Sutpen and Determinism

These chapters seem to focus on the idea of determinism, the ideology that a person is determined by their environment.  By getting background on Sutpen and Bon, there is also a tendency for readers to become somewhat sympathetic or understanding regarding those characters.  Sutpen’s background was especially interesting, as it seemed that many social constructs had a huge effect on his life.  At a young age, Sutpen was taught about class and racial differences.  He knew what it meant to be in power and what it meant to not have anything at all.  He saw the power there was in ownership.  This gave a lot of insight into why Sutpen was so determined to build Sutpen’s One Hundred.  He knew how to work with his hands and how to make something out of nothing, and he was determined to do so.  We also found out that Bon is Sutpen’s son which explains his interest in Bon and his trip to New Orleans.  We also learn about the effect that learning about race and class had on him when he realizes that his wife, and the mother of Charles Bon, was partially Black.  Leaving them was the onset to building Sutpen’s one hundred.  Here, we are given the most humane story about Sutpen.  Instead of his life coming across as supernatural or as folklore, he comes across as a person.  Although Sutpen is not necessarily a likeable human being, he is a person with feelings and emotions.  He leaves a kind of destruction wherever he goes, but he also is the builder of most of the destruction.