At the end of the book Shreve asks Quentin “Why do you hate
the South?” He replies that he doesn’t hate the South and then continues to
repeat it to himself. This repetition seems to indicate that Quentin does
indeed hate the South (or at the very least holds some negative feelings
against them) and is in denial about it. This is interesting since throughout
the story I had thought of Quentin as a fairly unbiased character and if he did
have any bias it was in the favor of Sutpen and the South. I think this may be
trying to indicate that the general opinion of the audience of this book is the
South is bad.
I think the question of why does Quentin hate the South is
an important question to the story especially since he never provides an answer
to the question. It strongly relates to the question of why people hate Sutpen.
We see his selfishness which eventually turns to his down fall but does this
actually make him evil? The story of Sutpen’s child hood seems to indicate that
he was just a product of his environment. People don’t know of Sutpen’s
childhood and since it is unknown to them they can’t think of it that way. By
the time Absalom, Absalom! was written,
most of the people who had first handedly experienced the Civil War were no
longer alive. A huge portion of the war was no longer understood and the
motives have become fuzzy just like Sutpen’s. I feel like Faulkner is trying to
indicate that although the South did undeniably do some bad things, they weren’t
necessarily as evil as people think.
Most of the novel revolves around Quentin either listening to stories or repeating them to Shreve, and not until the very end does he actively participate in the action: he goes into the Sutpen house and finds Henry. I would argue that to an extent, the reader does know why Quentin hates the South. He sees how destructive the history of the South has been and how men like Sutpen had the power to destroy entire families because of racial institutions. He may deny his hatred to Shreve, a Northerner, out of pride( which seems to characterized as a common attribute of Southerners) but I think his reaction indicates that he really is ashamed of his heritage.
ReplyDeleteI find myself supporting Quentin in his disinterest of the south. After seeing him proactively learn about Sutpen's story and the events that took place surrounding it, I would think that there is no way he wouldn't dislike the south. Every aspect of the story shows different moments in which the cultural environment of the south hurts or negatively influences someone, with references like these why wouldn't someone dislike the south?
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