of town where Byron Snopes's children are found, the little one with syrup spilled down the front of its nightshirt (379).
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Tue, 2017-08-22 20:40
Characters in various Yoknapatawpha fictions drink 'cokes,' but The Town is the only text that refers to the bottling plant. Historically, Coca Cola opened bottling plants throughout the state of Mississippi beginning in 1906, so it's no surprise that there is one in Jefferson. It appears to be on the outskirts of town where Byron Snopes's children are found, the little one with syrup spilled down the front of its nightshirt (379).
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Tue, 2017-08-22 20:31
The American victory over the British in the Battle of Saratoga (1777) was a decisive victory for the colonies in the Revolutionary War. According to Eula, Ratliff's "six or eight or ten times grandfather" was an ensign in the British army that surrendered there (338).
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Tue, 2017-08-22 20:25
Saratoga, the town in upstate New York that was the site of a decisive American victory over the British during the Revolutionary War, becomes part of the Yoknapatawpha story in the last two volumes of the Snopes trilogy. In The Town, Eula Snopes tells Gavin Stevens about V.K. Ratliff's "six or eight or ten times grandfather," who was an ensign in the British army that surrendered there (338). The Mansion refers specifically to "Bemis's Heights" and "Freeman's Farm" (198), two of the places in Saratoga on which the major fighting took place.
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Tue, 2017-08-22 20:22
Carolina is a generic term that Gavin Stevens uses to talk about the migration of the settlers to Yoknapatawpha from Scotland, settling first in Carolina: the "hill-country of McCallum and Gowrie and Frazier and Muir" that translated intact "from Culloden to Carolina, then from Carolina to Yoknapatawpha" (332).
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Tue, 2017-08-22 20:15
Much of the white population of Yoknapatawpha is of Scottish descent, particularly the "hill-country of McCallum and Gowrie and Frazier and Muir" that translated intact "from Culloden to Carolina, then from Carolina to Yoknapatawpha" (332). Gavin Steven's description here implies that these settlers were attracted to Yoknapatawpha by the similarity between its hill country and their original homeland.
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Tue, 2017-08-22 16:53
"Beyond Seminary Hill," the "mild unhurried farm road" that Gavin Stevens is driving along "mounts to cross the ridge and to join the main highway leading from Jefferson to the world" (330). Pausing atop this ridge, Gavin takes a long, reflective look at "all Yoknapatawpha" spread out beneath him (330).
Submitted by jjoiner@keuka.edu on Tue, 2017-08-22 16:50
This spot on one of the highest pieces of ground in Yoknapatawpha serves Faulkner in The Town as a vantage point from which to take a very self-reflexive look down on his county, and implicitly, back over the thirty years that he's been creating and re-creating it - though he uses Gavin Stevens as the perspective from which to view the place and his achievement. "Beyond Seminary Hill," the "mild unhurried farm road" that Gavin is driving along "mounts to cross the ridge and to join the main highway leading from Jefferson to the world" (330).
