Brandon Cutrer

History 330
Absalom, Absalom!
In his novel Absalom, Absalom! William Faulkner uses the character of Quentin
Compson to tell the story of Thomas Sutpen. Sutpen came to Mississippi with his design of
transforming himself and challenging the traditional way of life that he was accustomed to. The
design and the way that Thomas Sutpen carries out his design is reflective of the social and
economic order of Antebellum Mississippi.
When Thomas Sutpen was a young man he began to put together a design for his life.
This design was for him to move out of his lower social class and move into the elite class of
wealthy planters by gaining the symbols of wealth, land and slaves. The plan for his design
stemmed from an incident in his youth when Thomas was sent to the house of a plantation owner
and was sent away because he was a poor white man (183). Initially, Sutpen tries to escape this
rigid order but later decides to embrace it saying, to combat them (the rich whites) you have to
have that made him to what he did. You have to have to have land and slaves and a big house to
combat them with (192).
Thomas Sutpen mysteriously arrived in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi in 1833
without anyone knowing who he is or where he came from (7). This would not have been
uncommon in Mississippi during this time period, as many people from the Atlantic South states,
in Sutpens case Virginia, were moving farther west along with the cotton frontier. What Sutpen
finds in Mississippi, and particularly Jefferson was virgin land that could be easily purchased and
cleared. He started right away building toward his design. Sutpen brought a group of slaves
with him and they work for years building his plantation which is the key component to his
moving into the upper class.

The story and design of Thomas Sutpen is reflective of the economic order of Mississippi
in the mid-19th century. Mississippi was deeply divided by the economic struggle between the
poor and the rich. The rich possess both land and slaves which is what the poor whites do not
have. The slaves and the labor they provide are what allow the rich to keep adding to their
possessions. The poor could not afford slaves, and because of this they were unable to attain
enough wealth to buy land. The rich continued to live their lives of splendor, while the poor
could not move up. This is one reason that Thomas Sutpen was such an anomaly. He was able to
cross the economic divide and gain the power of a land owner.
Sutpens story is also reflective of the social order present in Mississippi. When Thomas
Sutpen comes to Yoknapatawpha County there is a well-established and rigid social hierarchy
already in place. The most influential group were the rich landowners. Many of these landowners
had been in Mississippi for some time and were already well known. The other group is the poor
white farmers who would scrape by on the margins of society without any real power. This poor
white group is the group that Sutpen belonged too and enacted his design to get away from.
Sutpen used his design and systematically transformed himself. First by buying a vast track of
land, one hundred square miles, then by bringing in slaves and erecting the most massive home
in the county. When Thomas did this he threw the traditional hierarchy out of order. He enraged
the influential old planters so much that they rode to his property with the intent to arrest him
(33).
Thomas Sutpens story is representative of the social unrest in Mississippi. The rich
planters despised Sutpen because he was able to bridge the gap between poor white people and
rich white people. He did this without having the family history of being wealthy, which is how
the rich landowners in Jefferson attained their wealth .The poor who initially support Sutpen

likewise grew to hate Sutpen because once he reached his goal he treated the poor whites just
like he hated to be treated. This is evident in the encounter where Wash Jones killed Sutpen when
Sutpen told Wash that his illegitimate child by Joness granddaughter was less important to him
than a horse (231).
The story of the design of Thomas Sutpen is reflective of Antebellum Mississippi in
many ways. Sutpens unusual way of coming to Jefferson and the way that he transformed
himself from a poor white into one of the richest men in the county is an example of the order
that existed. He crossed over the economic gap by attaining wealth through land ownership.
Sutpen also crossed the social divide although it caused much unrest. Thomas Sutpens design
ultimately failed because of the unrest that it caused and in the end it cost him his life.