The Labor Theory of Value: the Case of Absalom, Absalom!
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This essay examines William Faulkner’s labor theory of value which was initiated by John Locke and further developed to the consummation that the product of human labor belongs to the owner of the laboring capacity. Property as a defining attribute of free men functions as grounding of people’s natural, inalienable liberty. In Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, Thomas Sutpen typifies such Lockean liberal men and he builds and claims his identity as a sovereign being based on the property acquired through his own labor. The most distinctive feature of Sutpen’s design is that all the relevant beings in this society are involved in specific sorts of labor, and to call them human, their labor is to be rewarded in proportion to the value of their labor. On the contrary, in contingent social situations where acquisition of property is decided by people’s mere luck, people cannot secure their rights to their labor and become degraded into brutehood or thinghood. Faulkner further attempts to suggest a more evolved idea of a liberal laborer adopting Max Weber’s sense of calling into his concept of labor and property. He defines property in his unique context both as material goods and immaterial human qualities like people’s honors and ideas. It is imperative for Sutpen to earn both of his material and spiritual properties. To consummate the acquisition of his property as a liberal, an individual has to retain both his material possessions and immaterial qualities.
Abstract
This essay examines William Faulkner’s labor theory of value which was initiated by John Locke and further developed to the consummation that the product of human labor belongs to the owner of the laboring capacity. Property as a defining attribute of free men functions as grounding of people’s natural, inalienable liberty. In Faulkner’s Absalom, Absalom!, Thomas Sutpen typifies such Lockean liberal men and he builds and claims his identity as a sovereign being based on the property acquired through his own labor. The most distinctive feature of Sutpen’s design is that all the relevant beings in this society are involved in specific sorts of labor, and to call them human, their labor is to be rewarded in proportion to the value of their labor. On the contrary, in contingent social situations where acquisition of property is decided by people’s mere luck, people cannot secure their rights to their labor and become degraded into brutehood or thinghood. Faulkner further attempts to suggest a more evolved idea of a liberal laborer adopting Max Weber’s sense of calling into his concept of labor and property. He defines property in his unique context both as material goods and immaterial human qualities like people’s honors and ideas. It is imperative for Sutpen to earn both of his material and spiritual properties. To consummate the acquisition of his property as a liberal, an individual has to retain both his material possessions and immaterial qualities.
참고문헌 (24)
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