Abstract：Suttree is a novel written by one of the four greatest contemporary American novelists, Cor‐ mac McCarthy, and is the longest and most time-consuming one in his oeuvre. The novel shows the racial boundary that has existed for long in American society. White Americans would not like to cross the white-black racial boundary, and black Americans are well aware of its existence. Marginalized by this racial boundary, many black Americans live in the marsh of poverty. In all fields in America there is longstanding racism which gives rise to a racist culture. Black Americans are the biggest victims of racial prejudice and discrimination. Suttree reveals the deep-rooted racial discrimination and prejudice of white Americans against blacks, and portrays the real miseries of the bottom blacks in the United States. It accuses the misdemeanor system that pushes the bottom blacks further into the abyss of plight. In Suttree, although a few whites, as are represented by Suttree, indeed cross the racial boundary together with some blacks and obtain brotherliness and mutual assistance, under the influence of a racist culture, it is difficult for the whites to abandon racism consciously or unconsciously. Therefore, the national unity between whites and blacks is just a utopia, since white Americans cannot truly understand blacks’ conditions and it is not easy for them to have true friendship and unity.
Key words: Suttree; racial boundary; misdemeanor system; unity utopia
