Dilsey Chapter April 8, 1928

This chapter narrated by Dilsey was rather interesting and might I say quite different than the rest of the chapters. For starters the narration is comprehendible unlike some of the others and it is also straightforward rather than clumped around and a lot of shifting. Faulkner’s choice for the place and voices of this chapter could be due to several different reasons, one I feel strongly about is because with each different narrative there is a different story and you get a different perspective and can see the uniqueness each character had. Also the reason I believe Dilsey was different and in third person is potentially because she was not in her own little bubble so a third person narration can reflect more than say a first person. She is usually busy focusing on others than herself which gives us a better view of everyone else, which also shows she does not need the "I" voice.

I would say this book has a lot of focus on many things such as innocence, son, guilt and blame, etc. but a big focus is on the old south and a yearning for the past of it. The Compson family is so hung-over on their past life style and finding ways to hold on to it as best as they can. For example at the end of this last chapter when Luster takes an unfamiliar route Benjy cannot handle it, everything is almost lost. However, when they turn on back to a familiar road Benjy is at peace, it is almost like a piece of hope for the Compson family since everything has been shattered they are simply holding on to that last thread left.

Jason's chapter, post #4

In the Jason chapter even though it was finally easy to understand it was yet unbearable to read, especially with the “special” words he liked to call some people. Jason even from the beginning of the chapters was full of such spite and hatred towards just about everything. Jason is also very fixated on Caddy like his brothers, but in a different way that he only sees the bad in her and always seeks to get her in some sort of trouble and easily sees her as the blame for all of his problems.  He is also very good at rejecting the love he receives from his family and from woman, not to mention he has a very strong hatred for women as well. “I never promise a woman anything nor let her know what I’m going to give her. That’s the only way to manage them. Always keep them guessing. If you can’t think of any other way to surprise them, give them a bust in the jaw.” (pg. 122) He has nothing good to say about anyone, and if you thought it was only women he hated let’s not forget the hatred he bears inside for African Americans and Jews as well, "I give every man his due, regardless of religion or anything else. I have nothing against the Jews as an individual,” I says.  “It’s just the race. You’ll admit that they produce nothing” (pg. 120) He bases his hate for these other races on an economic profit clearly; they do not mean anything or produce anything thus they are not important. Also we cannot forget Jason’s obsession with money which plays a huge role in this chapter and even others, he has scammed people since he was just a little kid by getting kids to sell kites made from flour and even when he is an adult he steals money and lies to his mother to get more. Coincidently enough when Jason has money he is still as bitter as before, and he is always spending time regretting his past. Jason was a mean person with no good intentions whatsoever and throughout the story he seems to never change from his crummy ways.

Quentin chapter June 2, 1910

When reading Quentin’s chapter I found it very frustrating and difficult to read although it was very interesting and enlightening to read, the lack of punctuation gave me a headache by the end of the chapter. Another thing that I saw while reading Quentin’s chapter was that, I never understood who was talking in certain places because of the lack of punctuation as well. I got a sort of idea that clearly someone else was speaking but determining even who it was very hard because Quentin did not have specific quotes from them. With that being said, you can clearly see that Quentin had not even a clue of the sense of “I” or how to use it. How I started to figure out who was speaking was Quentin often used italicized words for different people and their actions. Once I started to figure out who was speaking Quentin’s chapter began to be easier to follow through. His narrations has a lot to say about his mental state, in the story Quentin is captivated by this whole “time” idea, and also he remembers falsely confessing to his father that he had committed incest with Caddy and his true feelings for her. These two things have put Quentin in a troubled state that he believes no one can understand.  Quentin was constantly disappointed by how the world seemed to work coming to the conclusion that his father was right, he did not take Caddy’s virginity but Dalton did. Caddy's virginity was the last thing that was pure and true. By losing it, he feels there's nothing else left in life to live for. With that he proceeds to commit suicide. Faulkner also shows with time that failure to cope with the natural changes in the passage of time will drive one out of his mind. At the end of this chapter I found the quote, “twilight-colored smell of honeysuckle” quite intriguing to this chapter and previous. Is it because Caddy is now impure she now smells like honeysuckles rather than trees? And also what kind of emotions will Quentin death bring to the family? 

April Seventh, 1928

In the first chapter of The Sound and the Fury, April Seventh, 1928 Faulkner uses a disorienting opening perhaps because Benjy is the narrator and Benjy in the story is mentally handicapped. The way this chapter is organized is by past and present thoughts, Benjy goes from being in the present of 1928 to the Christmas of 1902 when he was seven years old. His thoughts are not all collected right in is head so he goes back and fourth telling different stories making it a tad confusing. However, it also gives you a wonderful insight on what different things have happened in this family from the past stories. I belive Faulkner put Benjys role in the Compsons family as perhaps the idea of time shifting, the reminiscing Benjy does in this chapter about the different moments in his life and the sad life he has lived.  It also shows how time is sort of irrelevant to Benjy, since present is usually more important. He is also seen as the the downfall of the family, he is viewed as the cause for all of the families troubles. 

Perhaps the date April Seventh, 1928, which is the Saturday before Easter and Benjys age which is 33 and how old Jesus was on his crucifixion has some correlation to maybe what will happen in the near future of this book. Or it may foreshadow that religion is dominant role in this book somehow.

Benjys need  for consistency and his nostolgia for the past say alot about the family, it says that Benjy cannot rely on hiself and that everyone else takes care of him including Caddy who gives him amples amount of attention. "Caddy smelled like trees." (pg 38) Caddy is Benjys only mother figure when he was young, Benjy realates Caddy and her young innocence with tress because they used to play in trees when they were young and close. When she begins to loose her innocence she does not smell like trees anymore. However, now since Benjy is older and grown the family is feeling more and more stressed about the predicament Benjy is in, which is why he goes back to his childhood because it was less stressfull for him and his family.

I think Benjy is a symbolic in the novel as the idea of of all the burdens of the Compsons family. When a problem occurs is seen as easy to just blame Benjy for the problem since he has a problem. The family now treats him as if he is not even there half the time as well.

Activity 1

William Faulkner was born September 25, 1897 and spent most of his life in the South he was born in New Albany, Mississippi, he wrote mostly about his family, community, and the people he knew. The intriguing man that he is, he once created the "Yoknapatawpha County" a fake town which included Southern white aristocrats, poor whites, persecuted blacks, etc. It comes from Chickasaw words meaning "split land". Once when Faulkner was turned away from joinging the U.S. Army for WWI, in turn he joined the Royal Air Force in Canada but the war ended before Faulkner finished his training. Faulkner was not an alcoholic however he was a binge drinker and his drinking binges lasted for days, or sometimes weeks, and his habit was to continue drinking until he passed out. Faulkner also was married to Estelle Oldham however he did cheat on his wife while he was in Hollywood with Meta Carpenter a secretary for his friend and colleague Howard Hawks, she was a native of Mississippi and heir relationship lasted nearly twenty years. Lastly, Faulkner also won the Nobel Prize for Literature which he received in 1949 and two Pulitzer Prizes for A Fable and The Reivers. 

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