ALCHEMICAL FREEDOM: TURNING IRON INTO GOLD IN CORMAC MCCARTHY’S SUTTREE by Amanda R. Thompson B.A. A thesis submitted to the Graduate Council of Texas State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts with a Major in Literature May 2016 Committee Members: Mark Busby, Chair Susan Morrison Robert Tally COPYRIGHT by Amanda R. Thompson 2016 FAIR USE AND AUTHOR’S PERMISSION STATEMENT Fair Use This work is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, section 107). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of this material for financial gain without the author’s express written permission is not allowed. Duplication Permission As the copyright holder of this work I, Amanda R. Thompson, authorize duplication of this work, in whole or in part, for educational or scholarly purposes only. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank my committee members for helping me through this process. Your guidance helped me believe in myself. Dr. Busby, thank you for being my first reader. Your notes and revisions pushed me to write my best paper. Dr. Morrison, thank you for your encouragement. It helped me believe I could finish this. Dr. Tally, I truly appreciated your attention to detail.   iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv CHAPTERS I. INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................1 II. THE OPUS ..................................................................................................6 III. THE PRIMA MATERIA ...........................................................................18 IV. NIGREDO..................................................................................................38 V. ABLUTIO ..................................................................................................54 VI. RUBEDO ...................................................................................................69 WORKS CITED ................................................................................................................79 I. INTRODUCTION Wrap me in the weathers of the earth. I will be hard and hard. My face will turn rain like stones. – Suttree The beginning of Suttree invites us into the heart of Knoxville. We are enticed by an unnamed narrator with the greeting of, “Dear friend,” and summoned to see Knoxville as it truly is. The opening pages create a whirlpool of images: [o]ld stone walls unplumbed by weathers, lodged in their striae fossil bones…corrugated warehouse walls down little sandy streets…[w]eeds sprouted from cinder brick…[a] city constructed on no known paradigm, a mongrel architecture reading back through the works of man in a brief delineation of the aberrant disordered and mad…[a] world beyond all fantasy, malevolent and tactile and dissociate. (McCarthy, Suttree 3-4) This world houses the derelict and fringe members of society—the other. The imagery defined in the opening presents a world completely aware of death and degradation. McCarthy’s opening characters are “countrymen,” “hunters and woodcutters” (McCarthy, Suttree 4) who are “old teutonic forbears with eyes incandesced by the visionary light of massive rapacity” (McCarthy, Suttree 4). These characters are not depictions of the modern American man, but rather, they evoke an image of a time before. However twenty-three pages into the novel, Suttree mutters an off-handed comment that turns the tone of the novel. While drinking with J-Bone, Suttree says, “Blind slime. As above, so it is below” (McCarthy, Suttree 23). This shift is where the focus of my thesis begins. In his middle-draft, McCarthy has an annotation in the margin that reads, “Quod est inferius / est sicut quod / est superius” which loosely translates to “What is above is the same as what is below” (McCarthy, Box 22). This marking occurs 1 on the page narrating Suttree’s drinking with J-Bone and is a quotation from the Tabula Smaragdina, a book that discusses the rules of alchemy. In this book, “[r]eality was envisaged as a unitary continuum: ‘the totality of things, though multiple, is said to be One’” (Periera 134). This medieval chemical philosophy is the perfect example of Suttree’s goal. Like alchemists, Suttree wants to change the elemental nature of the world into something golden1. And, also like alchemists, he discovers that his goal is impossible. It is my belief that the novel, Suttree, presents an experiment in alchemy. Suttree’s journey is that of an alchemist – searching for a way to transcend his existence. His failure to achieve this purpose is his reason for punishment; his acknowledgement of reality, his release. This thesis discusses the connections between alchemy and Suttree. In addition, I contend that because Suttree is unable to transcend his predicament and fails in his attempt to repair the world of Knoxville, he unconsciously creates Michel Foucault’s panoptic prison system. For Suttree, Knoxville is more than just a city in which he lives; it is his prison. Here Suttree functions as both the warden and the prisoner as he controls his movements, limits his autonomy, and deprives himself of an identity, for a prison only works if it has “the power to punish” (Foucault, Discipline 89). To read Suttree is to read a novel that epitomizes Foucault’s theories from Discipline & Punish. It is a novel that reveals the nature of punishment, prison, and the power of the soul. Using the Tabula Smaragdina, mythological archetypes, and Foucault’s theories on prison, madness, and civilization, I examine concepts of redemption and transformation and their connection to the possibility of freedom The structure of my thesis is as follows: 2 Chapter I discusses the history of alchemy and Foucault’s theory on prison and punishment. An understanding of each of these principles is necessary to further my exploration of Suttree. I begin with an analysis of the text of the Emerald Tablet. Using Atwood’s translation of the book, I explain the historical significance of alchemy. I first establish the importance of placement in the principles of alchemy, discussing the quotation cited in McCarthy’s notes on Suttree. I also use C. G. Jung’s research into alchemy to develop the significance of the idea of transformation. Jungian psychology examined the relationship between alchemical symbolism and tradition. In Chapter I, I also provide explanation about the relationship between mythology and transformation. I use Joseph Campbell’s research to examine the role of alchemy in literature and further examine the symbolic transformation of characters. I close this chapter with a discussion of Foucault’s theories on punishment, madness, and civilization. My purpose is to demonstrate that a clear understanding of Foucault’s work is necessary in developing my analysis of Suttree’s self-abnegation as a means of transformation. This chapter serves to establish the stages of an alchemist’s transformation, highlighting the importance of allegiance, faith, and abnegation. Chapter II contains an analysis of the setting of Suttree, paying particular attention to the degradation and filth of the environment. I look closely at how McCarthy shapes the world in which his character must inhabit, noting changes made in the middle- draft of the novel. Each of these changes further develops the concept noted in the quotation from the Tabula Smaragdina. I also establish how the world of McAnally Flats functions as a prison for Suttree. I analyze the panoptic nature of the city, paying close attention to the routines Suttree establishes and his resulting madness. I also develop an 3 analysis of the workhouse/prison in which Suttree faces his first test of faith. I show how this experience establishes the ‘below’ concept of Knoxville. This chapter also examines McCarthy’s use of the woods, the river, and the highway. Chapter III includes an analysis of how Suttree creates his prison based on his alchemical opus and the many ways he punishes himself. I examine how Suttree’s connections with the citizens of McAnally Flats are tainted by his alchemical opus and catholic guilt. I will begin with an analysis of the mountaineer. Using Gabe Rikard’s book, Authority and the Mountaineer, I establish the presence of the ‘other,’ a term often used in Foucault’s work that denotes characters placed outside of society. I define Suttree’s actual opus, defining its subconscious roots and external developments. Most of the chapter explains how Suttree forms his three most important relationships: the ragman, Ab Jones, and Gene Harrogate. I provide examples of how these relationships are both repetitive and unsuccessful. The failure is what causes Suttree to punish himself. The sense of duty he feels towards people establishes his flawed opus thus establishing his prison and punishment. I examine how these events shape Suttree’s journey of transformation. Chapter IV examines Suttree’s descent into madness. I begin with a presentation of the narrative melancholic tone that is present throughout the novel. In this case, the tone establishes Suttree’s distance from his chosen family, for the narration weaves in and out of Suttree’s consciousness revealing the depth of his emotions. I then analyze four distinct moments where Suttree gives in to the madness that permeates his unconsciousness: his drunken fights, the Gatlinburg Mountains, his relationship with Joyce, and his typhoid fever. Each instance punctuates a moment of insight into Suttree’s 4 nature, for they show his commitment to his opus. I conclude this chapter with a connection between alchemy and madness, revealing the nature of the later in completing the former. Thus, madness is the necessary qualification for transcendence. Chapter V concludes my thesis through my analysis of the actual transformation Suttree experiences. Here I look at the ending of the novel, paying particular attention to Suttree’s escape from McAnally Flats. I connect this ending to the books of alchemy and Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces. A section of this chapter pays homage to other readings of Suttree, looking closely at the nihilistic readings. However, the main purpose of this chapter is to analyze the hopeful, albeit Sisyphean, ending of the novel, asserting that Suttree’s decision to move on functions as a transformation of the soul, thus allowing him to complete his journey of transformation. Each chapter furthers the unavoidable connection between alchemy and Suttree. McCarthy’s annotations found in his middle draft serve as the root of this analysis, but a close reading of the novel reveal the interconnected nature of faith, purpose, punishment, madness, and freedom. 5