The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!

[bottlerockett]

Hey there, everyone. First time post. I'll save my introductions for the Introductions forum. =P

I'll cut to the chase with a disclaimer: I want IDEAS, NOT STUFF TO COPY/PLAGIARIZE, please. It's not that I believe you won't just give me ideas but it's to prevent me from getting crap for being "a lazy student." :angel: I just want some insight and help coming up with a topic. I need help, not a way out. Thanks.

I have to write a paper that explores William Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom! and The Sound and the Fury, developing a thesis or argument that utilizes both novels. Problem is, I'm having a lot of trouble coming up with a paper topic.

I believe I have a fairly well-grounded understanding of both books (a lofty claim about Absalom!, sure, but I think I'm okay) and I believe I can see their place in the Southern Literary canon. So please, spit out some ideas/questions/themes you feel I might address in a paper. Do you have any critical or thematic questions about the novels I could consider? Any imagery that traverses both novels I could explore? The novels both display strong thematic "Fall of Man" tendencies. Do you see anything in this theme I could expand upon?

In short, do you have any ideas for something I could write a short (5-7) page paper on these two novels?

Thanks a lot for any potential help.

[Virgil]

The fall of man angle seems intriguing. I think you could make a good case for that and it strikes me as quite original in reading both novels. Do you need to do both? Either novel is rich enough for a solid term paper. Tackling both together probably would expand into a thesis type of paper. I don't think a 5 to 7 page paper could do both novels justice. I'm not sure it would do one novel justice.

[bottlerockett]

The fall of man angle seems intriguing. I think you could make a good case for that and it strikes me as quite original in reading both novels.

Yeah, I found that theme really interesting throughout the books. Quentin, Jason, and Benjy all rely on Caddie, who represents Eve, in an Adamic way. When Eve ultimately fails to live up to the impossible expectations of her Adams, the fall of each of the Adams is inevitable.

Though this point sounds misogynistic, the point is that the Adamic characters simply put too much trust in Eve. They relied on Eve to be something they knew she would not and could not be. Adam perpetuates his own fall.

Sutpen is similarly Adamic. He wants nothing more than to propagate and to live in the Pre-Lapsarian world of his innocence before he realized, as a child, that he was not Southern gentry but was rather lower class white. His attempt to establish a family dynasty is doomed to fail, as it is impossible to escape the original sin ascribed to us upon birth. This is a rather Calvinist reading, I admit, but I've got a lot of textual/thematic evidence to back up this argument.


Do you need to do both? Either novel is rich enough for a solid term paper. Tackling both together probably would expand into a thesis type of paper. I don't think a 5 to 7 page paper could do both novels justice. I'm not sure it would do one novel justice.

Yes, it does need to be both. I agree that one could easily write a paper much longer than 5-7 pages on a section of either novel, let alone both. However, my teacher said 5-7 pages. I'd love to get more of my ideas on paper but, alas, I won't exactly argue with my teacher to give us a longer assignment. :lol:

[Virgil]

Yeah, I found that theme really interesting throughout the books. Quentin, Jason, and Benjy all rely on Caddie, who represents Eve, in an Adamic way. When Eve ultimately fails to live up to the impossible expectations of her Adams, the fall of each of the Adams is inevitable.

Though this point sounds misogynistic, the point is that the Adamic characters simply put too much trust in Eve. They relied on Eve to be something they knew she would not and could not be. Adam perpetuates his own fall.

Sutpen is similarly Adamic. He wants nothing more than to propagate and to live in the Pre-Lapsarian world of his innocence before he realized, as a child, that he was not Southern gentry but was rather lower class white. His attempt to establish a family dynasty is doomed to fail, as it is impossible to escape the original sin ascribed to us upon birth. This is a rather Calvinist reading, I admit, but I've got a lot of textual/thematic evidence to back up this argument.



Yes, it does need to be both. I agree that one could easily write a paper much longer than 5-7 pages on a section of either novel, let alone both. However, my teacher said 5-7 pages. I'd love to get more of my ideas on paper but, alas, I won't exactly argue with my teacher to give us a longer assignment. :lol:

I do think you have a handle on the themes. It will definitely be an intersting paper. But do you get to choose whether it's one book or both? I would just stick with one. Best of luck. :)

[mayneverhave]

I wrote an undergrad paper last semester on Absalom, Absalom! and The House of the Seven Gables, linking their use of the house, or mansion, image as a symbol of ancestry, tradition, and family heritage. In both cases, the family falls, or is decayed, because of some sort of curse or flaw (in this case, Sutpen's flaw in his design), and the house becomes decayed or destroyed (in Absalom, Absalom! the house, and the last remnants of the Sutpen line destroyed in flame).

As for the connection between The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom!, there is obviously Quentin Compson, the neurotic, introverted, genius of the South, and their shared theme: the decay of the South, and, perhaps, all heritage and tradition - which is connected, in turn, with the fall of the individual man.

There is quite a bit in early 20th century literature that deals with this idea of the decay of civilization. Bet your teacher would give you extra props for drawing in ideas from (or at least name dropping) The Waste Land.