Absalom We Talked of Him, Term Paper

Stupen does so immorally. Before the war, Stupen used slaves to amass wealth. Now these subjugating means of prosperity have been taken away from him -- but that does not mean he will not find another way, think his neighbors, marveling at the man as if he were a Hercules, possessed of strength beyond their own.

Note the passage's decision to put ht word "War" in capitals. The war is not referred to as the Civil War. It is simply the war, as in the Southern view; the Civil War was the war to end all wars, the war that ended the traditional antebellum way of life. The Civil War changed the South permanently and inextricably, but just as Stupen resisted common sense about keeping in one's place when creating his plantation-made wealth, the 'we' of the town assumes he will be able to resist common wisdom again, if not in the same way, then in similar fashion.The quote pits the town's 'we' against Stupen, suggesting as if Stupen were an extraordinary curiosity to be observed, and the town was made up of weaker, more common, but slightly in-awe….....