He probably looked down upon families such as the Snopes", and down on the common people such as the chatty ladies who were so anxious to see the inside of Miss Emily's home. He portrays these people in a proletariat fashion because it comes naturally to him. Growing up he was wealthy and his writing gives the impression that he is above the others in his neighborhood.
Abner Snopes, from "Barn Burning," is also a character in Faulkner's The Unvanquished, The Hamlet, The Town, The Mansion, "My Grandmother Millard," and "Vendee." He is a well developed character in part because he was so familiar to Faulkner, as is the case with the majority of his characters. The name Colonel Sartoris appears in both short stories. In "A Rose For Emily," the Colonel is the Mayor of Jefferson and in "Barn Burning," he is the man who shot Abner Snopes, when Abner tried the steal the Colonel's horse. According to Who's Who In Faulkner, the Mayor of Jefferson is Colonel Bayard Sartoris; the son of Colonel John Sartoris who is supposedly responsible for Abner's wound. Faulkner's familiarity with his characters was why he was so good at portraying them.
He was so familiar with the characters he used in part because he constantly reused them over and over, but mostly it was because many of his characters were based on non-fictional people in his life. Faulkner's Sartoris was his third novel, and was an important stepping stone in his writing career. According to William Van O"Connor, a biographer of Faulkner's, "Sartoris marks the end of an apprenticeship." The novel is an account of the Sartoris family, who greatly resembled the Falkner family (the novelist added the u to the family name). Colonel John Sartoris was based on Faulkner's great-grandfather William C. Falkner who was the colonel of a group of raiders in the civil war; he ended his career as the owner of a railroad and a member of the stat legislature.
