Reconciling Thomas Sutpen

Starting at the very beginning of the novel, the character of Thomas Sutpen is vehemently portrayed as a bigoted, flawed man that cannot ever quench his prideful thirst for societal prominence.  Beginning with Rosa's initial retelling, the reader is led to believe that this man is a "demon".  However, later in the novel the reader is able to get a picture of Sutpen and how his worldy views were developed during his childhood.  In this section, Faulkner depicts a scene in which Sutpen is first made aware of his social standing and his monomaniacal quest for social recognition begins.  Furthermore, the reader gets a look at how Sutpen grew up uneducated and in a time and place in which racism was rampant- something that led me to believe he is not really the "demon" many have portrayed him to be, but rather he is a mere product of his environment that has become wildly obsessed with his pride and flawed attitudes.  That's not to say his views/actions are right, but rather that he came by them naturally.  Due to this, I think it's fair to assess Sutpen's actions as actions that he viewed to be best because of his worldly experience, not because of some inner hatred for African-Americans.  In continuation of this point, it's important to note that he built Sutpen's Hundred side-by-side with his Haitian slaves and during his life he was apt to engage physically with some of them, something that a hateful man would never do.  Therefore, I believe that his actions, such as those regarding Bon and Bon's mother, were not done hatefully, but rather were actions reflecting his prideful nature because accepting them as his family would have hurt his social standing during the time period.