onfession, Turner muses, "I managed if not completely to stifle my dislike (and dislike it was, not hatred, which I have only once felt for any single man) then to mask it, to submerge it beneath the general polite compliance which the situation demanded" (12). Here is a man literally on death row, yet one who still manages to be polite to a human being he dislikes. Further, Styron shows that Turner is not some hateful beast; he has only felt hatred for one single man in his entire life.
Styron shows Turner's expertise in that he is a preacher. Gray often addresses Turner as "Reverend." Throughout the novel, Turner constantly refers to Biblical passages that apply to his current situation. Turner is an expert at recalling Bible verses.
The Confessions of Nat Turner is definitely character driven, as opposed to plot driven. The reader knows from the start of the novel that a slave revolt has taken place, but this does not take away from the reader's interest in seeing
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