SartorissInR

The founding Sartoris father and his son appear in Faulkner's last novel in two very different ways. The brief mention of the father, John, reads like an inscription on a statue, though admittedly some of the achievements are dubious: "the actual colonel, C.S.A. - soldier, statesman, politician, duelist . . . murderer" (72-73). This list doesn't include the railroad he "built . . . in the mid-seventies," but that too is mentioned in the novel (73). The narrative devotes quite a few more words to the son, "Colonel Sartoris," noting in passing that his military rank is merely a "courtesy title" (72), but essentially reduces him to the fusty mayor to tried to ban automobiles from Jefferson "even before they got there" (30).