Absalom, Absalom

On a cold night in the Harvard dorm, Quentin recounts to Shreve more stories from the Sutpen past. The narrative unfolds against the backdrop of the construction of Sutpen’s Hundred, revealing the haunting history of Thomas Sutpen, a man whose life was intricately interwoven with tragedy. Sutpen’s early life shaped his ruthless ambition to create a wealthy plantation dynasty, an ambition that took him to the West Indies.

Charles Bon’s backstory is also revealed. While in the West Indies, Thomas Sutpen marries a woman and fathers Charles Bon but leaves both his wife and child when he learns that his wife has Black ancestry. At this point, he abandons his project in the West Indies and seeks a new life in Mississippi, where he builds Sutpen’s Hundred through the labor of enslaved people, whom he forces to join him from the West Indies.

This chapter also delves into Sutpen’s complex choices during the Civil War, where he faces the dilemma of either allowing his son to marry his sister or revealing a truth that could shatter the family: that Charles Bon is his son, and therefore Judith’s half brother.