Absalom, Absalom!

"Absalom, Absalom!" takes place in the deep south, partly after the Civil War, but much of the story actually takes place during the war. It deals with the strong racist views that existed and continue exist, though relatively tame in comparison, in the hearts of many people to this day. In the novel, there is a man named Thomas Sutpen who, after moving to Jefferson, Missouri in 1833 almost single-handedly erected an estate on 100 acres of land, taken from a tribe of Indians. He quickly became one of the most successful plantation owners in the south, but was also a very immoral man who had an unstoppable determination to form his life to match up with a very specific “design” that he had had in his head since the age of 14.

Those are the facts. Much of the rest of the legend of Thomas Sutpen is speculation and rumor since we never get to meet the man behind the stories. Thomas Sutpen died in 1869 while the story takes place in 1909. It starts off with the main character, Quentin Compson, who visit’s a woman named Rosa Coldfield and hears the legend of Thomas Sutpen. He hears multiple versions of the story in the course of the book, from a number of sources, each of them neglecting or adding certain details (whether intentional or not) so even at the end of the book it is still unknown exactly what happened or why. But the final version, told by Thomas Sutpen’s son: Henry Sutpen, is probably the most complete and unbiased as far as we can tell. He tells of his fathers estate and success; his father’s marriage to a local merchants daughter, and the birth of himself and his sister, Judith. After growing up happily and with many advantages in life, Henry heads off to college and meets a fellow student named Charles Bon whom he takes home and introduces to the family, and almost instantaneously there’s a relationship formed between Charles and Thomas’ daughter Judith which quickly develops and becomes an engagement.

The trouble in the story? Thomas Sutpen realizes that Charles Bon is his long abandoned son from many years before. He had abandoned Charles and his mother after finding out that she had black blood in her genes. Thomas refuses to let the wedding continue because, of course, continuing would be incest since Charles is Judith’s half-brother. Nobody else agrees to cancel the wedding, not even Henry. At least not until hearing that Henry had black ancestors. This enrages Henry to such