Discussion - Week Three - Absalom, Absalom! - Chapter 6 & 7

[Jim]

This discussion covers Chapter 6 & 7, pp. 141 – 234


Chapter 6 finds us up at Cambridge with Quentin and his Harvard roommate Shreve. Quentin receives a letter from his father, which launches Shreve on a semi-mocking recounting of the Sutpen saga, with Quentin filling in many more details.

Chapter 7 continues the evening with Shreve. Quentin continues the story of Thomas Sutpen, but now as told to Quentin’s father by his grandfather, who was Sutpen’s only friend in town. We hear of Sutpen’s early years in the West Virginia mountains and his family’s migration downhill to the Tidewater area of Virginia. It is here, while trying to deliver a message from his father to the plantation owner, that the central conflict/challenge of Sutpen’s life occurs when a house nigger tells him to go to the back door of the house. Every step of Sutpen’s life after that encounter is an attempt to never have that feeling of inferiority again.

After hearing of Sutpen’s early life and his motives for all subsequent acts, as well as his “innocence”, do you feel any sympathy for him? Or is he just a demon destroying all who enter his orbit?

To avoid spoilers, please limit your comments to Chapter 6 & 7, pp. 141 – 234 (and the earlier chapters)