Quentin "Tarantino" Compson

If Benjy's chapter was hard to understand, Quentin's chapter was hard to even read. Whole sentences, phrases, and ideas are strung together with no punctuation. There are, believe it or not, several pages in a row without punctuation, which as a reader, is quite frustrating. Faulkner once again experiments with extremely unorthodox writing and narrating techniques, that are difficult for any reader to adapt to. Quentin's chapter is also filled with several reoccurring symbols, that seem to be attached to his obsession with Caddy. The motif of time is once again present in this chapter as it was before with Benjy, except it is reinforced through his watch. As Quentin says, the sound of a watch ticking creates a "long diminishing parade of time you didn't hear." This introduces the idea that the ticking watch will bring up memories of the past and of Caddy to Quentin. In this sense, Quentin is trapped by time and stuck in the past. Quentin's narration is also interesting because it is not always him speaking. There are passages that have other speakers besides Quentin, like Caroline. This creates a confusing sense of the "I" voice that a reader would expect to be consistent throughout the chapter. This, along with the before mentioned jumbling of sentences, creates very confusing writing for the reader. This style of narration clearly shows that Quentin has a mental illness. As the chapter progresses, Quentin's grasp of grammar diminishes. Towards the end his writing is reduced to mere rambling, making essentially no sense. Quentin becomes more upset and anxious about Caddy's sexuality and promiscuity further into the chapter, so much so, he is willing to claim Caddy's child as his own to avoid the disgrace to his family that would surely follow otherwise. Quentin more than others seems to recognize the decline of the Compson family. He is clearly disturbed by the direction his family is headed, and the repeated shadow symbol implies that the family is but a shadow of its former self. It is also interesting to consider the fact that both characters serve as observers to the moral decline of their family, but only Quentin grasps an understanding of what he notices, and what it means. Benjy simply sees it, but does not interpret it. This is best seen in Caddy's promiscuity. Benjy notices she smells of perfume not trees, but he doesn't know what it means. Quentin knows that she has been "dirtied" and is no longer a virgin anymore. Quentin feels trapped under his family's sin and his inability to change it, and eventually he views suicide as the final and only option.

"Three Years Old Thirty Years"

After reading the first chapter of The Sound and The Fury, I'm thoroughly confused. Even though I was warned that the narrator Benjy would be skipping around, I wasn't quite expected for the degree of switching that I encountered. However, it is clear to me Benjy relies solely on senses to understand the world. He narrates the story in a series of descriptions and images, but does not draw any logical conclusions or thoughts from anything. In this way, Benjy becomes an unbiased onlooker to events in the Compson family. He notices things that no one else in the family does, for example, Benjy becomes more disturbed and upset as Caddy begins to not smell like trees anymore, instead he smells her perfume. As Caddy becomes more promiscuous and eventually even loses her virginity, she loses the smell of trees that once pleased Benjy so much. This unique perspective that Benjy provides shows us the moral decay of the Compson family. The decay begins as the old generation of Damuddy dies, then Uncle Maury is caught in an affair, followed by Caddy's immorality, and finally Quentin's suicide. Benjy's extreme nostalgia shows just how important the idea of a family is, especially in the South. The family name is of the utmost importance, as Mrs. Compson has to change Benjy's name from Maury when she learns of his disability. Benjy's family is supposed to care for him, but in reality his mother has no presence with her children. It is instead servants like Dilsey and Luster that care for Benjy, even his sister Caddy is more of a mother to Benjy than his actual mother. It is also interesting to look at Benjy as a Christ-like figure. He was born on Holy Saturday and in the book, is 33 years old, the age of Christ when he was crucified. Benjy like Christ is a sort of innocent, pure figure. He isn't corrupted by sin and is simply a bystander to the moral decline of the family as a whole. For these reasons, Benjy fulfills the symbolic role of Christ in the novel. He also reinforces the idea of living in the present. Things that happen in the present remind Benjy of the past, but there is no distinction for him. It is one blur of events all in the present tense.

The Man, The Myth, The Legend, Faulkner

Welcome to the start of my blogging career. For some undisclosed time I'll be writing stuff on this blog, hopefully it's pretty good stuff. I'll start by talking about the life and times of William Faulkner. Perhaps the most astounding thing about Faulkner is that after not even finishing high school, without a college degree, living in one of the poorest states in the U.S., he managed to write some of the greatest works of American literature. After winning the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950, Faulkner made a very influential and thought-provoking speech. Faulkner describes how his work is created out of the materials of the human spirit. He seems to be saddened that today's writers have forgotten the problems of human heart in conflict with itself, that the human emotion and aspects of writing were lost. To him, these were the essentials of good writing and if current conditions continued, we would be sitting by watching the end of man. The writer's job is to write about the human soul and spirit, and keep a record of man. This idea that writing is the pillars which man uses to endure and prevail, is something that resonates with me greatly. Writing is how humans express ourselves and our history. I hope this very blog will be a way to express myself, and I invite you to stick around for more.