that he is a nuisance, and there is not enough development in the story to infer definitely what Faulkner intends. This is also seen in the character of old Het, who is described as a tall gangly old black woman personified by a stereotypical southern black dialect. This is seen as she addresses Mr. Snopes in town one day. She says to him, “Miz Mannie gimme dis to give you, I wuz just on de way to de sto whar you stay at.” (370) The audience is left very little to draw upon concerning the characters and their motivations and overall purpose in the story. As a result, the few characters in “Mule in the Yard” are significantly lesser personages than those that exist in “Spotted Horses”.This different character development can be seen in examination of the character that the two stories have in common, I.O. Snopes. In “Mule in the Yard”, the objective narrator shows us I.O. Snopes by describing him as “a squat, pasty man perennially tieless and with a stained, harried expression” (365) who buys unruly mules from Memphis and brings them to the town where Mrs. Hait and old Het live, where they constantly get loose. While this description serves it’s purpose of description and a small development of I.O. Snopes, the version through the eyes of the narrator in “Spotted Horses” is witness to a more subtle but more realistic I.O. Snopes. In “Spotted Horses”, the narrator places Snopes in Varner’s with his back against the wall, his hair parted, in conversation with his cousin and a few other townsmen. The narrator continues the story as “I.O. cackled, like a hen, slapping his legs with both hands. ‘You boys might just as well quit trying to get ahead of Flem.’ He said.” (361) Direct observation of I.O. Snopes reveals a broader type of character than does the one detailed in “Mule in the Yard”. The dev...
