Suttree

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1979

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-11

Chapters 12-19

Chapters 20-26

Chapters 27-34

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

McAnally

McAnally is the makeshift neighborhood in which Suttree spends most of his time in this novel. It is a destitute section of Knoxville, Tennessee. It is characterized by crime, grime, and a severe lack of resources. McAnally is also much more than meets the eye. While some people who live in McAnally squander much of their meager resources on alcohol or criminal activity, they are also a community. Many characters in this novel help one another through the physical and emotional burdens that come with living in a place like McAnally. Historically, McAnally is a real place in Tennessee. It is also referred to as Mechanicsville because it was first built to house people who worked in the factories. It was built in the 1860s but by Suttree’s time of the 1950s, the factories had mostly gone, the people had mostly fled, and many of the remaining citizens were experiencing homelessness. McAnally represents society’s lack of concern for those left behind by capitalism. This neighborhood is allowed to descend into anarchic disarray and destitution not because people inherently want to live in a rundown and dangerous place, but because Knoxville, the state of Tennessee, indeed the entire society of American culture failed to provide those left there with alternatives. It is a setting that challenges Suttree, gives Suttree comfort, and inspires him to change his life.

God’s Existence

McCarthy’s novel is concerned with the possible existence of God. He borrows from many religious faiths to contemplate the question of life after death, a literate examination of Southern conservative religious fervor. God’s existence is a motif throughout the novel, a fixation of the characters and an overarching question. Suttree consistently meets traveling preachers, a trope of Southern Gothic literature. These preachers have their own interpretations of scripture and are often nomadic, looking for new audiences and places to convert. Preachers offer people a chance to save themselves through baptism and Christian renewal. Characters who have committed crimes and have been poor and desperate can try to find comfort from being saved. Family may be missing, society may have turned their back on the people of McAnally, but God can offer them love and a second chance. Suttree isn’t attracted to preachers. He had a Catholic upbringing that continues to haunt him. When Suttree is particularly drunk or feeling depressed, he finds himself in church yards. This implies that the voice of his childhood, one that represents comfort and innocence, brings him back to Catholicism. He literally fights against Catholicism when a priest comes to counsel him toward death in the hospital. The image of the priest gives Suttree the strength to fight, to prove to Catholicism that God’s existence can’t overcome Suttree’s own existence. In this novel, God is sometimes thought of benevolent, but most characters don’t believe that a transcendent God could love them.

The River

The Tennessee River in Knoxville is both a setting and a symbol. Suttree lives on the river in a houseboat, and he rows on the river to fish. The river is a cesspool of pollution. Suttree often catches fish that are already dead. At the start of the novel, McCarthy portrays a dead body being pulled out of the river. Thus, the river is immediately associated with death, which is the opposite of its traditional symbol as a lifegiving force, as humans are made of mostly water and cities (along with resultant commerce, families, and social fabric) tend to build around water sources. However, in Knoxville, life dies in the river, whether on purpose or by accident. This implies that if Suttree lives and works on the river, he will be near death. The river also paradoxically symbolizes potential. The Tennessee River begins in Knoxville and ends in Kentucky, where it joins the Ohio River. The river can be used for escape, for possibility, and for new adventures. Suttree experiences a new adventure on the river when he travels upriver to join Reese’s mussel-fishing family, a happy but momentary time in Suttree’s life. In literature, rivers are also symbolic of time passing. Suttree is a novel about time passing, and man evolving. Just as Suttree eventually leaves town and puts his past behind him, the river continuously flows and submerges with other bodies of water, creating a cycle of rebirth and passing time.