On the Trains between Jefferson and Oxford in Sanctuary (Location)

Virgil and Fonzo are on the train between Holly Springs and Memphis when they are introduced into the narrative. Horace also travels by train to Memphis in the novel, but that trip is not narrated. On the other hand, in Chapter 19 several different kinds of events take place on the 4 (or possibly 6) trains that Horace rides to and from Oxford: the narrator describes the way the other passengers on the first train look in surprisingly stark and violent terms (168), and depicts a scene of college students being young and bright on the second train (168-70); on the first return train Horace has a long conversation with Clarence Snopes (172-77). And many different kinds of people ride on these trains, including a man who "spits tobacco juice" onto the floor (168) and "a countrywoman with an infant in her arms" (170); almost parenthetically, the narrator notes the existence of the "jim crow car," in which black people have to ride (168). Because Faulkner makes it so difficult to figure out the route Horace travels, we have decided to use this one location as the setting for all these episodes.