Throughout chapter 8 we have the speculations of Quentin and
Shreve. Faulkner uses maybe several
times throughout the telling of their ideas about what transpires with the
family. We see the use of maybe three
times on page 278. I can’t help but
wonder what exactly the intention of the author was in doing this. He was the one making up the story yet he
still makes the reader question him or herself about what really happened. This theme of not trusting the speaker is a
common theme that has been recurring throughout the novel. We have been shown not to trust the stories
of Rosa because she is biased, but when Quentin and Shreve make these misjudgments,
it creates a different sense of mistrust that we didn’t have with the other
characters that saw the events firsthand.
I think it is worth considering how much Quentin actually saw when he
and Rosa visited the Sutpen hundred and how that played a role in his judgment
about the facts which he has yet to reveal to the reader. This leads me to my second point that through
the use of maybe so many times in chapter 8 that we must speculate as to
whether we can believe any of this story because, while the facts laid out in
the end of the book create the story line, Absalom!
Absalom! fails to give us the point of view of the person we need to hear
from the most, Thomas Sutpen. These
holes in the story makes me as the reader question how much any of the story
recounts have validity because of how smeared they are because we encounter no
narrator who isn’t biased.
I disagree that Thomas Sutpen’s point of view would be the most constructive perspective on the story that we’re missing out on. If anything, the characters that I would like to hear from the most are Judith and Henry. As we discussed in class when we were talking about the correlations between Moby-Dick and Absalom, Absalom!, Sutpen’s perspective would be a lot like Ahab’s perspective, inconsistent, deluded, and not really substantive. Furthermore, I believe that we do in fact have a full portrait of Sutpen at this point in the novel. After the first chapter, it was fair to say that we hadn’t heard enough about him to deduce his nature. However, learning about his childhood, his upbringing, and how he grew to become the man that he was elucidated all of the mystery surrounding him. Therefore, I don’t think that Thomas Sutpen’s perspective was necessary.
ReplyDeleteI thinks its interesting when looking at Quentin's perspective, as his outside opinion seems to be one of the most trustworthy in the novel. However, when examining his character, it seems that while his interest in the story is drawn to neither side, he maintains a fascination with the complexity of the story which may curtail some of the facts. While doesn't alter information, his choice to offer the thoughts of individual characters in his retelling of the story seems a little out of place. How would someone like Quentin know what Sutpen was thinking when he is retelling a story he heard from someone who heard from someone who may or not have had all the facts? I feel this would be impossible without some sort of dramatic effect added by Quentin.
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