Ditch near Compson Place (Location Key)

The ditch between the Compson property and Nancy's cabin plays a major role in "That Evening Sun." When the Compson children are sent to fetch Nancy, it's as close as they go to Nancy's, "because father told us to not have anything to do with Jesus" (290) - a deliberately provocative phrase: the Jesus in the story is Nancy's disreputable boy friend, not the Christian savior. Later, after Jesus has left town, Nancy tells both Dilsey and Mr. Compson that she can nonetheless feel Jesus "laying yonder in the ditch," waiting to attack her (297). Quentin describes it at the end of the story, as Mr. Compson takes his children home from the cabin: "We went down into the ditch. I looked at it, quiet. I couldn't see much where the moonlight and the shadows tangled" (309).