As with all fiction based on historical fact, I approached this novel by William Styron warily and come away from it pretty much in the same frame of mind.
Extremely well-written, beautiful language, dramatic arc–yes, even as Nat’s condemnation is fairly well established immediately. Styron solves the “letdown” problem for those readers who insist upon an unrevealed ending by cleverly introducing the one murder that Nat Turner has actually committed by his own hand, a lovely young empathetic character named Margaret Whitehead. With this knowledge at the beginning of the story, and with further scenes between Nat and Margaret, Styron not only emphasizes the relationship but maintains the biggest question that seeks an answer throughout the book: Why did Nat kill her?
What bothers me about historical fiction (and Styron states his intention is less to produce a historical novel than a meditation on history), is still the speculation rather than knowledge of the central character of Nat Turner and what made him not only stir up such a bloodthirsty revolution but to follow in this first person narrative his innermost thoughts and dealings.
Then I must remember that it is only that; speculation. And in no one’s words but Nat’s alone (the “confessions” are fact, as are some of the events) could we ever truly know the character of Nat Turner and the day by day accounts offered within the story. Had the book been written by a contemporary of Turner’s, it still would be interpretation rather than pure fact and so with this in mind, I can read the narrative of the events of 1831 and the story of this man’s life as a “possibility” that is close to truth.
I’ve since read elsewhere that Styron’s book was viewed as racist by many but without finding the specific claims of offense I would have to say that I find much in the depiction of Nat Turner’s character that would apply to human nature and tendencies towards bigotry and superiority that we find in ourselves. It is clearly a great injustice that was done to a people, but there is honesty–I think–in Styron’s implication that there were indeed many Negroes who at the time felt they had it pretty good in comparison to others, even free whites. The whole idea of “freedom” however, is what rankled the most. And this, I think, is again something that is deep inside all of us.
No where is this more clearly illustrated than the answer to that question that plagues us of the killing of Margaret by Nat. Turner has already realized that he can no longer claim God and the Bible as a direct exhortation to go on the murderous rampage. Margaret is heartbroken by the ill treatment of blacks and yet it is the manner in which she feels free enough to speak of it with him that emphasizes the difference between them and inspires the hatred that burns within him. He himself uses the sore points of others to inflame their own feelings to get them to kill. Nat Turner, I think, recognizes the sameness in each of us.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology