Faulkner's Absalom, Absalom!: An Innovative Narrative Technique

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based on what Miss Rosa heard as a child and her brief
personal experiences.
The narration of Absalom, Absalom!, can be considered a coded activity.
Faulkner creates the complex narration beginning at chapter 2. It ironic that
one of Faulkner's greatest novels is one in which the author only appears as the
teller of the story in one brief section; The details of the hero's arrival,
Thomas Sutpen, into Jefferson in chapter 2. Although Faulkner sets the scene up
in each section (The omniscient narrator), most of the novel is delivered
through a continual flow of talk via the narrators.
Quentin appears to think the material for the first half of the chapter
2. The narrator, throughout the novel, works as a historian. The narrators
seem to act like a model for readers. The narrator actually teaches the reader
how to participate in the historical recollection of Absalom Absalom! The
narrator also introduces the reader to things to come. The complexity of the
novel involves more ...

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demands Henry “must
have know what his father said was true and could not deny it” (91). Compson
make assumptions based on his own conclusions at this time. The words “believe”
and “imagine” again reveal for the reader that he/she must make some of their
own speculations in order to ascertain some of Sutpen's historical facts.
Mr. Compson is creating his own reconstruction of Sutpen's history.
Again, Faulkner uses words like “believes” and “doubtless” to make us understand
Compson's explanation of the past. The reader is now compelled to believe the
narrator. Compson insists at the end of this passage that “Henry must have been
the one who seduced Judith” (99). It appears that ...

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