George Wyatt

George Wyatt is a former member of Colonel John Sartoris' "troop" (187) and a key ally in his campaign to keep freed blacks from either voting or being elected. The Wyatts whom Faulkner had written about in his earlier fictions, Flags in the Dust and "A Rose for Emily," belong to the town's upper class, but there is no overt indication that George is a member of that family or (other than the fact that he is literate) about his own rank, in society or in the army. In the novel's last chapter Wyatt's loyalty to both Colonel John Sartoris and the Southern idea of honor which demands retribution for wrongdoing lead him to push Bayard to avenge John's death with another killing - or to let him do the killing himself (247).