Enduring & Prevailing Scratches

We saw in class the other day that William Faulker "declines to accept the end of man", believing that main will prevail. This is one of the biggest themes that he develops throughout Absalom, Absalom! Faulkner seems to be saying that people will continue to live through the stories that are told about them. The idea of "prevailing" comes into play as these stories are passed not only from one person to the next, but from one generation to the next. We see this in the novel as Thomas Sutpen's story is told by Mr. Compson and Rosa to Quentin, and also by Quentin to Shreve. In addition, on page 101, we see that Judith tells her story to Quentin's grandmother in the form of a letter in attempts to make a scratch - "something, something that might make a mark on something that was once".

Finally, on page 151, the murder of Thomas Sutpen by Wash Jones is described, as well as a part of his funeral. In describing the moving of the body to the church, Faulkner chooses to say "so he rode fast toward the church as far as he went, in his homemade coffin, in his regimentals and sabre and embroidered..." instead of something along the lines of "and Judith hired two mules to transport the body to the church...". The way that Faulkner writes this gives the reader a sense that Sutpen is still very much alive and is making all these decisions. In addition, his choice of words like "bolted, turned, tumbled, fetched" in describing the funeral suggest movement rather than stillness (which is what we usually picture when we think of death). Thus, Faulkner uses the description of Sutpen's death to help convey the idea that humans will endure and prevail.