I know half of the class discussed this on Tuesday, but I figured I would go ahead and post my thoughts on the way that Faulkner has structured Absolom, Absolom! Faulkner has written his novel to have many narrators to one story. This story kind of has to be pieced together by the reader, as each narrator seems to tell a slightly different piece of it. Through Rosa Coldfield's view, the reader (we), sees Sutpen as a bad person and a strongly negative influence. It is obvious (although we don't quite know why yet) that Rosa hates him. Mr. Coldfield, on the other hand, gives us a slightly more neutral view of Sutpen, although still understandably unreliable. By alternating narrators, Faulkner seems to be suggesting that both are unreliable in their own ways - both balancing the other out in certain ways. The additive "sum" of the two viewpoints seems to be more reliable than either of the two on their own. For example, we know that Rosa really hates Sutpen, but Mr. Coldfield's descriptions of Rosa in chapter 3 have an air of sympathy and pity as he describes the hardships she has had to endure. This plants in our minds that Rosa is more than just an angry old spinster.
Also, I think the way that Faulkner has structured this book is sort of his way of getting us to see the characters the way he wants us to see them. For example, Sutpen is initially introduced to us by Rosa, who hates him and is very suspicious of him. Thus, when we go on to read Mr. Coldfield's account of Sutpen's arrival in Jackson, we can't help but be suspicious of his actions and his motives. As another example, we are first introduced to Rosa as sort of an angry old spinster, but after we are provided with Mr. Coldfield's telling of the story in chapter 3, we begin to pity and sympathize with her.
FINALLY: in chapters 3 and 4, Ellen is repeatedly compared to a butterfly. Butterflies are generally a positive symbol of metamorphasis/change. We know that Ellen's story ends badly, and that it sort of goes down hill after she marries Sutpen, so why would she be compared to a butterfly?
I agree with Jenny’s analysis of the structure and how it affects characters’ personalities. I only wonder why Faulkner wrote this way...was it to intentionally confuse us? There have been many theories in class as to why he wrote so confusedly. I believe the different perspectives and thus different views on characters make everything seem mysterious and very uncertain. It goes along with the number of slaves in the novel. No one wrote down any of the stories or really even talked about them. The stories were spread through gossip told by the slaves. We’re getting so many different perspectives as the stories are getting passed around by different tongues.
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