『압살롬, 압살롬!』에 드러난 미국의 자화상

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

The mountains of West Virginia are typical of liberalism; the plains of Virginia of paternalism. Sutpen is insulted by a black slave in front of the porch of a big mansion owned by a rancher at Tidewater, which reveals the conflict between liberalism and paternalism. After this incident, Sutpen sets a life goal with the negative elements hidden in these two ideologies. In paternalism, the ruling class hide their ruthless avarice by establishing a virtuous leader in the name of helping the foolish people; in liberalism, under the disguise of equality, they hide their avarice by dominating the Other. Sutpen sets an inhuman and ruthless code in order to achieve his greedy desire and proceeds to carry out a grand design of building his kingdom. In Haiti, he experiences the "freedom" of colonialism where he can rule over colonial slaves on the basis of white supremacy, the colonial and imperialist ideology. At Jefferson, Sutpen's dream for the rule of the upper class is completed with the use of slavery he experienced first hand in Haiti. Symbolically, Sutpen's greedy desire and ruthlessness are sown in the mountains of West Virginia, their buds begin to sprout in the plains of Virginia, their boughs and bark are created in Haiti, and the blossoms are in full bloom at Jefferson. Sutpen hates the class system of race and social status in the beginning, but he begins to long for class segregation. Finally, he adopts the desire to be one of the ruthless ruling class.
The primal force with which Sutpen pushes to build his own kingdom without any shame, though he reveals ruthlessness and greedy desire, is the spirit of autonomy and protestant labor ethics, characteristics of liberalism. However, it is noticeable that this novel focuses on Sutpen's fall rather than on his success. The narrator, Quentin, regards Sutpen's fall as deriving from inhuman avarice and ruthlessness hidden in ideologies such as liberalism, paternalism, white supremacy, and colonial imperialism, as mentioned above. Thus, Quentin shows that Sutpen's inhuman and ruthless behaviour cannot be justified and beautified in terms of his autonomy and protestant labor ethics.
The six spiritual elements-liberalism, paternalism, colonial imperialism, white supremacy, the spirit of autonomy and protestant labor ethics-coincidentally correspond with the resources for America's foundation and expansion. In a sense, Sutpen's history symbolizes that of America and his nature may represent that of America as a nation. In particular, Quentin, a member of WASP, having conscientious intellectuality, reconstructs America's one hundred year history up to 1910 in the life of Sutpen, Quentin depicts the self-portrait of America in Sutpen who achieves his success with avarice and ruthlessness but ruins his success because of the inhumanity hidden deep down in them.