Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom! employs a vehicle of already established characters, Quentin Compson and Jason Compson Sr., from The Sound and the Fury, to create an allegorical story of The South. Thomas Sutpan is at the center of Mrs. Coldfield’s retelling in chapter one, and through her remembrance, becomes a demon-like figure. With a profusion of ruthless energy, Thomas Sutpan focuses on claiming respectability through the establishment of a house on expensive land and marriage with a woman that can strengthen his name. Understanding Thomas Sutpan as the embodiment of the Old South we begin to understand Faulkner’s point of Absalom, Absalom!.

Thomas Sutpan is described as a very intimidating individual and proficient with his double pistols that have worn down handles (AA 25). The sickness in his demeanor, that seems to stem from a hunger not for food or drink but for something unknown to the town, conveys a lack within him (AA 24). When we take the gossip of a southern town to understand an individual it proves difficult, especially at this point in the novel. When we take Thomas Sutpan’s characteristics and actions thus far and apply them to a broader category, the establishment of the South and the emergence of The Southerner, the plot becomes a developing allegory. Sutpan’s worn down pistols expresses the hard use of them, and the fact that at first he had nothing but his clothes, horse, and the two pistols shows the importance of firearms in the South. Sutpan represents the conviction of The Southerner in creating a place of their own amidst a battlefield. Firearms are stitched in the historical fabric of the South because of their importance in the establishment of the South (removal of Native Americans). Although firearms aren’t exclusive to the South, the attachment to them seems to be stronger because of its use in westward expansion. Firearms also gave the South the ability to fight in the Civil War against a government that threatened their way of life. His emaciated body expresses the arduousness of The Southerner and unwavering conviction while facing the hardship of expansion.

Thomas Sutpan represents the Old South and a mode of thinking that is viewed in a negative light in Quentin’s post Civil War society. There’s a reason Mrs. Coldfield speaks of him in such a negative way and although we know little of him yet, we know that he treats his family with no respect and had facilitated fighting between slaves for whites entertainment. The fighting ring he created symbolizes the cruelty of Southern slave-owners at an extreme. The fact that Thomas Sutpan never visited his wife’s family because he had all he could get from them shows a ruthless resourcefulness, an accelerated version of The South’s establishment. Not to compare his rudeness with The South’s establishment, but the reason for his rudeness being grounded in a vision of the future. His goal mimics The Southerner’s original goal and he is trying to achieve it with the straightest line possible. I can only assume that Sutpan meets a tragic end and that he is responsible for his own undoing. If my theory makes any sense (it hardly does for even I) then the ending of Sutpan in Faulkner’s allegory should be a bitter defeat and mark the beginning of a slow progression from the ways of the Old South.