This is the End?

    Absalom, Absalom! is hard to relate to. I have never lived in the South nor have I been involved in war or a disintegrating family and plantation. I haven't had to deal with a disrespectful father or an old man trying to use me. What I can relate to, though, is the feeling I was left with after finishing the book. That feeling of knowing it is all over, but still expecting more. Essentially, a cliffhanger. This book left me wondering what was going to happen with Jim Bond; is he going to try to continue this corrupt legacy or just hide in the woods until his dying day? I don't know. What I do know, however, is that I have had this exact same feeling of having one hundred questions and no answers in my real life. 
     Every time anything comes to an end in my life, I don't feel like it is completely over. I hold on to hope that there is still something there whether it be with a person's or a pet's death or the end of a relationship. Even if I don't want anything to be left, even if all I truly want is it to be all over and done with, I have major issues shaking the feeling that it's just not over. Sometimes, this feeling just goes away after I accept the fact that that person or pet is not coming back; but sometimes it doesn't. All I want is to completely let go of my last relationship. Looking back on it, I can see how awful it was. I don't regret it, I learned many things from it, but I'm ready to move on with my life. Yet, there's still something there. Some nagging feeling of unfinished business. Granted, it has recently started to slowly disappear, it is still there. I have questions of what really happened in certain situations with this guy but I know I'll never get an answer, just like I still have questions about Jim Bond. I know, though, that if I just let things go without a second thought, I wouldn't be Sydney Foote. I need to second guess myself and over think every little detail before anything can truly be done. This can only happen in time, though, just like I, and Quentin and Shreve, will just have to wait until we all forget about Jim Bond, or until he comes up on the radar once again. 

The Story of Sutpen's Hundred

     Absalom, Absalom! by William Faulkner was, to say the least, a difficult book to read. Faulkner is not the easiest author to follow but once I understood just how to read his writing, it was truly brilliant. Absalom, Absalom! follows the rise and fall of Sutpen's Hundred in relationship to the rise and fall of the South during the Civil War. For a short period of time, everything seems to be fine but, quickly, war ruins both the Sutpen family and the South. In the end, the South is defeated by the North and left in ruins, just as Sutpen's Hundred is. However, the Sutpen's live on for some time, with Clytie still living in the rotting house with Jim Bond and, secretly, Henry Sutpen. Even though Rosa Coldfield, Thomas's wife's sister and temporarily his fiancee, doesn't know about Henry being in the house, she suspects that something is hiding there and cannot overcome her hate for Sutpen's Hundred, even though it has been years since it's major downfall. 

     However, once she does find out about Henry and overcomes her years of built up hate, Rosa sends an ambulance out to the plantation to try and save the dying Henry Sutpen. Clytie, though, thinks that they are coming to arrest Henry for the decades old murder of Charles Bon, so lights the house on fire, killing herself and Henry. The only one that escaped was Jim Bond. So, with the Sutpen legacy over in Rosa Coldfield's head, she dies. The reader is left with the memory of Jim Bon, though. The one who managed to escape and, in doing so, not quite end the Sutpen legacy. This made me feel as though the book did not quite come full circle, a slightly annoying realization. That fact, though, does coincide with what happened in the South. The Southerners lost, clearly, yet the "southern attitude" still existed, still exists today. Just like Shreve said, "I think that in time the Jim Bonds are going to conquer the western hemisphere."Deciphering one's feelings about Absalom, Absalom! is difficult but, in the end, this book is brilliant nonetheless. 

Thomas Sutpen, what is your problem?

     When reading William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! one cannot help but be struck by the awful, disturbing character traits of Thomas Sutpen. He is truly a disgusting person and, therefore, makes the book interesting. His character made me angry but also gave me something to think about. In the end, I believe he deserved to die the way he did. With the life he led, he deserved to be murdered in a painful manner by Wash Jones. 
     Sutpen took advantage of numerous women and girls, yet was never satisfied. He left his first wife because she was one-eighth black. Only one-eighth. He couldn't tell by her appearance that she had African American heritage, so why did it matter so much to him? He disowned his own son because he found out Charles was one-sixteenth black. Then, he went to Mississippi and had a daughter with a slave woman. He simply took advantage of the woman then stopped caring; he never seemed to be concerned about anything having to do with his daughter except that he got to name her. He then married again and had a son and a daughter. Yet, he didn't seem to care about any of them, either. Having a wife was simply a technicality to him and, by his attitude towards women in general, I'm sure he did not care about having another daughter. 
     After the war and after Thomas Sutpen's life began to disintegrate just like the South, he became consumed with the need to have a son. Henry had denounced his birthright and was nowhere to be found after he killed Charles, so Sutpen was left without anyone to continue his lineage. Naturally, he felt it was perfectly fine to take advantage of a fifteen year old Milly Jones, even though he was in his sixties. Milly got pregnant, but had a daughter. So, Sutpen just did not care. He didn't care about women or his children, just that his lineage continue. Thomas Sutpen was a whore and a womanizer. There did not seem to be one woman in his life that he cared about whatsoever, no matter how much she had done for him. Wash Jones, Milly's grandfather, had every right to kill Sutpen after what he did to all of these women, particularly Milly. 
     Thomas Sutpen was an awful person but he was also living in the South at an awful time. Some of his actions can probably be blamed on the corrupt society of the South during the Civil War; however, that does not give him excuses for his actions. He could have led a good life, but got caught up in the need for money and to have his legacy passed down.