Dan
Character Key Number:
344
Display Name:
Dan
Sort Name:
Dan
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?:
Yes
Biography:
In "Gold Is Not Always" and again in Go Down, Moses Dan is the head stableman on the McCaslin-Edmonds' place, and is one of the two Negroes who help Roth search for "Alice Ben Bolt," the valuable mule who has gone missing. Dan immediately recognizes the mule's footprint and (as Roth "would realize" later) also recognizes the footprints of the man who led Alice away (229, 81). The fact that Dan doesn't tell Roth about the man puts black employee and his white boss on opposite sides of the color line.