June 2, 1910 (Quentin's Chapter)

William Faulkner really tricked me with this chapter.  After I read Benjy's chapter, I truly didn't think that the book could get any more confusing.  I was excited going into the Quentin chapter—the first few pages were relatively easy to read.  And then I realized Quentin suffered from some kind of stress-induced thought-degenerative disease.  Short sequences of lucidity are interspersed throughout long, punctuation/grammar devoid, run-on paragraphs (and sometimes pages).  Because of this, I actually found Quentin's chapter harder to read than Benjy's—after all, at least Benjy's chapter employed basic English grammar.

Quentin's chapter was confusing for several reasons.  First, when Quentin enters into his narrative state of rambling, he frequently switches "in and out" of narrating.  For example, Quentin can be narrating a story and then, BAM!  Quentin begins repeating what other characters, such as Caroline, have said to him in the past.  Unfortunately, Quentin doesn't say, "And then my mother said, '...'."  He goes right into it, and he used the first person voice, too.  So one minute, Quentin is the speaker, and the next, Caroline is speaking through Quentin.  It's awfully confusing.

Apart from the speaker switching, Quentin's chapter is confusing because, throughout much of the text, it doesn't use proper punctuation or grammar—it seems like a run-on gathering of nonsensical ramblings.  And to be honest, I didn't understand most of these sequences.  But then again, I don't know if I was supposed to understand...

Quentin's mental state says a lot about his character.  Many of his ramblings relate to Caddy and his endearing (yet also creepy) worry for her.  I believe that Quentin's breakdowns are stress-induced, and just about all the stress in his life relates to Caddy.  So, the reader knows from Quentin's narration that he cares deeply for (or even too much for) Caddy.  He would prefer death over seeing Caddy get hurt.

Again, I'm excited to read the next chapter to make sense of this one.  Hopefully my wish to understand comes true this time....

APRIL 7, 1928 (THE CONFUSING ONE)

William Faulkner sure did know how to win friends and influence people through his writing.  I can promise with hardly any doubt that the first chapter of The Sound and the Fury is one of the most disorienting and question-provoking opening chapter in all of literature.  I've read a lot of books, including some of the classics that are on the same level as the trials of Hercules, such as A Tale of Two Cities, so I think I can make a kind of statement like that.  Anyway...

Why would Faulkner think that it was okay to do that to innocent readers?

Faulkner deliberately tried to confuse his readers because, however much we may want to disagree, the confusion did create a hook—I'm excited to read more of the book because I want to figure out what just flew way over my head.  Because I know the book has multiple narrators, I want to learn about the story from a more stable point of view—then I can make sense of Benjy's chapter.  To be honest, I'm fascinated by the book so far.

Another question—why is the first chapter set on Holy Saturday (the day before Easter) when the narrator is 33 years old?  I think Faulkner did this to paint Benjy in a "holy" light—while Faulkner wasn't trying to say that Benjy actually is Jesus, he was trying to say that the two are similar.  Basically, Faulkner wanted the reader to sympathize with, admire, and love Benjy (much like his Southern audience would have sympathized with, admired, and loved Jesus).

Finally, what's the point of Benjy as a character?  Why did Faulkner make him mentally disabled, for example?  Personally, I believe that Benjy's severely diminished mental capacities allow Benjy to truthfully portray what the Compson family is actually like.  While high-functioning narrators could distort the truth about the family, Benjy is unable to do so.  Benjy describes the Caddy as a loving, free spirit who gradually was forced to submit to societal pressures, for example.  Another narrator, such as Jason, may have described Caddy as a rule-breaking, bossy big sister—that's far from the truth.  Benjy isn't capable of having any ulterior motives against anyone else in the story, so he is able to speak the truth about the family rather than about a sugar-coated version.

Research about William Faulkner

Hello world, my name is Connor, and this is my blog about The Sound and the Fury.  Well.  This morning in math lab I started to read William Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury and I almost had a panic attack.  Not only does it take a long time to read each page, but it also doesn't make any sense—at least, not for a while.  After a laborious 20 minutes and 16 pages of the book (about a third of the way though Chapter 1), I finally started to realize that I wasn't actually supposed to understand what on earth was happening in the book—instead, I just decided to remember the main facts so I can put them together when the book actually starts to make sense.  And, when I realized that, I decided that the book was actually kind of enjoyable.

I just realized I have not addressed Faulkner's life whatsoever.

William Faulkner was a Southern author (but we already knew that).  He was not a World War I aviator, but he pretended he was.  But yes, Faulkner did badly burn himself on a radiator when he passed out from drinking too much alcohol.  He never actually graduated from high school, and he cheated on his wife.   Considering he was a well-liked guy by his peers, the times sure must have been different.  By hey—the only think that matters is that Faulkner could write well.