All the Sinners Bleed

As a popular concept in Southern literature, this theme manifests in both large-scale and small-scale occurrences in All the Sinners Bleed, for the historical events of centuries past continue to haunt the community, just as personal events from Titus’s lifetime continue to haunt him as an individual. One way the author develops this theme is by referencing other Southern writers who have written about the same theme, most notably William Faulkner, who is alluded to repeatedly. In the novel Requiem for a Nun, Faulkner wrote, “The past is never dead. It’s not even past” (73). Titus applies this idea to Charon County’s racial segregation and prejudice, as well as personal events like breakups and the on-the-job murder that resulted in his resignation from the FBI. Although others claim that Charon County is peaceful and impervious to violence, Titus is aware of the long history of violence that has plagued the place: colonialism, genocide, slavery, murders, diseases, and more. Because violence begets more violence, Titus knows that these historical events still affect the local residents, and it’s only a matter of time until another painful “season” of violence arrives. As Titus believes, “The South doesn’t change. You can try to hide the past, but it comes back in ways worse than the way it was before. Terrible ways” (2). The season of violence returns because the community never properly dealt with the past in the first place.

The endurance of the past is a complicated matter, because as Titus notes, many locals are extremely confused about the true nature of the past and endeavor instead to “preserve” a false narrative of the county’s history: one that is designed to portray the Confederacy, which promoted enslavement, to be a heroic institution instead of an entity that perpetrated innumerable human-rights violations. As Titus puts it, the purpose of Confederate propaganda, as well as the actions of Ricky Sours’s group, is to “create a false narrative of honor and sacrifice that Confederate sympathizers could embrace in place of the shameful pall of treason that was their actual birthright” (71). Ricky Sours and his neo-Confederate group argue that citizens who want the Confederate statues and monuments that present false narratives to be taken down are trying to “erase” the county’s real history. Although Ricky and others in the group may feel like they are honoring the past by remembering it, they are not actually remembering it correctly or fully, and are impacting other people’s ability to comprehend the actual truth because they’re being fed confusing mixed messages. Still, their behavior illustrates how the past endures because they are obsessed with letting their misguided version of past history influence their actions in the present. The novel demonstrates that the past will be there no matter what, but it’s dangerous to misconstrue it or misunderstand it, just as it’s dangerous to ignore it altogether.

The community has not been able to properly process the historical traumas of slavery, colonialism, and genocide. Rather than focusing on the monstrosities their ancestors committed, the neo-Confederates argue that their ancestors were simply rebellious heroes and business geniuses. Thus, ignoring the real truth and creating false narratives do not help heal the wounds of the past. When Titus decides to destroy the Confederate statue at the end of the novel, this act symbolizes his commitment to honoring the real past and processing it in order to lay it to rest and create a better future.