Mysterious aspects of Absalom Absalom! By William Faulkner

One of William Faulkner’s most well-known books is Absalom Absalom. He is renowned for his many literary idioms, which are evident in the majority of his works. First of all, Faulkner enjoys using characters who are comparable in his works. Second, to convey his ideas, he frequently leaps back and forth in his narratives. Instead of expressing them consistently, he does so in an ad hoc manner. Absalom Absalom does a good job of capturing these and other aspects of his writing, which raises the question of whether this and other works by Faulkner have enigmatic elements that detract from or enhance the caliber of his art. This analysis attempts to describe some of these problems regarding this book and how the author could have avoided these problems.

A novel is supposed to be simple and understood by all people despite their education levels. Absalom Absalom lacks this feature since the author has ensured that neophytes can never understand the book. This means that one must be a frequent reader and familiar with his work to under it. Furthermore, the book is one of the most difficult among all his books. In a nutshell, the author attempts to recount events that took place from 1909 to the date of narration (Faulkner 14). Quentin, his father, and roommate from Havard try to understand mysteries facing the Sutpen family. The author uses their relationship with the Choctaws to show the complexities of the racial relationships between the blacks and the whites. Faulkner uses complex and difficult strategies to express these ideas to the audience, in fact, a new reader can hardly understand what the author attempts to achieve. These relationships are not directly shown.

The author could have easily solved this problem by creating simple and clear relationships between characters. One of the easiest links that the author could have used to achieve this goal is showing a direct relationship between Henry, Judith, and Charles. Their relationship could have easily formed a clear image of the racial discrimination that he attempts to bring out.

Secondly, the author shows a series of fatalities. Through Absalom Absalom! Faulkner presents a wide range of fatalities that loom throughout the book. Although the book is meant to show this as a theme from Absalom and his Kin, the author fails to create a connection between events and these fatalities. From heartache, anger, incestuous feelings to frustrations, all the fatalities are randomly placed in the novel. When the author attempts to make a connection between these fatalities, he uses complex methods to link them. One of his most familiar strategies is the use of competing narratives. For instance, Faulkner uses the Compson’s and Quentin’s roommate to come up with a mosaic depiction of the Sutpens and their homicidal tendencies that have existed in their lineage for a long time. This link can be shown in the study using a simple and clear method. However, the author utilizes a sequence of conversations among Quentin, his father, roommate, and Rosa who has links with the Sutpens to recreate past events relating to their problems (Faulkner 34-77).

The author could have used a simple connection to allow the audience understand his ideas and objectives. Inattentive readers can easily miss these connections since they are not direct but rather linked with other ideas present. Secondly, linking ideas with Quentin and his acquaintances would also be easily understood. As the main characters, they would easily be understood rather than spreading ideas among many another character whose character is not much vibrant.

The structure of the sentences is also another big challenge in this novel. The author uses long paragraphs to express shifting perspectives in more than one paragraph. Even though these perspectives would be difficult to express them in short sentences, the author could device other means rather than using this strategy in more than one sentence. Consider the part where the author attempts to recount the actions of Rosa Coldfield. In this section, the author uses long paragraphs to express this idea. Only careful readers would be able to bring together these ideas together and formulate the required hypothesis by the author.

The misery behind Bon is also brought out using the same complicated strategy. The author tries to bring out several ideas such as his old age as a college student and being rich in a neighborhood highly populated by poor people using the long paragraphs. Furthermore, there are no parents that have been revealed at this time until later when they are revealed. This aspect can easily be missed by people who are either not conversant with the author’s style or inattentive to hidden ideas.

The author requires his audience to understand ideas using different perspectives. Notably, this method separates those who understand this concept and those who fail to understand. This idea discourages new readers since they fail to understand what the author is attempting to pass through. For instance, Rosa attempts to recount what her mother meant regarding her nephew and niece together with her friend. Rosa is forced to recount this story since she failed to understand the whole idea during the first time. She later found out that she perceived people according to the viewpoint of a biased person. There are several paragraphs where the author requires the reader to use this strategy to comprehend his ideas. However, they are not direct but rather complicated to new readers.

Absalom, Absalom is not a novel for faint hearted people. This discourages new people who are unfamiliar with this art work. It takes a lot of work and effort to plow under the author’s textual surface to take out the nuggets of ideas that are buried deep down below the work of the author. This novel is one of the novels that a reader takes time to understand what they just read. However, there are chances that a reader can read a phrase or a sentence and fail to understand the objective of the author. Faulkner forces his readers to pause and reassess what they have just read. Readers are only rewarded with rich, tragic, and complex family story narration if they make extra efforts. The story relates to a story of a family that not only has illusions but also linked to one of the most tragic biblical stories.

The author could have gained more audience if this novel was expressed in a language that is simple and easily relates to the biblical story. The story should not subject the reader to an additional effort of analyzing the flow of ideas but rather allow them to read and under the whole story without much struggle. Even though this style separates people according to the ability to comprehend ideas, the author should have used a method that is understood by all. That is, neither too simple nor too complex to be understood by an average reader.

Lastly, the Faulkner complicates the whole narrative such that the reader endeavors on unfolding a puzzle rather than enjoying the novel. The author also fails to state anything definitive about his characters. Instead, he uses continuous conversations through Compsons and the Quentins. The author uses them to retell past events and links them with the overstretched tales of tragic issues surrounding the Stephens, Bon, and Judith. Stylistic devices as irony are hidden such that only attentive readers can comprehend all ideas.

In conclusion, Absalom Absalom remains to be one of the Faulkner’s best novels. Many reviews have shown how the novel received a positive reception from the public. However, the author’s use of complex strategy to express his ideas, use of long paragraphs, complex relationships and lack of clear connection among various ideas forms one of the most mysterious parts of this novel. The author connects with only those people with prior knowledge of his work but not new readers. New readers are required to utilize most of the efforts for them to understand Faulkner’s ideas and objectives. All these problems could be solved if the author used a simple language. Furthermore, the author’s target is to reach a wide range of audience. Therefore, he should change his mode of expressing ideas through novels to attract more readers.

Works cited

Faulkner, William. Absalom, Absalom! Taipei, Taiwan: Bookman Books, 1936. Print.