e. In some cases the reader cannot know which version of an event is "real" or "true," but sometimes it doesn't really matter. The layers of narrative enrich and reveal the depth of the events and people described. History is what is lived—or is sometimes imagined to be—and the many people who live through it will necessarily construct a multifaceted version of that history.
Thomas Sutpen is frequently referred to in the novel as "innocent," even though his actions are often vile, ruthless, self-serving, and demonic. As is made clear in Chapter 7, Sutpen's innocence reflects his ignorance of the social stratifications of race and class and private property and a worldview defined by luck. Sutpen seems to think his innocence is a problem that outlasts his childhood and is underpinned by Southern culture.
Sutpen's innocence in some ways remains intact while he acts out his ambition—his determination to rise above his impoverished childhood and in his pursuit of respectability. After a particularly humiliating experience, a young Sutpen realizes he must gain wealth in order to earn respectability (and never again be humiliated). He decides on, and single-mindedly executes, what some might characterize as a coldhearted and evil plan to ensure he is never humiliated again. Yet some narrators in the novel assert Sutpen retains his innocence even while pursuing the "design" that will help him realize his ambition.
This innocence seems to arise from the belief, expressed by Sutpen himself, that his ambition is good and right because it is sanctioned by Southern culture. That his reasonable, "calculated" design to realize this ambition is heartless and ultimately ruinous to other people and himself is beside the point. In fact Sutpen can't understand why problems keep arising that block him from carrying out his "design." Like the biblical characters Adam and Eve, who eat from the Tree of Knowledge and are cast out of paradise, to understand fully would require the loss of innocence. And in a story where Sutpen's rise and fall parallels that of the South, loss of innocence in his case would require an acknowledgment of the evils of slavery, something Sutpen cannot fathom.