This is the blog -- the electronic home -- for Advanced Placement English Literature and Composition for the class of two-thousand eleven at Gloucester (MA) High School.
Background reading: William Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury Literature Insights By Michael Cotsell William Faulkner was born in 1897, and spent most of his life in Oxford, Mississippi. Many of Faulkner’s novels are set in a small town (Jefferson) which is parallel to Oxford. Faulkner is known for his literary skill, psychological depth, and sense of history. In the course of his lifetime, Faulkner wrote countless fictional short stories and novels. Having never read any of Faulkner’s work, I had no idea what to expect. Cotsell began to explain in his literary guide, that Faulkner explored Modernism in many of his novels. After having just studied Modernism with James Joyce’s “The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, I was a bit wary about diving into another novel that utilized a ‘stream of consciousness’ narration. Cotsell won me over by explaining that much of Faulkner’s work uses “stylistic lyricism and a fierce relish for the American values and the deep vein of progressivism in the South of his time.” Michael Cotsell stresses that the family dynasties described in Faulkner’s novels are all connected. In fact, Faulkner writes about four fictional families. The Compsons, from The Sound and the Fury, had been described fully in Faulkner’s other novels, but not this one. When I read this, I knew that it would be a struggle to have to figure out the family history. Cotsell also commented on the challenging form of The Sound and the Fury. The novel is based off of four narratives, one for each of the Compson children (possibly, as the last narrative isn’t very clear.) The first three narratives are directly written through a stream of consciousness, which Cotsell proclaimed made the novel difficult to read. Great.
Just as I had expected, The Sound and the Fury was very difficult to understand. This is mainly due to the form that Faulkner chose to tell the story of the Compsons. The first section of the novel is set in 1928, and the narrator, Benjy, has just turned thirty three years old. I can imagine that this is hard to pick up for most readers, because the entire section is full of memories from the past. Benjy is a complex character, in that he has a severe mental retardation. Benjy cannot speak for himself. He cannot comprehend feelings or emotions. Throughout his narration, he is being taken on a search with Luster, a black boy who is left to mind him, although Luster is half Benjy’s age. From what I could understand, Benjy is constantly reminded of something from his past that involves his sister Caddy, and that makes him cry. Faulkner switches back and forth between the past and present, giving no possible trend or order to it all. With Benjy’s incompetence and inability to speak, the entire section is direct thought from his mind. Whatever Benjy noticed, or felt, was what Faulkner included in the story. As I got to the second section of the novel, I thought it would be a relief because Quentin was the narrator. Quentin could actually articulate his thoughts, so I figured he would guide the reader along with a little more structure. Of course, I was absolutely wrong. Quentin’s stream of consciousness starts off somewhat normal, and then we begin to see the same switch from past to present that Benjy used. This time, the narration was more difficult to follow, because Quentin was in the middle of an over exaggerated anxiety attack. This uncertainty of saneness was evident in the structure (or lack thereof) in the sentences. Most of Quentin’s narration is one long run on sentence. When Faulkner is trying to stress that Quentin is anxiously thinking about his past conversations with Caddy, all forms of capitalization, punctuation and structure disappear. In order to read the section, the reader must find the rhythm that is in Quentin’s words. This is extremely difficult due to the lack of punctuation (I lost my breath many times while reading some of Quentin’s thoughts.) Perhaps Faulkner uses this lack of structure to further convey Quentin’s anxiety and insecurities. He keeps going back to a conversation that he had with his father and another with his sister who he loved dearly. She is the center of his confusion and despair. This is also evident in Benjy’s narrative, because whenever he is reminded of Caddy, he cries. Both character’s minds are all over the place, but there is definitely a difference between Benjy and Quentin’s switches in time. The more simplistic observational feel of Benjy’s narrative is probably due to the fact that he cannot understand much more than just that. Quentin’s chaotic tone is the result of how he feels, and his ability to comprehend more than one memory at a time.
Most of Faulkner’s work focused on the downfall of Southern aristocrats after the Civil War. This is explored through the demise of fictional prestigious families in the south. Through this exploration, I was able to get a sense of Faulkner’s views on race, gender-roles, and family structure. From what I could tell, the Compsons were a rich family that had a lot of land and a large house. A black family lived on their property and served them (not as slaves, but as assistants). Dilsey was the Compsons cook, and a lot of the time, she was asked to take care of the children. The Compson children were mainly raised by Dilsey, because Mrs. Compson was always sick, or at least she claimed to be. Dilsey was a strong character. Her family was not mistreated, but they were clearly regarded to as less than by the Compsons. As Quentin moves to Boston, there never seems to be a problem with his interaction with Negros. The race issue is definitely evident in The Sound and the Fury, but it is not the main focus. Faulkner brings up an interesting point with his focus on female value. So far, there are only five female characters mentioned in the novel. The most important is Caddy Compson. She is the center of all of her brother’s attention. Caddy is stubborn, but also nurturing to Benjy. Quentin is almost obsessive with her, and all of her brothers are affected when she begins to grow up. This is a major cause to Quentin’s mental breakdown. “They lie about (being a virgin.) Because it means less to women, Father said. He said it was men invented virginity not women. Father said it’s like death: only a state in which the others are left.” (Faulkner 96.) Mr. Compson clearly was not as bothered by his daughters’ promiscuity as Quentin was. The Compson children always seemed to care more about what was happening to their family. Mrs. Compson only cared about herself. She referred to Benjy as “punishments for her sins” (127). On page 154, Caddy brings up the problem of their father’s alcoholism. If the Compson children were unable to rely on their parents to guide them, then perhaps they had to look to each other for solace. That strong sense of sibling connection is evident when Quentin meets the little Italian girl. He calls her his “sister” and feels the need to protect her and bring her home. This is clearly a result of his love for his own sister.
Something that struck me as interesting was Faulkner’s explanation of time. There is a clear annoyance or awareness of time in the beginning of Quentin’s narration. The ticking of the clock will always happen. Time will always pass. Of course, with passing time comes death. “Father said that constant speculation regarding the position of mechanical hands on an arbitrary dial which is a symptom of mind-function. Excrement Father said like sweating. And I saying All right. Wonder. Go on and wonder.” (94.) Quentin spends a lot of his narrative trying to avoid time. “every man is the arbiter of his own virtues but let no man prescribe for another mans wellbeing” (221.) Along with time comes expectations, but Quentin’s father tried to remind him that happiness comes from within. If Quentin hadn’t let so many other outside forces effect his wellbeing, he would probably have been saved by the end of the section.
I also found the novel very difficult to read. While Faulkner was described as following in the footsteps of Joyce, I was hoping that he would tone it down a bit, and bring out quite a bit of American Ingenuity to the writing. When i first started reading, I was completly lost. The characters did start to form, but I was still overwhelmed. I was hoping like his Idol Joyce the stream of consciousness writing would be short lived (the really confusing part) but sadly that lasted through the first section entirely.
Background reading:
ReplyDeleteWilliam Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury Literature Insights
By Michael Cotsell
William Faulkner was born in 1897, and spent most of his life in Oxford, Mississippi. Many of Faulkner’s novels are set in a small town (Jefferson) which is parallel to Oxford. Faulkner is known for his literary skill, psychological depth, and sense of history. In the course of his lifetime, Faulkner wrote countless fictional short stories and novels. Having never read any of Faulkner’s work, I had no idea what to expect. Cotsell began to explain in his literary guide, that Faulkner explored Modernism in many of his novels. After having just studied Modernism with James Joyce’s “The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man”, I was a bit wary about diving into another novel that utilized a ‘stream of consciousness’ narration. Cotsell won me over by explaining that much of Faulkner’s work uses “stylistic lyricism and a fierce relish for the American values and the deep vein of progressivism in the South of his time.”
Michael Cotsell stresses that the family dynasties described in Faulkner’s novels are all connected. In fact, Faulkner writes about four fictional families. The Compsons, from The Sound and the Fury, had been described fully in Faulkner’s other novels, but not this one. When I read this, I knew that it would be a struggle to have to figure out the family history. Cotsell also commented on the challenging form of The Sound and the Fury. The novel is based off of four narratives, one for each of the Compson children (possibly, as the last narrative isn’t very clear.) The first three narratives are directly written through a stream of consciousness, which Cotsell proclaimed made the novel difficult to read. Great.
Just as I had expected, The Sound and the Fury was very difficult to understand. This is mainly due to the form that Faulkner chose to tell the story of the Compsons. The first section of the novel is set in 1928, and the narrator, Benjy, has just turned thirty three years old. I can imagine that this is hard to pick up for most readers, because the entire section is full of memories from the past. Benjy is a complex character, in that he has a severe mental retardation. Benjy cannot speak for himself. He cannot comprehend feelings or emotions. Throughout his narration, he is being taken on a search with Luster, a black boy who is left to mind him, although Luster is half Benjy’s age. From what I could understand, Benjy is constantly reminded of something from his past that involves his sister Caddy, and that makes him cry. Faulkner switches back and forth between the past and present, giving no possible trend or order to it all. With Benjy’s incompetence and inability to speak, the entire section is direct thought from his mind. Whatever Benjy noticed, or felt, was what Faulkner included in the story.
ReplyDeleteAs I got to the second section of the novel, I thought it would be a relief because Quentin was the narrator. Quentin could actually articulate his thoughts, so I figured he would guide the reader along with a little more structure. Of course, I was absolutely wrong. Quentin’s stream of consciousness starts off somewhat normal, and then we begin to see the same switch from past to present that Benjy used. This time, the narration was more difficult to follow, because Quentin was in the middle of an over exaggerated anxiety attack. This uncertainty of saneness was evident in the structure (or lack thereof) in the sentences. Most of Quentin’s narration is one long run on sentence. When Faulkner is trying to stress that Quentin is anxiously thinking about his past conversations with Caddy, all forms of capitalization, punctuation and structure disappear. In order to read the section, the reader must find the rhythm that is in Quentin’s words. This is extremely difficult due to the lack of punctuation (I lost my breath many times while reading some of Quentin’s thoughts.) Perhaps Faulkner uses this lack of structure to further convey Quentin’s anxiety and insecurities. He keeps going back to a conversation that he had with his father and another with his sister who he loved dearly. She is the center of his confusion and despair. This is also evident in Benjy’s narrative, because whenever he is reminded of Caddy, he cries. Both character’s minds are all over the place, but there is definitely a difference between Benjy and Quentin’s switches in time. The more simplistic observational feel of Benjy’s narrative is probably due to the fact that he cannot understand much more than just that. Quentin’s chaotic tone is the result of how he feels, and his ability to comprehend more than one memory at a time.
Most of Faulkner’s work focused on the downfall of Southern aristocrats after the Civil War. This is explored through the demise of fictional prestigious families in the south. Through this exploration, I was able to get a sense of Faulkner’s views on race, gender-roles, and family structure. From what I could tell, the Compsons were a rich family that had a lot of land and a large house. A black family lived on their property and served them (not as slaves, but as assistants). Dilsey was the Compsons cook, and a lot of the time, she was asked to take care of the children. The Compson children were mainly raised by Dilsey, because Mrs. Compson was always sick, or at least she claimed to be. Dilsey was a strong character. Her family was not mistreated, but they were clearly regarded to as less than by the Compsons. As Quentin moves to Boston, there never seems to be a problem with his interaction with Negros. The race issue is definitely evident in The Sound and the Fury, but it is not the main focus.
ReplyDeleteFaulkner brings up an interesting point with his focus on female value. So far, there are only five female characters mentioned in the novel. The most important is Caddy Compson. She is the center of all of her brother’s attention. Caddy is stubborn, but also nurturing to Benjy. Quentin is almost obsessive with her, and all of her brothers are affected when she begins to grow up. This is a major cause to Quentin’s mental breakdown. “They lie about (being a virgin.) Because it means less to women, Father said. He said it was men invented virginity not women. Father said it’s like death: only a state in which the others are left.” (Faulkner 96.) Mr. Compson clearly was not as bothered by his daughters’ promiscuity as Quentin was. The Compson children always seemed to care more about what was happening to their family. Mrs. Compson only cared about herself. She referred to Benjy as “punishments for her sins” (127). On page 154, Caddy brings up the problem of their father’s alcoholism. If the Compson children were unable to rely on their parents to guide them, then perhaps they had to look to each other for solace. That strong sense of sibling connection is evident when Quentin meets the little Italian girl. He calls her his “sister” and feels the need to protect her and bring her home. This is clearly a result of his love for his own sister.
Something that struck me as interesting was Faulkner’s explanation of time. There is a clear annoyance or awareness of time in the beginning of Quentin’s narration. The ticking of the clock will always happen. Time will always pass. Of course, with passing time comes death. “Father said that constant speculation regarding the position of mechanical hands on an arbitrary dial which is a symptom of mind-function. Excrement Father said like sweating. And I saying All right. Wonder. Go on and wonder.” (94.) Quentin spends a lot of his narrative trying to avoid time. “every man is the arbiter of his own virtues but let no man prescribe for another mans wellbeing” (221.) Along with time comes expectations, but Quentin’s father tried to remind him that happiness comes from within. If Quentin hadn’t let so many other outside forces effect his wellbeing, he would probably have been saved by the end of the section.
ReplyDeleteI also found the novel very difficult to read. While Faulkner was described as following in the footsteps of Joyce, I was hoping that he would tone it down a bit, and bring out quite a bit of American Ingenuity to the writing. When i first started reading, I was completly lost. The characters did start to form, but I was still overwhelmed. I was hoping like his Idol Joyce the stream of consciousness writing would be short lived (the really confusing part) but sadly that lasted through the first section entirely.
ReplyDelete