Meet the Cast
Bayard Sartoris
Grow Up!The Unvanquished is sometimes called a Bildungsroman, which is basically a coming-of-age novel (see the "Genre" section for more on that). And in this case, the person who's Bildung (who's...
Ringo
It Must Have Been Cold There in My Shadow…Ringo, a slave boy who lives in the Sartoris household, is the same age as Bayard Sartoris. But even though he's got enough brains, smarts, and good humo...
Rosa "Granny" Millard
A Proper Southern BelleGranny is Bayard's grandmother, but Ringo and several other people call her Granny as well. And she fills her role well. She's got white hair and is elderly, and she bakes co...
"Marse" John Sartoris
An Officer and a Gentleman?The vision we get of John Sartoris from his son Bayard's point of view is a little bit contradictory. Half of the picture is the heroic vision of a grand warrior, which i...
Cousin Drusilla
The Anti-BelleWe love us some Cousin Drusilla. She's tough, smart, and independent. The first sight of her in the novel is a little bit shocking for the times. You might not feel like it's that sca...
Ab Snopes
Mr. Ab Snopes is hard to like. He shows up basically to take part in Granny and Ringo's mule-stealing ring, but he doesn't like to take risks. Snopes makes plenty of money off of Granny's work and...
Colonel Nathaniel G. Dick
Colonel Dick is a Union officer, which is interesting because he's one of the most decent human beings in this portrait of a Confederate family. We're made to root for the Southerners in many ways...
The Slaves
Besides Ringo, the rest of the slaves are treated almost like furniture or pets in the Sartoris household. With the abuse they get, it's really easy to understand why husband and wife Loosh and Phi...
Amodeus "Uncle Buck" McCaslin
Uncle Buck is salt of the earth—a good, if a little nutty, old guy. He runs his mouth a lot, insulting people's family members and even his own twin brother (gosh, if his name is Amodeus, what'd...
Southern Gentlemen and Belles
The book has quite a population of Southerners, so we get a strange picture of the losing side from many different angles. There's Theophilus "Uncle Buddy" McCaslin, Uncle Buck's twin (yep, that na...
Baddies
As you might expect from a war novel, The Unvanquished has no shortage of villains. Grumby's Independents—oh-so creatively named after their leader, Grumby—are the worst of the worst. Which is...