Red Sam Butts Character Analysis

Red Sam Butts, whose name we first see on billboards along the highway, runs a combination filling station and dancehall that also serves food. He is a fat man with a red face, and he advertises himself as a veteran with a “happy smile.” In conversation with the Grandmother, Red Sam expresses nostalgia for a simpler time when you could leave the front door unlocked. The Grandmother eagerly agrees with this and calls Sammy a “good man.” Sam states that “a good man is hard to find,” and claims that people are terrible nowadays. He also accepts the Grandmother’s theory about how Europe is to blame for moral decay in the United States. Throughout, Red Sam Butts is quick to participate in easy nostalgia for a romanticized past, although we also sense that he uses this kind of talk as a part of his sales pitch, and is in fact more callous and greedy than he likes to appear.