Suttree

Suttree develops a new relationship with a woman named Joyce, a relationship that embodies the tensions between happiness and losing control. At first, his relationship with Joyce is light and sexual. Joyce is open with him, and he gets to know her quickly. He is not bothered by her job as a sex worker, and in Suttree, Joyce finds a man who is understanding and compassionate. She, like many of his friends, is hiding from the law. Though Joyce first appears different from the other characters in the novel because of her relative foreignness (she’s from Chicago), she is a survivor much like the other characters in the novel. Joyce brings newfound happiness to Suttree’s life. They connect, and their relationship develops into a deep passion. When their relationship becomes more complex and Joyce opens herself to Suttree emotionally, Suttree leaves her because her emotional expression becomes too much for him. This emphasizes that Suttree, despite his feelings for Joyce, doesn’t want the responsibilities of a real relationship with a woman. He is generous with his compassion for the men in his life, such as Harrogate or the old ragpicker, but when it comes to Joyce, who provides Suttree a secure lifestyle, Suttree can’t extend patience and has a limit to his empathy. This parallels how he was with Wanda, with whom he also wanted to avoid any serious ties and responsibilities.

The destruction of his relationship with Joyce introduces a new level of bleakness to the narrative. It starts a new subchapter to the novel in which more darkness befalls Knoxville. Suttree starts losing all his companions, one by one. The old ragpicker dies with Suttree holding his hand. This is a poignant moment, and one of the only instances in the novel when a character doesn’t die alone. Several murders also occur, emphasizing the violently tragic nature of life for society’s poorest citizens. Callahan and Hoghead are murdered, ending their lives in tragedy. Ab Jones is horrifically beaten and left unprotected in prison by police. Jones’s tragic ending is a poignant reminder to readers how little society has changed from the 1950s in terms of equity, equality, and the value of human lives. Poignantly, Suttree, a white man, steals the police car and drowns it in the river, but he is never caught for this crime or even noticed by the police who harass Jones. Not only is this an unfortunate reminder of how far America needs to come as a society, but it is an example of The Absurdity of Modern Existence.

It is also revealed that the old railway man and Suttree’s aunt have been committed to psychiatric hospitals. The conditions of psychiatric facilities in the 1950s were deplorable, with patients frequently chained, sequestered, or subjected to electroshock or lobotomies. The dehumanization of patients struggling with a variety of mental health disorders shows that society doesn’t care about their most vulnerable people, as reflected in the abusive conditions of society’s institutions. McCarthy includes this to highlight that it is not so strange that someone like Suttree might prefer life on the river, on the fringes of society. Society is not so welcoming, kind, or safe.

The underlying tragedy within all this loss is that it is foreshadowed throughout the novel that most characters will have a sad ending to their lives, though McCarthy never gives readers a vision of what a “good ending” might look like. Suttree has several conversations with characters throughout the novel about the nature of life and death, demonstrating that they are acutely aware that their destitute conditions lead to lonelier deaths with greater frequency than in more privileged areas. Ab Jones’s death and Suttree’s survival alludes to Miss Mother’s visions of Suttree’s future, whereas with Jones, she received no images, as though Jones was destined to die and Suttree to live. The fact that Miss Mother’s name hearkens “Mother Earth” emphasizes the natural justice of her predictions, even if they seem to illustrate The Absurdity of Modern Existence.

Harrogate’s end in incarceration is foreshadowed in the first chapter he is introduced, when Suttree recognizes something in Harrogate that will make him a life-long prisoner in the justice system. It is also tragically ironic that Harrogate sees the world for the first time on his journey to incarceration. When he had his freedom, he didn’t use it to explore or discover himself. Now that he is in handcuffs and on his way to a prison cell, he is given the cruel gift of seeing what he’ll be missing out on. The countryside passing outside the window of the train that transports Harrogate to prison is a bittersweet image that again illustrates The Absurdity of Modern Existence.

Suttree very nearly meets the same conclusion as his friends. Typhoid fever ravages his body and plays with his mind. His illness is both physical and mental. He revisits memories of his childhood that are unconnected, and some of which are insignificant. This emphasizes that every moment in life, small or large, has its significance. Suttree is haunted by fever-induced dreams experienced as hallucinations. The swirling of reality and hallucination is exacerbated by his fever and his years grappling with mortality, poverty, and the inherent beauty in life. A priest is sent to Suttree, a symbol of his impending death. The priest is described by McCarthy as unrealistic as well—Suttree can’t determine reality from dream. The priest is a sobering signal that Suttree will die. McCarthy develops this tension for his reader but subverts the reader’s expectations of Suttree’s death. Suttree survives, highlighting his characteristic resilience. In the context of so much loss, Suttree’s survival is also a stroke of luck. McCarthy demonstrates that so much bad can happen to people, and one never knows when bad things will happen to them.

Suttree’s survival gives him a second chance at life. His typhoid fever was exacerbated by his poverty and loneliness. He was found by a loyal friend, J-Bone, just in time. Notably, the clerk of the hotel he was staying in could have easily found Suttree bleeding from all orifices and called an ambulance for him, but the clerk is only interested in Suttree paying his bill. The clerk’s reaction to Suttree’s absence and subsequent illness highlights McCarthy’s point that there isn’t enough compassion and empathy in society. People should do more to look out for one another. When he returns to his houseboat, he finds a decomposing corpse. This corpse is a direct confrontation of what could have been Suttree’s fate. Just as this man, a stranger, died alone and is decomposing without burial, Suttree very well could have died in his nameless hotel room, alone. Not only is his saving by J-Bone fortuitous, but it is also capricious, illustrating The Absurdity of Modern Existence.

Suttree learns one very important lesson during his illness. Although death is a universal experience, and Suttree has long understood that all people worry about mortality and life after death, Suttree learns how to value himself as an individual, not as part of a universal. Suttree learns that there is only one Suttree, a new slogan for his new life. The phrase “there is only one Suttree” means that despite all the ways human beings are interconnected and similar, Suttree should celebrate himself as an individual. He should find value in himself. Although the world can be a cruel place, and dealing with society can be difficult, there is something much purer than these ideas, namely, the individual human soul. Suttree’s life is changed by this revelation. For the first time in the narrative, he starts thinking about his future. He looks around him and acknowledges the sadness imbued in the place he’s called home for years. Suttree decides to value his life by choosing something different. This is a major moment of character development. Throughout the novel, Suttree has vacillated between complacency and shifting relationships that brought him momentary joy. He has either been apathetic about the state of his life or depressed about the state of his life. Now, he resolves to make something different in his life.

Suttree’s near-death experience, his revelation of selfhood and potential, along with the exodus of his friends through death, incarceration, and work migration, motivates him to change his life. He moves away from Knoxville, leaving the memories of his river and the various people he met and befriended behind. He hitchhikes to who knows where. Crucially, McCarthy keeps his next destination from the reader, implying that Suttree himself doesn’t necessarily know where he’s going. The world is therefore fully open to Suttree. He can go anywhere and be anything. This adds a tone of hope to the ending of the novel. Despite all odds, Suttree survives.