Absalom, Absalom! And All the Essay

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" (Wilson, 77). Thomas Sutpen is a white man who is born into poverty. Despite his greatest endeavors, he can never be accepted by the self-regarding aristocracy of the Southerner upper-class. Eulalia was, unbeknownst to Sutpen, of mixed race. Charles was, therefore, though by now greatly diluted, of mixed race too. The whole results in anarchy with one killing the other, and this 'messiness', it may be suggested, can be indicated in the pattern of the narrative that is filled with omissions and gaps, and where the listeners (such as Compson and later Quentin and Shreve) have to prompt Sutpen to "Go on."

In 'All the King's Men' it is the woman's gaze that is, according to Wilson (2000), the subversive image. Phebe, the slave, threatens the order that keeps her powerless by staring at her mistress with eyes "bright and hard like gold" when she realized that her mistress was responsible for Trice's suicide. Jack objectifies Anne Stanton in the opening sequence when he stares at her image on the society page of a newspaper, typically portrayed in a social and sexual role, and later whilst waiting for her when he gazes at another glamour shot of Anne. Yet it is Anne's gaze at Willie that causes disruption of the patriarchal order, and that causes her to subvert society by stepping outside "the acceptable boundaries of monogamous marriage, [doing so] she disrupts the patriarchal order, a transgression that inevitably results… in the disruption of the social order as well" (Wilson, 74).

It is in this way that "All the King's Men' is subversive and topples the traditional scheme, but it is chauvinistic as well.

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All the sexually 'bad' women are either punished or restored to their rightful role (Anne to Jack's lawful wife and to affiliation of the Children's Home; Jack's mother remains dominated by her wealthy husband, whilst Lucy Stark becomes increasingly fixated in her domestic role). In both novels, the female remains subsumed by the male, and is coveted purely for sexual expectations, and, therefore, both novels also typify male representations of history.

Source

Wilson, D. "A Shape to Fill a Lack": Absalom, Absalom! And the Pattern of History.

Wilson, D. Medussa, the Movies, and the King's Men. The Legacy of Robert Penn Warren. Ed.….....

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