Ringo+(Marengo)

Ringo (Marengo) is a primary character in Faulkner's series of collected short stories, //The Unvanquished//. He is a slave of the Sartoris family, the mythological heirs to the Compson family of Yoknapatapaha county. Despite his enslaved status, he is a driving force in the narrative and a crucial personality in the Sartoris family structure. He accompanies Bayard through the entirety of the narrative as they navigate the increasingly destabilized landscape of wartime Mississippi. While at times, it may seem that Ringo serves the simple literary function of foil to the protagonist, his actions and beliefs often threaten Bayard's stability as the character of central importance. Raised at the same breast, he and Bayard share a relationship of mutual respect and brotherly support despite their racial difference, a fact which at times seems to confuse what should be an otherwise stable racial hierarchy. Even within childish war games, a complex balance of transaction and power belies an unstable and confused familial-racial order:

//The arrangement was that I would be General Pemberton twice in succession and Ringo would be Grant, then I would have to be Grant once so Ringo could be General Pemberton or he wouldn't play anymore. But now it was that urgent even though Ringo was a nigger too, because Ringo and I had been born in the same month and had both fed at the same breast and had slept together and eaten together for so long that Ringo called Granny 'Granny' just like I did, until maybe he wasn't a nigger anymore or maybe I wan't a white boy anymore, the two of us neither, not even people any longer. (Faulkner, 7)//

Bayard's remarks reveal that the boy's relationship is anything but a master-slave figuration. While he does hold the privilege of playing Pembterton twice, he feels he must concede to let Ringo be Pemberton at least once, lest the unspoken rules of brotherhood be broken. The boys' familial bond complicates what should be a straightforward racial dynamic in a racially segregated society, so much so that, as Bayard admits, at times he cannot tell who is black and whose is white.

Ringo's force of personality, not only complicates the racial division between he and Bayard, but also threatens Bayard's primacy as the protagonist. As Bayard himself admits, "we were almost the same age, and Father always said that Ringo was a little smarter than I was" (Faulkner, 81). As Warren Akin further states, during the entirety of "Riposte in Tertio Bayard "is not even a major participant in [the] events, his place being taken by Ringo. Though Bayard, of course, does not have to have center stage if the material is central to his development, it is not, and his absence illustrates confusion in the novel's focus" (Akin, 8). Akin attributes this "lack of focus" to insufficient narrative development, however, formally, it also suggests that perhaps Ringo has as much a claim to be the protagonist as Bayard, supplanting him briefly in the narrative.

The tension between the appropriate and actual roles of Ringo and Bayard further illuminates the newly developing identities in a post-war south. While Ringo is indeed black, neither is he a mere stand-in for blackness. Unlike the masses of newly free slaves marching northward towards "Jordan," Ringo conspicuously stays behind to fashion a new black southern identity. One major trope of the novel emerges as an object of fascination for Ringo: railroads, "I been having to hear about niggers all my life Ringo said, "I got to hear about that railroad" (Faulkner, 91). As symbolic of modernity, and subsequently industrial capitalism, the railroad poses a new opportunity for African American potential in post-slave economy which directly contrasts with southern quasi-feudal ideology of unchanging tradition and socio-economic structure. As the true mastermind of the mule robbing operation that he, Granny, and Bayard hatch, he further demonstrates a capacity for market savvines and hucksterism, attributes necessary to take one far in a post-war era of reconstruction.

Yet neither is Ringo a completely subversive figure. While there may be indeed be tensions between he and Bayard, he also actively participates to uphold traditional southern values of familial honor despite his tentative low racial standing in the symbolic order. He accosts Bayard for an unwillingness to avenge his father's death with violence, "who are you? Is your name Sartoris? By God, if you don't kill him, I'm going to" (Faulkner, 247). Ringo's anger and desire for revenge demonstrate an ardent belief in maintaining Sartoris honor (despite his lack of blood connection as a slave), a belief that plays into southern notions of a feudal social order.

As a character, Ringo is both a disrupting and stabilizing figure in the discourse of post-war race relations. He is both a threat and an asset to the Sartoris family. He threatens racist ideologies of white supremacy with his intelligent and forceful agency, but also actively seeks to perpetuate the old order he was born into. As a figure, Ringo plays an interesting role in the greater narrative of Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha county, a figure both caught in the past yet with an eye to the future, he also complicates notions of race, demonstrating that the lines that may separate black from white are anything but clearly defined.

//Works Cited//

Akin, Warren. "'Blood and Raising and Background': the Plot of 'the Unvanquished.'" //Modern Language Studies//, vol. 11, no. 1, Winter 1980-81, pp. 3-11.

Faulkner, William. //The Unvanquished.// Vintage, 1934.

//Other References//

Goldman, Arnold. "Faulkner's Images of the Past: From 'Sartoris' to 'The Unvanquished.' //The Yearbook of English Studies//, vol. 8, 1978, pp. 109-24.

Haynie, Shirley M. "Thematic Code Variations in William Faulkner's 'The Unvanquished.'" //Interpretations//, vol. 16. no. 1, Fall 1985, pp. 116-123.

Van Devender, George W. "William Faulkner's Black Exodus: Multiple Narratives in 'The Unvanquished.'" //The South Central Bulletin//, vol. 42, no. 4, Winter 1982, pp. 144-48.