Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses a violent act of sexual assault and includes graphic depictions of domestic violence and lynching, as well as alcohol addiction. The depictions of female characters in the novel are often based on misogynistic ideas. The source text uses the n-word, antisemitic language, and misogynistic language. Such language is reproduced in this guide only through quotations.

Horace Benbow is a middle-aged lawyer originally from Jefferson, Mississippi, who takes on Lee Goodwin’s defense case for free. His family sees him as a runner who can’t settle down happily. He insists that he isn’t just running from one woman to another by returning home, but this is met with skepticism, as Miss Jenny says, “If you keep on telling yourself that you may believe it, someday” (103). He is disillusioned with society and often ignores its behavioral dictates, which frustrates his sister Narcissa. The narrative depicts this most prominently through his care for Ruby and her child. Because he insists upon helping them and because Ruby is not married to her child’s father, the townspeople spread rumors that Ruby is his mistress.

He is empathetic and is moved greatly by both Temple and Ruby’s stories.