Aunt Rachel
Character Key Number:
1928
Display Name:
Aunt Rachel
Sort Name:
Rachel, Aunt
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?:
Yes
Biography:
Aunt Rachel never directly appears in "That Evening Sun." Quentin says she is "old," and lives in a cabin "by herself" near Nancy, smoking "a pipe in the door, all day long" (294). The "Aunt" in her name is clearly conventional, part of the way the Jim Crow culture stereotypes Negroes, but it's not clear whether she is "Jesus' mother": "Sometimes she said she was and sometimes she said she wasn't any kin to Jesus" (294). Quentin's father suggests Nancy could "go to Aunt Rachel's" for safety, but that doesn't happen (306).