Unnamed Negro Yardman 2
Character Key Number:
1872
Display Name:
Unnamed Negro Yardman 2
Sort Name:
Unnamed Negro Yardman 2
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?:
No
Biography:
The man who works in "the yard" of the Memphis orphanage in Light in August is never named, and appears in the novel only through the story that Doc Hines tells Hightower in Jefferson (383). But when, according to Hines' story, the young Joe Christmas asks him "How come you are a nigger?" (383) his anger is memorable and the response he makes is portentous. Though at first he calls Christmas a "little white trash bastard," he adds, "You are worse than that. You dont know what you are. And more than that, you wont never know . . ." (384).