"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.