Faulkner's Use Of Allusions In Absalom

Improved Essays
Faulkner implements the use of stream of consciousness, that is said to have evolved “quite a bit from [Joseph] Conrad,” another stream of consciousness author (Ross). Both Conrad and Faulkner liked to go about their writing in a poetic manner. The sacrifice of proper grammar and concise descriptions for long sentence structure packed with compound adjectives gives the reader a sense that Absalom, Absalom! is a “prose poem of magnificent complexity” (Johnson, Kalmanson, 18). An example of this being his description of where the “dim hot airless room” that Rosa was telling Quentin the story (Faulkner, 1). His purpose of the lack of punctuation in this phrase helps create the feel of how the room would feel like and how someone who was in the …show more content…
He compares Thomas Sutpen to God in the way that he has a “grand design” and he sacrifices his son for what he thinks is a greater good. However, the most significant allusion is to the story of Absalom in the Old Testament. In this bible story, Absalom was King David’s third and favorite son. Absalom’s sister, Tamar, was raped by their half-brother Amnon after she resisted his pursuit of her. After Absalom found out about his sister being raped by their half-brother, he had his sister live with him. In the following two years after the incident, Absalom’s hate built up for Amnon and constructed a plan to get revenge. Absalom threw a party and invited Amnon, only to have him killed in front of his family. He said to his servants: “Notice when Amnon has had too much to drink, and then when I give the order, kill him. Don't be afraid. I will take the responsibility myself. Be brave and don't hesitate!” (2 Samuel 13:23-19:8). This pertains to Absalom, Absalom! because the readers can infer that Henry Sutpen is like Absalom, Thomas Sutpen is like David, Judith is like Tamar, and Charles is like Amnon. While the characters in the novel are not exactly like the biblical characters, their actions mirror some of the relationships and actions of the characters in the novel. Charles, like Amnon, is the half-brother to Henry and Judith and wanted to be romantically involved with Judith, as Amnon wanted to be with Tamar. Henry, like …show more content…
is a hard novel to comprehend, I utilized MAX Notes (the edition specifically written for Absalom, Absalom! Was written by Carol Sili Johnson and Laurie Kalmanson). This book was the perfect companion to help understand and analyze the events that took place. Each chapter had its own summary of the book and an analysis just in case the reader missed anything. It also had a timeline of events presented chronologically since the narratives jumped around a lot, and a list of characters and their descriptions to further help the reader (there were two characters with the same name so this helped tremendously). (Johnson, Kalmanson)
A Glance Beyond Doubt by Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan overall focused on narrative theory, but it had a chapter dedicated entirely to Absalom, Absalom! This chapter broke down the narration of the novel and gives the readers a lot of depth to the narrative style used by Faulkner. It also explained the effect that the narrators had on the readers and how it contributed to the work as a whole (Rimmon-Kenan).
The novel Absalom, Absalom! written by William Faulkner is a very interesting book with more to it than initially meets the eye. Without Faulkner’s use of stream of consciousness, different narration, the constant underlying theme of racism, and allusions, the book would not come to

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Ethos/Pathos/Logos Analysis: Maus Throughout the graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman, a plethora of the rhetorical appeals, ethos, pathos, and logos, are demonstrated. Ethos is established via things like credibility of the speaker; Pathos is displayed through things like appealing to the audience’s emotions, hopes, fears, or prejudices; Logos is shown through things like clear, rational ideas, facts and citations. All of those ways to show the rhetorical appeals can be found in Maus. While examining the illustrations and dialogue of Maus, one can analyze and cite many exhibitions of ethos, pathos, and logos.…

    • 851 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Evidence of his grasp of language is apparent, regardless of the genre, and there are mysteries to uncover in all that he wrote. Deborah Clark says of his novel Light in August, "Faulkner's manipulation of sexual dynamics and gender roles . . . illustrates the full complexity of his . . . power and authority"(398).…

    • 1251 Words
    • 6 Pages
    • 4 Works Cited
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The effect of using alliteration in the sermon is that it allows the reader to focus on these particular words and the same time making it more memorable. However, there are some terms that Edwards repeats several of times in the sermon. He writes the term “hell” several times throughout his sermon. For example, “There is no want of power in God to cast wicked men into hell at any moment.”…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    On the story “so I ain’t no good girl” by Sharon Flake, the main character is a young black female that attends high school. She is one of the main protagonists of the story. This character is either hated or loved by certain audiences due to her actions or background information. I will discuss about this character later in the story and our thesis is “did the author, Sharon, explain the characteristics of the protagonist?”…

    • 403 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Heterogeneous Narrative Perspective Absalom, Absalom! is a novel written in 1936 by William Faulkner, the winner of two Pulitzer’s and a Nobel Peace prize for his many literary masterpieces. Faulkner has gained a celebrated reputation for his depiction of life in the American South. Though critics have established Absalom, Absalom! as Faulkner’s most difficult writing, it is also revered for its intellectually enriching metaphors and the complicated spiraling of events through narration. Faulkner, masterfully incorporates themes of miscegenation, progeny, race, class, and misogyny, into one captivating fictitious novel.…

    • 1539 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Old School The novel Old School was written by Tobias Wolff and published in 2003 after three portions of the novel were published in The New Yorker as short stories. Wolff was born on June 19, 1945, in Birmingham, Alabama. He had a rough life growing up and bounced around from state to state with his mother who eventually remarried. The man she married was very abusive to Wolff both physically and mentally.…

    • 1316 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Tradition and honor are two trusted guides used in cultures around the world, not only by the actions of a society, but also utilized by the actions of the singular man. In Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily", Faulkner establishes the story in the unique culture of the American South, ripe with the following of tradition and honor: manipulating his characters and the action of the story to reflect the importance these concepts possess in his story. Similarly, O'Brien, author of "How to Tell a True War Story", employs the concepts of honor and tradition, comparing and contrasting them to the realities of war and its effect on all who are…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    William Faulkner was one of the greatest writers of the twentieth century. He wrote many great stories that were focused mainly in the southern United States, using similar characters and the setting of Yoknapatawpha County. In 1950, Faulkner received a Nobel Peace Prize for literature and in his acceptance speech for the award he stated that for a story to last forever it must include six eternal verities, which are love, honor, pity, pride, compassion, and sacrifice. (Faulkner 3). Sometimes these values are obvious, but others are hidden away in the writing.…

    • 1223 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    First, Faulkner shows many important perspectives. The purpose of Faulkner’s work is to show much information in a little time. In the light of what has happened in both Faulkner’s fiction and the criticism of him in the 1950’s this study of his approach to his characters, his uses of them, and their role in the general strategy of his fiction is of special value. The sound and the fury and As I lay dying, are very good contributions to the art of modern fiction and the certain parts. The discussion stresses Faulkner’s experiments in narrative perspective and their effect upon his conceptions of the way the characters are the south.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    In the novel, the people gave up their freedoms. When this happened the government simply made books illegal to read, as individual thoughts worked against the smooth flow of society’s happiness. Anything that worked against the smooth happy flow of society slowly became illegal. Reading, driving too slowly, and anything else against society became illegal. In the novel, it wasn’t so much as the government had one day became corrupt, but the people stopped caring about reading, free thinking, and anything else that was not considered fun.…

    • 1085 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Decent Essays

    After Amir hides his watch and money under Hassan’s bed. Baba talks to Ali and Hassan, if they stole Amir’s watch and money. Hassan lied and said yes. He took the blow for Amir. Amir then says, “"I loved him in that moment, love him more than I'd loved anyone and I wanted to tell them that I was the snake in the grass”(Hosseini 105).…

    • 117 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Decent Essays

    1 The book gave me glimpses of what Dominicans experience coming over to American and in their native land. I admit to never deeply considering this subject before. The subject of Dominicans as immigrants to American was never an interest to me. I now have a new found interest regarding Dominicans in America.…

    • 687 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In literature, many people do not realize the effort put forth in selecting a title. Readers are usually able to find a reference to a novel’s title somewhere in the book, but do not grasp its full significance. Authors, however, often use symbols, characters, and allusions to explain the meaning. Through these muted clues, a title’s significance is gradually revealed to the reader. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the title of the novel holds great significance, which is progressively developed through symbols, characters, and allusions.…

    • 688 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The two stories “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?” and “The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas” are very similar when analyzing the thoughts of the characters. In one story, you have vulnerable young girl who feels trapped inside her house because of the dangers that are waiting for her beyond her doorstep. In the other, you have a vulnerable little boy who is physically and mentally trapped and scared of the things outside of his box. These 2 stories use many literary elements to demonstrate a character who is not exactly in the right state of mind.…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Mr.Faulkner explained in his speech that he does not write for fame or money.but for the audience and his compassion for literature. In his Speech"The Writer 's…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays