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.