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Scuppernong

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Absalom, Absalom! is a novel by the American author William Faulkner , first published in 1936. Taking place before, during, and after the American Civil War , it is a story about three families of the American South , with a focus on the life of Thomas Sutpen .

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37-544: The scuppernong is a large variety of muscadine ( Vitis rotundifolia ), a species of grape native to the southern United States. It is usually a greenish or bronze color and is similar in appearance and texture to a white grape, but rounder and larger. First known as the "big white grape", the grape is commonly known as the "scuplin" in some areas of the Deep South and also as the "scufalum", "scupanon", "scupadine", "scuppernine", "scupnun", or "scufadine" in other parts of

74-456: A daughter named Judith, both of whom are destined for tragedy. Henry goes to the University of Mississippi and meets fellow student Charles Bon, who is ten years his senior. Henry brings Charles home for Christmas, and Charles and Judith begin a quiet romance that leads to a presumed engagement. However, Thomas Sutpen realizes that Charles Bon is his son from an earlier marriage and moves to stop

111-455: A fire that consumes the plantation and kills Henry and herself. The only remaining Sutpen is Jim Bon, Charles Bon's black grandson, a young man with severe mental handicaps, who remains on Sutpen's Hundred. Like other Faulkner novels, Absalom, Absalom! allegorizes Southern history. The title refers to the Biblical story of Absalom , a wayward son of King David , who was killed while fighting

148-500: A given, and regard it on the level of myth and archetype , a fable that allows us to glimpse the deepest levels of the unconscious and thus better understand the people who accept (and are ruled by) that myth—Southerners in general and Quentin Compson in particular. The use of Quentin Compson as the primary perspective (if not exactly the focus) of the novel makes it something of a companion piece to Faulkner's earlier work The Sound and

185-561: A limited fresh market or for winemaking. For consumer acceptance, fresh market grapes need to be large, sweet, and with relatively thin skin, whereas those for wine, juice or jelly need high yields of high-sugar, color-stable berries. Fresh-market cultivars include Black Beauty, Carlos, Cowart, Flowers, Fry, Granny Val, Ison, James, Jumbo, Magnolia, Memory (first found on T.S. Memory's farm in 1868 in Whiteville, NC), Mish, Nesbitt, Noble, Scuppernong , Summit, Supreme, and Thomas. Produced by

222-404: A local Native American tribe and immediately begins building a large plantation called Sutpen's Hundred, including an ostentatious mansion. All he needs to complete his plan is a wife to bear him a few children (particularly a son to be his heir), so he ingratiates himself with a local merchant and marries the man's daughter, Ellen Coldfield . Ellen bears Sutpen two children, a son named Henry and

259-510: A male. An enraged Wash Jones kills Thomas, Milly, Milly's newborn daughter, and finally himself by resisting arrest. The story of Thomas Sutpen's legacy ends with Quentin taking Rosa back to the seemingly abandoned Sutpen's Hundred plantation, where they find Henry Sutpen and Clytemnestra (Clytie), the daughter of Thomas Sutpen by a slave woman. Henry has returned to the estate to die. Three months later, when Rosa returns with medical help for Henry, Clytie mistakes them for law enforcement and starts

296-579: A natural setting, muscadine provides wildlife habitat as shelter, browse, and food for many birds and animals. It is also a larval host for the Nessus Sphinx Moth ( Amphion floridensis ) and the Mournful Sphinx Moth ( Enyo lugubris ). Although in the same genus Vitis with the other grapevine species, the muscadine species belongs to a separate subgenus, Muscadinia (all other grapevine species belong to subgenus Euvitis ). Usually

333-404: A truth exists and that the reader can ultimately know it. Most critics have tried to reconstruct this truth behind the shifting narratives, or to show that such a reconstruction cannot be done with certainty or even to prove that there are factual and logical inconsistencies that cannot be overcome. But some critics have stated that, fictional truth being an oxymoron, it is best to take the story as

370-479: A white man born into poverty in western Virginia who moves to Mississippi with the dual aims of gaining wealth and becoming a powerful family patriarch. The story is told entirely in flashbacks narrated mostly by Quentin Compson to his roommate at Harvard College , Shreve, who frequently contributes his own suggestions and surmises. The narration of Rosa Coldfield, and Quentin's father and grandfather, are also included and re-interpreted by Shreve and Quentin, with

407-668: Is a grapevine species native to the southeastern and south-central United States . The growth range extends from Florida to New Jersey coast , and west to eastern Texas and Oklahoma . It has been extensively cultivated since the 16th century. The plants are well-adapted to their native warm and humid climate; they need fewer chilling hours than better known varieties, and thrive in summer heat. Muscadine berries may be bronze or dark purple or black when ripe . Wild varieties may stay green through maturity. Muscadines are typically used in making artisan wines , juice, hull pie and jelly. They are rich sources of polyphenols . In

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444-801: Is one of the grape species most resistant to Phylloxera , an insect that can kill roots of grapevines. Appellations producing Muscadine wines: 100 grams of muscadine grapes contain the following nutrients according to the USDA: Consumer research indicates that the thick skins and variable in-season quality of fresh muscadine grapes are significant deterrents to retail acceptance. One report indicated that muscadine grapes contained high concentrations of resveratrol , but subsequent studies have found no or little resveratrol in muscadine grapes. Other muscadine polyphenols include anthocyanins , tannins , and various flavonoids . The rank order of total phenolic content among muscadine components

481-516: Is this episode that sets into motion Thomas' plan to start a dynasty. When Sutpen tells Henry that Charles is his half-brother and that Judith must not be allowed to marry him, Henry refuses to believe it, repudiates his birthright, and accompanies Charles to his home in New Orleans . They then return to Mississippi to enlist in their University company , joining the Confederate Army to fight in

518-575: The Blue Ridge Mountains foothills. Nonetheless, Muscadines have a high tolerance to diseases and pests; more than 100 years of breeding has resulted in several bronze cultivars, such as "Doreen" and "Triumph", in addition to the aforementioned "Carlos" and "Magnolia’". All are distinguishable from the Scuppernong variety by being perfect-flowered (male and female flower parts together). The Scuppernong possesses only female flowering parts. Possibly

555-507: The Civil War . During the war, Henry wrestles with his conscience until he presumably resolves to allow the marriage of half-brother and sister; this resolution changes, however, when Sutpen reveals to Henry that Charles is part black. At the conclusion of the war, Henry enforces his father's interdiction of marriage between Charles and Judith, killing Charles at the gates to the mansion and then fleeing into self-exile. Thomas Sutpen returns from

592-609: The oldest cultivated grapevine in the world is the 400-year-old scuppernong "Mother Vine" growing on Roanoke Island , North Carolina . Scuppernong is a piece for piano in three movements by John Wesley Work III . Broomstraw Philosophers and Scuppernong Wine is a song written by country artist, Larry Jon Wilson . Scuppernongs are mentioned in chapters 4, 5, and 22 of To Kill a Mockingbird . Scuppernongs are also mentioned in Charles W. Chesnutt 's 1899 collection of short stories The Conjure Woman . They are also mentioned by

629-505: The " Longest Sentence in Literature" is a sentence from Absalom, Absalom! containing 1,288 words (the record has since been broken). The sentence can be found in Chapter 6; it begins with the words "Just exactly like Father", and ends with "the eye could not see from any point". The passage is entirely italicized and incomplete. The final lyric of Distant Early Warning , a single released by

666-485: The 15-year-old granddaughter of Wash Jones, a squatter who lives on the Sutpen property. The affair continues until Milly becomes pregnant and gives birth to a daughter. Sutpen is terribly disappointed, because the last hope of repairing his Sutpen dynasty rested on Milly giving birth to a son. Sutpen casts Milly and the child aside, telling them that they are not worthy of sleeping in the stables with his horse, who had just sired

703-518: The Fury , which tells the story of the Compson Family , with Quentin as a main character. Although the action of that novel is never explicitly referenced, the Sutpen family's struggle with dynasty, downfall, and potential incest parallel the familial events and obsessions that drive Quentin and Miss Rosa Coldfield to witness the burning of Sutpen's Hundred. The 1983 Guinness Book of World Records says

740-410: The Scuppernong arbor on Sutpen's estate. Scuppernongs are mentioned in Chapter 25 of MacKinlay Kantor's Civil War novel Andersonville . "Scuppernong: North Carolina's Grape and Its Wines", Clarence Gohdes (Duke University Press, 1982) ISBN   0822304600 [REDACTED] The dictionary definition of scuppernong at Wiktionary Muscadine Vitis rotundifolia , or muscadine ,

777-704: The South. The scuppernong is the state fruit of North Carolina. The name comes from the Scuppernong River in North Carolina mainly along the coastal plain. It was first mentioned as a "white grape" in a written logbook by the Florentine explorer Giovanni de Verrazzano while exploring the Cape Fear River Valley in 1524. He wrote of "...[m]any vines growing naturally there...". Sir Walter Raleigh 's explorers,

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814-640: The Southern states. These include bronze, black and red varieties and consist of common grapes and patented grapes. Unlike most cultivated grapevines, many muscadine cultivars are pistillate , requiring a pollenizer to set fruit. A few, such as 'Carlos' and 'Noble', are perfect-flowered , produce fruit with their own pollen, and may also pollinate pistillate cultivars. Muscadine grape cultivars may have low or inconsistent yields, small berries, flavor and thick skin unsuitable to consumer acceptance, and disease susceptibility. Cultivars tend to be developed either for

851-648: The University of Florida, the cultivar, 'Southern Home', contains both subgenera Muscadinia and Euvitis (more precisely, V. rotundifolia × V. vinifera ) in its background. Crops can be started in 3–5 years. Commercial yields of 20–45 tonnes per hectare (8–18 tons per acre) are possible. Muscadines grow best in fertile sandy loam and alluvial soils. They grow wild in well-drained bottom lands that are not subject to extended drought or waterlogging. They are also resistant to pests and diseases, including Pierce's disease , which can destroy other grape species. Muscadine

888-600: The banks of a stream feeding into Scuppernong Lake in 1755; it is mentioned in the North Carolina official state toast. The name itself traces back to the Algonquian word ascopo , meaning "sweet bay tree". The fruit grows where temperatures seldom fall below 10 °F (−12 °C). Injury or freeze can occur where winter temperatures drop below 0 °F (−18 °C). Some cultivars , such as "Magnolia", "Carlos", and "Sterling" will survive north to Virginia and west to

925-471: The captains Philip Amadas and Arthur Barlowe , wrote in 1584 that North Carolina's coast was "...so full of grapes as the very beating and surge of the sea overflowed them...in all the world, the like abundance is not to be found." He may have been referring to Sargasso seaweed from coral reefs, which can be seen washed up on shore after a major storm off the North Carolina coast. The seaweed has berrylike gas-filled bladders looking much like grapes to keep

962-426: The curse under which the South labors is slavery, and that Thomas Sutpen's personal curse, or flaw, was his belief that he was too strong to need to be a part of the human family. By using various narrators expressing their interpretations, the novel alludes to the historical cultural zeitgeist of Faulkner's South, where the past is always present and constantly in states of revision by the people who tell and retell

999-420: The empire his father built, causing grief to David. The history of Thomas Sutpen mirrors the rise and fall of Southern plantation culture. Sutpen's failures necessarily reflect the weaknesses of an idealistic South. Rigidly committed to his "design", Sutpen proves unwilling to honor his marriage to a part-black woman, setting in motion his own destruction. Discussing Absalom, Absalom! , Faulkner stated that

1036-558: The fronds afloat. However, in 1585, Governor Ralph Lane , when describing North Carolina to Raleigh, stated: "We have discovered the main to be the goodliest soil under the cope of heaven, so abounding with sweet trees that bring rich and pleasant, grapes of such greatness, yet wild, as France, Spain, nor Italy hath no greater...". The Scuppernong grape was first cultivated during the 17th century, particularly in Tyrell County, North Carolina . Isaac Alexander found it while hunting along

1073-688: The name "scupadine" in chapter 6 of Salvage the Bones . "In the Scuppernongs" is the title of a chapter in Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone , the ninth book in the Outlander series by Diana Gabaldon. In the movie The Bad Seed , Rhoda Penmark talks about the "Scuppernong arbor" in the family's yard. In William Faulkner 's novel Absalom, Absalom! , Thomas Sutpen , and Wash Jones drink whiskey and laugh together in

1110-704: The proposed union. Sutpen had worked on a plantation in the French West Indies as overseer and, after subduing a slave uprising, was offered the hand of the plantation owner's daughter, Eulalia Bon. They had a son, Charles. Sutpen did not know that Eulalia was of mixed race until after the marriage and birth of Charles, but when he discovered that he had been deceived, he renounced the marriage as void and left his wife and child (though leaving them his fortune as part of his own moral recompense). The reader also later learns of Sutpen's childhood, when young Thomas learned that society could base human worth on material worth. It

1147-631: The species is divided into three varieties, Vitis rotundifolia Michx. var. rotundifolia (southeast USA), Vitis rotundifolia Michx. var. munsoniana (Florida), and Vitis rotundifolia Michx. var. popenoei (Central America). Some taxonomists have suggested giving the muscadines standing as a separate genus. It has also been suggested that the muscadine varieties be upgraded to species rank and so splitting off Vitis munsoniana and Vitis popenoei from Vitis rotundifolia . All muscadines have 40 chromosomes, rather than 38, are generally not cross-compatible with Euvitis subgenus, and most hybrids between

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1184-415: The story over time; it thus also explores the process of myth-making and the questioning of truth. Absalom, Absalom! juxtaposes ostensible fact, informed guesswork, and outright speculation—with the implication that reconstructions of the past remain irretrievable and therefore imaginative. Faulkner stated that, although none of the narrators got the facts right since "no one individual can look at truth",

1221-526: The story to his roommate Shreve, and in each retelling, the reader receives more details as the parties flesh out the story by adding layers. The final effect leaves the reader more certain about the attitudes and biases of the characters than about the facts of Sutpen's story. Thomas Sutpen arrives in Jefferson, Mississippi , with some slaves and a French architect who has been somehow forced into working for him. Sutpen obtains one hundred square miles of land from

1258-471: The subgenera are sterile. A few are moderately fertile, and have been used in breeding. A commercially available Euvitis × Muscadinia hybrid is the Southern Home cultivar. Although muscadines are hearty grapes with tough skin that protects them from many plant diseases , these grapes nonetheless appear to be susceptible to parasitic nematodes . There are about 152 muscadine cultivars grown in

1295-465: The total events of the story unfolding in nonchronological order and often with differing details. This results in a peeling-back-the-onion revelation of the true story of the Sutpens. Rosa initially narrates the story, with long digressions and a biased memory, to Quentin Compson, whose grandfather was a friend of Sutpen's. Quentin's father then fills in some of the details to Quentin. Finally, Quentin relates

1332-428: The war and begins to repair his dynasty and his home, whose hundred square miles have been reduced by carpetbaggers and punitive northern action to one square mile. He proposes to Rosa Coldfield, his dead wife's younger sister, and she accepts. However, Sutpen insults Rosa by demanding that she bear him a son before the wedding takes place, prompting her to leave Sutpen's Hundred. Sutpen then begins an affair with Milly,

1369-454: Was found to be seeds, higher than skins, higher than leaves, higher than pulp. Absalom, Absalom! Absalom, Absalom! , along with The Sound and the Fury , helped Faulkner win the Nobel Prize in Literature for the year 1949. In 2009, a panel of judges called Absalom, Absalom! the best Southern novel of all time. Absalom, Absalom! details the rise and fall of Thomas Sutpen ,

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