Final Reflection + Dilsey

After four chapters of varying narration styles and themes, I've noticed a few prevalent themes that constitute what the book is "about." At first, I was confused about the overall topic of The Sound and the Fury, and was feeling pretty lost on why this book was even written. I'm sure I missed important things or certain bits of analysis, but my current feeling is that this book is all about family, and covers the issue of the old vs new south. Other big themes and issues addressed are the changing South, as well as racism. The varying narration brings the characters to life, showing the readers more about the characters than just their words ever could by putting readers inside Benjy, Quentin, and Jason's heads. It also shows the journey from chaos to a more organized life. I also think the book is centralized on Caddy for a reason. Her character is an interesting one because her placement in the novel covers the themes of women and sexuality. It's interesting because every character responds differently to her promiscuous behavior - depending on whether their character reflected the old or new south.

I thought the Dilsey chapter was a great way to end the novel. It was nice to read a chapter that wasn't terribly confusing, or made me mad because I hated the narrator so much. (#JASON). It was the perfect ending chapter because it acted a bit like a shock absorber, just allowing the author to internalize everything they'd already read, as well as gain some affirming info. Although (like every chapter) chapter 4 exposes the dysfunction in the family, it also gave me hope in a way. Dilsey is there to take care of them, and in my opinion, really keeps the family from falling completely apart. Even mother, old and thinking she's wise, needs Dilsey to take care of her. The Dilsey chapter also might correspond with the direction Faulkner sees the New South going in - up. (Or at least staying where it is. Not getting any worse.) The old, but also the changing values are what led to Benjy's banishment, Quentin's suicide, and Jason's lack of respect for women and other people around him. On that note, I noticed The Sound and the Fury is also largely about racism. The Dilsey chapter was a perfect way to end because it showed how incredibly loving Dilsey's heart is. She is African American, and she's much more genuinely kind than the other characters. She sees people for what and who they are. It's important that Faulkner made such a good character African American, because Faulkner is saying that it doesn't matter what color a person's skin is. Color = regardless. People need to be looked at according to the content of their character.

At the beginning of the book, I was skeptical of the writing style and setup of the book, I'll admit. However, as I continued to read, I grew to appreciate Faulkner's intriguing choice to retell the same tale in different times and different narrators. I think this writing technique keeps the book interesting. Without the different perspectives, there'd really be no book - just a short story without the punch and impact the different perspectives and backgrounds give to the novel. Including different perspectives with varying levels of difficulty say a lot about people in general, but one thing I really got from it was point of view. Each person, in this book and in life, sees the world and situations differently based on the people and experiences that have been a part of their life prior to the events going on.

I can honestly say I did enjoy this book. It was the most challenging one for me so far, but I was really intrigued and impressed by the way Faulkner incorporated so many different themes consistently in so many characters. I found almost everything had some other meaning, which was often hard to figure out. Usually, during our in-class discussions, I'd realize my analysis had been totally wrong...but I learned from that experience.

Jason the Jerk

This post is going to be a little disjointed, because my thoughts on Jason are pretty disjointed. There's a few different topics that have to be covered, and their only real common thread is my (very obvious) poor opinion of Jason.

When a character opens their narration with "Once a bitch, always a bitch, I say," (pg. 119) you know they're going to be horrible. I think one of the reasons I, and I'm sure other readers, despise Jason is because he embodies every jerk guy you've ever known. He's manipulative, dismissive, aloof, sexist, racist, and, to top it all off, steals money from his struggling niece. Jason has been like this since the time when, as a child, he destroyed Benjy's paper dolls. Now that he's grown up and has more power in a sense, he's taken it to the next level and has become a full blown mean man.

Jason's chapter seems to follow the earlier pattern of centralizing on Caddy, as I predicted earlier. However, I don't really see a "fixation" on Caddy anywhere near the caliber of Benjy's or Quentin's obsessions. He seems in a pretty sound mental state, unlike his two brothers. (But let's be honest, no one in this family is 100% all there.) Why does Faulkner seem to have Benjy's and Quentin's mental states relate to the degree of their fixations with Caddy? But anyway...perhaps this, combined with his ugly personality, is why Jason seems to be interested in berating and belittling Caddy and her daughter more than gaining a close relationship with Caddy. In fact, I think that the issues with Quentin that dominate the chapter tend to satisfy the Caddy quota of this chapter, seeing as she is Caddy's daughter. Maybe treating Quintin terribly fulfills Jason's bad attitude towards women as well as disapproval of his sister. 

I think I've made it pretty clear I don't like Jason as a character. I'm realizing I'm weirdly passionate about my hatred for a literary character, but Faulkner wrote him to be so...hateable. Jason is very sexist and racist. He's forever making jabs at women, disrespecting them with his words. This is quite different from his brother Quentin, who has the Old South belief that women are to be respected. Jason's first line says a lot about him and his view on women. Another instance that shows his demeaning beliefs about women is when he says, "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 cant think of any other way to surprise them, give them a bust in the jaw." Who says that!?! Oh yeah, Jason does. He says stuff like that alllll throughout the chapter, then goes on to throw around these intensely racist comments  and thoughts about African Americans in particular, with a few jabs at Jewish people thrown in. He thinks himself to be much better than the African American family, even though he does little to no work and they work all day. Dilsey is mentioned a lot in this chapter, and is constantly trying to protect Quentin from Jason. This is a way for Faulkner to comment on the fact that race has nothing to do with the type of person someone is - Jason is white and a jerk, Dilsey is kind and African American. Another thing I found disgraceful about Jason is his obsession with money. He pilfers money that should go to Quentin and keeps it for himself, only allowing her $10 from every $200 check. He also shows intense materialism when he charges Caddy $100 to see her own daughter.

Something else I noticed was that Jason's forever a downer. When he was a kid, he was mean. As an adult, he's mean. It's a good contrast to Caddy's dynamic personality, Benjy's floundering thoughts and associations, and Quentin's madness. 

Quick thought...What does Jason represent about the South? I've noticed, especially through our in-class discussions, that many of the characters in some way reflect Faulkner's thoughts about the changing South, as well as the Old South.

In all honesty, I think Dilsey sums up Jason better than I ever could when she says, "You's a cold man, Jason, if man you is," she says. "I thank de Lawd I got mo heart dan dat..."

The Quentin Chapter

It's officially been a day and a half since I finished chapter three, and I'm still in a fog of confusion - thanks to Quentin's disjointed narrative. Quentin's sense of "I" is hard to distinguish. The longest run-on sentences I've ever seen (like one on pg 118) derail the reader and contribute to the confusion about who's actually speaking. In conversations, there's no quotation marks, which is unconventional and really caught me off guard. 

Quentin's flashbacks were easy for me to follow, but it was the writing that wasn't in italics that really got me. I didn't understand the patterns between his associative thinking. For example, why did watching the fishermen get Quentin thinking about a conversation he had with Caddy, trying to convince her not to marry Herbert? I also found myself confused about the whole Caddy situation - but I'm sure that confusion was calculated and intended by Faulkner. There's probably some deeper meaning about the speechless immigrant girl, maybe something to do with the way Quentin referred to her as his sister and a possible parallel to his obsession with his own sister. I failed to come up with any reason why the fisherman were included.

I'm not quite sure if Caddy and Quentin actually committed incest or not. Quentin's insistent persistence that he, in fact, did commit incest, as well as Caddy's promiscuous history, sway me to believe that it happened. Another interesting thing I noticed was on pg. 51, when Quentin says that Saint Francis never had a sister. Is he using this as a claim that sisters are somehow a temptation, and that the Saint was a saint because he didn't have a sister?? It's all really weird. Also, on pg. 74 Caddy demands "dont touch me dont touch me". However, the fact that Quentin's own father doesn't believe him pushes me closer to the he-didn't-really-do-it-and-is-just-trying-to-protect-her-in-some-weird-way side. Maybe the confusion is a message that these things is inherently confusing, as well as a reflection of Quentin's seemingly unstable mental state. But really, I'm not sure. Anyone have any ideas as to why Faulkner draws such a seemingly blurry line here? Or, if you feel strongly one way or the other regarding if the whole thing really happened or not, what is you reasoning?

Quentin's "unique" narrative is certainly written that way on purpose. As I read this chapter, I tried to discern why Faulkner wrote Quentin with this strange voice. As I was reading, I found this chapter even more disjointed than Benjy's. Just my personal opinion, but I found it really hard to get through. I think for me, reading from Benjy's perspective was easier because I knew about his mental disability prior to starting my reading. I knew the narrative style would be a little hectic because of his disability. However, with Quentin, I had no idea about his madness going into it. 

Something interesting I noticed is that Benjy and Quentin have more in common than just their hard-to-digest narrative voices. They both have fixations on their sister Caddy, although Quentin's is a lot more sexual. This is a big theme of the chapter. I'm interested to see if the fixation on Caddy becomes a central theme of the novel, because it's been a big part of the first two chapters so far. Benny and Quentin also seem to share an ability and adeptcy to experience the world through smell. On pages 118 and 119 Quentin says that "honeysuckle was the saddest odor of them all," then goes on to claim, "I could smell the curves of the river." Quentin's fixations don't end at Caddy and smell. He's a little obsessed with time, and quite frequently mentions one or two of his peers at Harvard.

So all in all, I'm still speculating about what's going on with Quentin, his narrative style, and it's link to his mental state. He likes to have weirdly philosophical conversations about virginity with his father, (pg. 77, and another one on an earlier page I can't find) obsess over time, (pgs. 51, 53, etc) watch his peers, and try to convince his dad he commited incest (pg. 63, and on other pages). He also repeatedly shoes aggression towards Caddy's beaus, toeing the line between protectiveness and jealousy. He demands "do you love him" (pg. 99), then repeats his question on pgs. 104 and 108. I'm looking forward to our in-class discussion and hearing everyone else's thoughts and ideas regarding Quentin's complex narrative, personality, and consequent mental state.

"The Benjy Chapter" & subsequent confusion/reflection

 I finished the Benjy chapter about an hour ago and am still trying to digest it. I ended up having to read each page twice in an attempt to grasp the disjointed concept of time in this chapter. (I still don't necessarily understand it all, to be honest.) In my opinion, Faulkner intentionally began the novel with this difficult chapter to set the stage for the novel. As an author, he was often turned away for his new style of narration, as mentioned in my previous post. By starting out the novel with Benjy as the narrator, he is showing the reader what is to be expected from his book. Of course, the confusing narrative in the first chapter also reflects how Benjy thinks - it gives the readers an "in" to his mind. Benjy goes from being present at a golf game to deep in a flashback about his sister Caddy - just from hearing the word "caddie." (pg 3) Why does Faulkner have Benjy think so associatively? In addition, the first chapter leaves the reader with a lot of questions. It's a bit of a mystery. The first chapter, first for a good reason, also establishes the bad communication in the family through the confusing narrative style.

The fact that this first chapter is on Benjy's thirty-third birthday seems to be very significant and symbolic. Although there isn't specific, outright textual evidence linking the two, it must be considered and taken into account that Jesus was crucified at age thirty-three. Many characters mention the fact that it is Benjy's thirty third birthday, starting on the first page of the chapter. I'm not quite sure what the significance of this is, or how Benjy's character relates to Jesus. I assume that there will be support in later chapters. The only parallel I can think of right now is the way that Jesus was persecuted and hated for being the son of God (something he couldn't control) in the same way that Benjy is treated poorly by the majority of the characters simply for having a mental disibility (something he can't control.) Can anyone else think of any parallels or symbols between Benjy and Jesus?

Benjy's role in the Compson family is facinating to me. From what I can tell so far, he isn't very important to any of them. The black servants see him as an opportunity to treat a white person poorly, and his mother sees him as her punishment for marrying beneath her. Caddy is really the only one that truly cares about him. He seems to be a burden for the family, and they all treat him like a young child. Having his perspective in the first chapter showed me the strange dynamic of the Compson family, and the fact that they tend to reflect on the past, just as Benjy continued to do in his narration. Benjy's pure, unadulterated narration shows the reader a lot about the family, especially about Caddy. The family wishes Caddy wouldn't be so wild, and condemns her doing things like taking her dress off to dry. Benjy is also fixated on smells, moreso than other sensory types. I noticed that he says she smells like the trees when he feels she is his sister and is on his side. For example, when she got married and was in her veil, she didn't smell like trees to Benjy. Another time this happens is when she kisses Charlie. However, when she washes her mouth out with soap, she suddenly becomes the sister he knows and smells like trees again. (pg 32)

It is no question that Benjy is fixated on the past. Faulkner has his first narrator introduce the novel with a fixation on the past to show the Compson's fixation on the past, as mentioned previously, as well as to show the South's nostagalia as a place. This novel is set in 1928, before the government got really reinvolved in the south economicially and socially. (That happened more around great depression/its aftermath). It was also pretty soon after reconstruction and the civil war. Both of these historical patterns leave room for the South to continue traditions and mourn (or should I say "moan") for the loss of old ones.

Writing this post has helped me reflect on the Benjy chapter and what's important about him as a character. I also have gained a better understanding as to why Faulkner used him as the opening act. However, I'm still a little fuzzy on what actually happened. How many different time periods does this chapter span? There was a place where I thought he was 33 until Faulkner off-handedly mentioned that he was 5...so I'm wondering how many places and times I've already managed to mix up.

I've also noticed that Faulkner doesn't use apostrophes ever, or question marks at the end of a question - just a period. Anyone know why that might be?

William Faulkner : An Introduction

I believe that often to understand a work of literature, it is important to understand the writer's environment, personality, beliefs, and circumstances. As I researched Faulkner and his life, I came across many interesting bits of information that gave me a good basis to understand his writing.

Faulkner grew up in the South in a small town called Rowan Oaks. He used the South as a backdrop to his novels. His knowledge and understanding of Southern geography and culture helped bring his books to life.

Faulkner preferred not to be under the scrutiny of the public eye. In fact, he refused to attend the awarding of the Nobel Prize until he was finally convinced. He was often pegged as an alchoholic because of his occasional drinking binges that often occured at the completion of a novel. Faulkner was also interested in art and culture of other countries; he changed his name from "Falkner" to "Faulkner," because it looks more British with a "u." As seen in the photo below, he also grew a beard to look like a "Bohemian poet" while in France.

Faulkner's narrative was a fresh take on literature, and gives the reader even more information about Faulkner as a person. A great line from Faulkner's Requiem For A Nun reads, "The past is never dead. It's not even past." This reflects his interesting ideas about time, which he utilizes to create a new kind of narrative. His work was actually rejected a few times because of this experimental format.

I found it facinating that he didn't finish high school nor recieve a college degree, yet became a highly renound author. To me, this shows raw talent and a lot of determination. He recognized when and where he needed to improve himself and his work, saying, "I'm a failed poet. Maybe every novelist wants to write poetry first, finds he can't and then tries the short story which is the most demanding form after poetry. And failing at that, only then does he take up novel writing.”

Researching Faulkner's life has helped me obtain greater insight on who he was as a person. This will certainly help me as I take on one of his most popular works, The Sound and the Fury.