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
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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
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