Absalom, Absalom! (Identities and Issues in Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: William Faulkner
- First Published: 1936
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction
- Subjects: Segregation or integration, Family or family life, Genealogy, South or Southerners, Nineteenth century, Slavery or slaves, Civil War, Adultery
- Locales: Virginia, Haiti, Mississippi, West Virginia, Yoknapatawpha County (fictive)
The Work
Three men struggle to define their identity in William Faulkner’s novel, Absalom, Absalom! The first is Thomas Sutpen, the son of poor whites from West Virginia, who arrives in Mississippi with a group of Haitian slaves and a dream: to carve a hundred square miles of plantation out of wilderness and create a new identity for himself. As a boy, Sutpen was refused entry to a rich landowner’s home by a black slave. Now he seeks to become that landowner, with wealth, a house, slaves, and a son to establish his dynasty.
Sutpen’s Haitian marriage was...
[The entire page is 773 words long]
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