To say the least, the first chapter in The Sound and the Fury is not exactly an easy read. The language is simple, due to the narrator of the chapter (Benjy, a.k.a. Benjamin) being mentally challenged, but the shifts in time and the strong sensory images make it difficult to understand what is going on.
I believe that
Faulkner made the time shifts difficult was to show that the point he is trying
to make with this book is timeless. His work reminds me
of Thornton Wilder's works, like The
Long Christmas Dinner. The
time periods almost blend together. One thing that these two texts have in
common is that the new generations of servants do not make much of a difference
in the text, other than being flags for a time change. The
only exception to this is Dilsey, who is the head of the
servants and the only servant who does not make fun of Benjy.
In the Compson
household, Benjy is considered to be a burden. His mother often complains
about having headaches and being "sick"; the supposed cause
for this is Benjy's mental state. His brothers make fun of him and are not very
patient with him when he has tantrums. His father does seem to care about him a
bit (he was the one who first gave him the nickname Benjy), but he still sees
him as a burden. His sister Caddy (or Candace) is the only one who really cared
for him; she would defend him when they were young.
The date of
Benjy's chapter was purposely one day before Easter. This, coupled with Benjy's
age (33) coincides with the Faulkner telling us that he and
Jesus are similar.
Benjy is the
fool in the Compson family. This is not a bad thing though, just like the Fool
in Shakespeare's King Lear, he knows more
than what others think he does. He is aware of what is going on, however he
does not know how to express what he sees, nor does he know whether the things
he sees are good or bad (he is too innocent).
Through Benjy,
we learn how shallow not only his family is, but also how society views those
who are mentally handicapped. They see him as inferior to themselves and this
is the reason why they do not treat him with basic human rights (except Caddy).
No one in the
family really notice the small details (or objects). Although Benjy is not the
most brilliant one, he notices the details and objects and has an amazing
ability to recall all these things. These recurring details and
objects give Benjy comfort.
Benjy is the
only truly innocent character in the book, no one else
is innocent, not even Caddy.
great, very insightful
ReplyDeleteMarisol, your blog is put together so beautifully, I'm really loving the colors here. Oh, and your post is very insightful ;). I like how you compared the time shifts in Benjy's chapter to The Long Christmas Dinner, I never would have made that connection.
ReplyDeleteThank you (^-^)
DeleteI think you have such a great simplicity and flow to your writing which makes it nice for me to understand your thoughts. Also, the image you included is a good visualization to go off of. Great!
ReplyDeleteGreat comparison! This was very easy to read and had a nice flow to it. I agree with the points you made and your writing made it easy to understand!! Also, it was nice to put the image of the Compson family tree!
ReplyDeleteHey Marisol! I loved that you put a picture of the family line which is a definitely useful thing to have and I liked that you made connections to other similar texts. I also agree that a lot of factual things are revealed in Benjy's chapter, such as how superficial the Compson family is which is an Old South value. Good job.
ReplyDeleteThe timeline was really helpful! That was a cool addition. I agree with essentially everything you said. The analysis of the characters was one of the most interesting parts. I usually don't think about Benjy's father and it was just interesting to me to remember that he was also nice to him. It was a pleasant change from the horrible mother.
ReplyDelete