Literary Criticism, "The Sound and the Fury" by William Faulkner

During a Southern Literary Renascence class, I received twenty-three out of twenty-five points for this essay. Dr. Taylor Hagood, who always struck me as a brilliant scholar was most kind to have mercy on me as I wrote two whole pages without indenting. Mercifully, he stated, “paragraph breaks needed, but nice essay overall.” I have kept it to this day…

The character that I see occupying the centered position is Benjy. He has the gaze of panopticism, all seeing. Benjy is like a sponge. He absorbs everything and sees everything. To me, it’s like, that he takes on the craziness in the house onto himself and acts it out. Maybe he’s not retarded. If he couldn’t see in the text (like Helen Keller), I would venture to say that he was blind, but with an extra sense. People that are disabled can usually do other things better. However, we know in the text that he watches, as I did a close-reading to be sure. The only time he speaks in any way is when Quentin disappears and everyone especially Jason, is frantic as to where she is. I believe Benjy knows and he knows a lot of things. Caddy slept with him and said to him, “We were asleep.” Benjy also narrates so the reader gets a peak inside his mind. He pays attention to things, the fire, “the dad’s face says to hush.” Benjy is the focus and I believe he represents to the novel the severity of the household, the “Carnivalesque” going on. It goes like this, Jason IV kept booze in the sideboard. Faulkner repeats this often. Benjy knows what’s going on. He’s like the feelings for everybody and the pain. What the text does is present the fragmentation so it appears normal, all is well in the Compson household, when it is far from the truth. He is the all seeing, all knowing gaze. I think he occupies the center however, he goes to the periphery at times, can be both. Benjy cries and this to me is what is the most truthful emotion to be felt in that house. It certainly is not the home of June and Ward Cleaver. But, what I think works is Faulkner makes it appears as a normal family’s goings on. People in Benjy’s family take care of him and he might be the most normal one in the bunch besides Dilsy. What Faulkner has done is given him power in the text. Benjy is also predictable, until at the end when he cries and somewhat speaks a loud moan. The reader is left wishing he’s say more but then Faulkner wrote the book didn’t he? It occurred to me that a clock is referred to as a Big Ben. Time is an important feature in the novel. Time is a constant. Ticking is predictable and a sound, a comfort in the midst of chaos as well as “saw” is monotonous, but predictable-back and forth, back and forth. In dysfunctional homes, life is unpredictable so Benjy is somewhat of a comfort to his family as long as they have him to focus on they don’t have to look at the other stuff. It’s like having an elephant in the living room and everyone dances around it. Benjy come and play, where’s Benjy? Focus-gaze is on him, from the periphery, because he’s in the center most of the time.

Addendum (written later on down the road)

On December 28, 2007 as I was reviewing the dates that were presented in the book, I thought the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th might be biblical, representing three days that Jesus was in the tomb and then his resurrection. Perhaps, Faulkner was speaking about death and resurrection. There is mourning and weeping in the days before Jesus rises from the grave. People are sad because of the death of Jesus on the cross. Mary Magdalene is one of them, as she stands outside the tomb crying, “Woman, why are you crying?” (book of John). The first date being April 7, 1928 is the Easter month and Easter is when Jesus rose from the grave. Then, Faulkner regresses in time to June 2, 1910 and the only thing that I could come up with is, first, that there are eighteen years in a child’s life before they become an adult and the father is a significant figure in the home. June is the month that Father’s Day is celebrated, which could prove significant since this family needed a “real father.” Then, Faulkner moves forward again to April 6, 1928 which could be the time that the body is still in the tomb and, as we know that Jesus rose on the third day and there are three days that work here. Along that same line of thinking, now looking at April 8, 1928 to account for two more days in the tomb before resurrection. Lastly, October 10, 1928 would be after the resurrection and the spread of the gospel after Jesus appeared to his disciples for forty days and then ascended into heaven and then the disciples, by the power of the Holy Spirit continued to spread the gospel as he told them to do. This is a hopeful time to end on, a time of rebirth.