Cassandra Sarabia
ENG 3345
10/02/17
Dr. Rothman
Expository Essay #2
“Absalom, Absalom! The great technique”
William Faulkner has written a lot of amazing works of literature. A lot of his novels are based off the actual historical drama that was going on in his time.
In William Faulkner’s “Absalom, Absalom!” Faulkner expresses many topics going on in the south at the time that makes this a great piece of literature, but how did Faulkner write such great piece? Faulkner uses a narrative technique that allows a great analysis of this work. Any southerner or any other person should view this work with guilt. William Faulkner provides the reader with dilutions of the representations of this piece, Miss Rosa lone, mad, and frustrated as stated by EZ, “cannot even answer her own questions that regard Sutpen’s own motivation. Mr. Compson is the one who sees a lot of the evil and the illusions of romanticism of the evil southern ladies that have turned them into ghosts.” Quentin Compson and Shreve McCannon evaluated Charles Bon’s and Henry Sutpen’s motives on his history. Shreve which is an outsider asks for “Quentin’s help and reconstructs the story and later understands the meaning of Thomas Sutpen’s life.” In the novel, multiple techniques of consciousness are used to reassess the theme of historical reconstruction by the speakers (narrators) –EZ.
In Chapter one there is a scene where Miss Rosa talks to Quentin about the young days of Sutpen’s life. In this scene Rosa explains her reasons to Quentin as to why she wanted to go back and visit the house on this day. Out of all the narrators in this piece, Miss Rosa, is the one narrator who does not understand Sutpen’s history. This chapter (1) was an introduction to Sutpen and his history but it is based merely on what Miss Rosa recalls she had heard as a young girl and her own personal life experiences. The narration of Absalom, Absalom! is described as a coded activity. In the beginning of the chapter, Faulkner creates a complex narration, which is ironic this is where the author only showed up as the narrator in a short section. Although Faulkner sets up the scene where the “hero’s arrival, Thomas Sutpen, into Jefferson in each section most of the novel is being executed through a continuous flow of talking via narrators”- EZ.
It appears Quentin was thinking of the material in half of chapter 2. Throughout the novel though, the narrator appears as a historian. The narrator here teaches us, the readers, to appreciate the historical recollections of the novel, they act as models. It introduces the readers to what’s to come later on. When one reads the novel, the complexity of it requires more than just reading the work. The reader must close read and become objective and learn the history of Sutpen. In chapter 2, Mr. Compson’s section (43-58) uses words like “doubtless” and “perhaps.” For instance, in this chapter, Mr. Compson thinks that Mr. Coldfield’s want for a quiet and small wedding reception ...
