George Washington
Character Key Number:
3775
Display Name:
George Washington
Sort Name:
Washington, George
Ever Present in Yoknapatawpha?:
No
Biography:
In The Sound and the Fury Quentin associates "Washington not telling lies" with "Jesus walking on Galilee" (80). Jesus walks on water in the New Testament. The mythic claim that even as a boy George Washington, the first President of the U.S., 'could not tell a lie' was created by an early biographer and educator named Parson Weems, who thought that the story of young Washington and the cherry tree he chopped down would be edifying for the young men of the early American republic. Weems himself could tell a lie.