April 8th 1928, Dilsey's Chapter

Faulkner address order and chaos, time, and humanity in perspective. He builds and maintains different characters throughout the book, with Quentin's jumbled mind and Jason crass attitude. The first three chapters show how jumbled and chaotic the Compson family is. Faulkner conveys through all three Compson boys the negative effect that Caddy has on the family. She effects each boy in their own way but enough so that the family reaches a state of chaos. He starts off with a bundled mess instead of building the story up and reaching a climax then coming back down. Faulkner throws us right into the middle of the plot and keeps us disoriented until the last chapter. He unravels the plot slowly while showing the complicated inner psyche of humanity.

The last chapter, although not told in Dilsey's point of view, we can assume Faulkner intends to pull Dilsey to the attention of the reader. We follow her on the day of Easter (rather symbolic if I do say so myself) as she continues with upholding the Compson family. We have learned in the first three chapters how Caddy is the heart of her brothers' life and she constantly effects the way they conduct themselves but the last chapter gives us some type of hope.

In the last chapter, we see a third point perspective following the Compson's final downfall. Miss Quentin flees in this chapter and we see the Compson family indefinitely ruined. Caddy is gone, Benjy and Jason are mentally unstable, all in all the Compson family is falling apart. But Faulkner follows Dilsey as she continues on through her day despite the Compson family trying to bring her down. She cooks breakfast and goes to church, bringing Benjy with her. She keeps the house in order while all remains in chaos. Dilsey says in this chapter, "I seed de beginning, en now I sees de ending," this implies the end for the Compson family but Faulkner turns it around in the end when Benjy finds order in his ride home which implies that quite possibly the family can resurrect.

Faulkner addresses the problem of time and how many of us may feel trapped or our constant need to blame someone else for our problems. Or even the fact that most of the time we deviate from tradition and have to find our way back. What Faulkner is able to do is show that even after falling down and hitting rock bottom there is always a chance to resurrect. Although his main message ought to be life is meaningless. He named the book the Sound and Fury and related it to Macbeth's quote that "life is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing." In other words, Faulkner showed us that even through all the chaos and noise caused by the Compson family in the end, nothing is to come of it. Maybe resurrection on part of Dilsey but it seems to be a never ending cycle humanity is stuck in that Faulkner addresses. We are constantly rising and falling, making noise to be muted out. Life is but a meaningless adventure and Faulkner gives us more of a pessimistic view on life by the end of this book. He leaves us with a sliver of hope in Dilsey but really he leaves it for you to make what you want of it.

Jason Blog

Jason: a Compson family member who is able to convey a clear story but in such a pompous way that the reader may wish they were reading Benjy’s innocent chapter that gives us jumbled descriptions of situations but never the feeling of “wow this guy sucks,” or even possibly Quentin’s chapter when we had the raw emotions of a hurting Compson family member. One thing can be said for sure, I had much more sympathy for Benjy and Quentin than I do for Jason. Jason, although a struggling Compson family member with his own struggles, handles the situation in such a way that the reader loses all respect. To be short, Jason is an asshole.

            Jason, just like Benjy and Quentin, is unique in his own way. He makes these claims saying he does everything. "I never had time to go to Harvard or drink myself into the ground. I had to work. But of course if you want me to follow her around and see what she does, I can quit the store and get a job where I work at night," (181). This statement just seems bogus because we see Jason go to work and right after he gets there he leaves for the telegraph office. He doesn't work yet he's obsessed with money. He's a scammer. He depends on Caddy's checks and stocks. The only person he gives a damn about is himself yet he claims he is the head of the Compson household and has to take care of everyone. To say the least he has anger problems. He is chasing Quentin, Caddy's daughter, everywhere trying to get her in trouble and for what? Well being a teenager which seems irrational but it seems to appear that Jason is looking for anything to spark his anger. Jason starts the chapter of with, "once a bitch always a bitch, what I say," letting the reader from the very beginning see Jason's crass nature. Yes, Jason's life has order compared to Benjy and Quentin but even he too is blind to reality. This seems to be a trait the entire Compson family has. They are all clueless to what reality should be. Jason constantly takes his anger out on Quentin when the anger was brought on because of Caddy. He conducts himself as a logical man but how are his actions logical?? Oh yes, Jason believes that since he has to take care of Quentin he is allowed to steal from Caddy and treat Quentin badly because after all, because of Caddy he didn't get the job he wanted. The reader questions this though because he can't even maintain good attendance at his store job and the only reason he is still there is because the owner has pity. Another theme we see is Jason believes himself to be independent of women, as he never "keeps a scarp of paper bearing a woman's hand," to Jason this is logical because he burns Caddy's checks but only after cashing them. Jason is just as far gone as his brothers if not more, he has order yet constantly does irrational things when events don't go as planned. 

One huge similarity between the brothers is the way Caddy has so deeply effected them. Jason belIeves he has completely cut her out of his life, refusing to even mention his name but he takes money from her and all of his anger is fueled by her. The reader may assume that certainly, Jason is the closest tied to Caddy. He even had to see Quentin, Caddy's daughter everyday to remind him of what Caddy did to make him lose everything. so despite Jason's attempt to get across that he lives free from Caddy, along with his mother's support. We, through his actions, see that Jason's life is as unstable as his brothers due to Caddy. 

Quentin's Chapter June 2, 1910

The second chapter in the Sound and the Fury is Quentin's chapter. One might assume this chapter might be easier to understand because unlike Benjy, Quentin is an unbelievably intelligent man who attends Harvard. This is far from the truth. With Benjy we got to see an unbiased view of a string of events but with Quentin we see his inner psyche which is just as hard, if not harder to understand than Benjy's string of events. Quentin talks a lot about time and through Quentin, Faulkner continues to explore the concept of time. The difference between Benjy and Quentin is that, they both have memories of the past but on top of that Quentin gives us insight on his complicated inner psyche.
Quentin is constantly talking about the past whenever something happens in his present tying back into Faulkner's idea of time. From the very beginning of Quentin's chapter we see Quentin waking up to an alarm, then breaking his clock, yet the hands still move. No matter what Quentin does he is stuck in time. He breaks his clock, he walks into a clock shop yet asks not to know the time. He notices the shadows in the water which is a reference to the sun. Time haunts Quentin and we see that through his thought process giving us an even more intense, chilling chapter than the first one.
One of the main points made in this chapter is Quentin's obsession with helping Caddy and his disgust at her actions. He is disgusted by her actions and wants only to clear his family name. Quentin is obviously hurt by Caddy's actions as he always tries to fix her actions, although fails. Quentin is further upset because Mr. Compson clearly doesn't care about Caddy's choices.
Overall, Quentin is obsessed with southern tradition and time is constantly haunting him resulting in a very confused and scared man. He is losing control and with a guy like him that is toxic. Obviously, it resulted in suicide.

Benjy's Chapter April 7, 1928

I think Faulkner begins the novel with such a disorienting chapter to make the reader think. I believe that Faulkner purposely places Benji's chapter first. Since the reader has to distinguish many time jumps it is confusing and only gives us pieces of the Compson family story. We see only what Benji gives us and that leads us to more questions which helps foreshadow the rest of the story. Also, Benji is an unbiased perspective. He only has the capability to look at a situation but he cannot analyze a situation which leaves each event as unbiased as a story can get. We can really get a look at the family which leads back to the reader asking more questions and the idea of suspense.

In the Compson family, I believe Benjy plays the role of stability. In the first chapter we see different time periods in Benjy's life and constantly people are leaving or bad things are happening. The family is very dramatic and unsure of themselves it seems like. They constantly do selfish things and Benjy watches from afar. I think Benjy's characteristics bring out the true colors of the Compson family. He is a silent observer so the actions of his daily or reactions to Benjy are natural and show their true colors. I think Benjy's constant need for consistency shows that the Compson family is very unstable. Things are constantly changing, people dying, people leaving, selfish motives, etc,. Benjy remembers the past when Caddy was there for him and he wasn't alone and compares it to now where he basically has no one but an african to watch over him. I think Benjy represents the truth in this novel and he represents reality. His character is able to sense the decline of his family and it shows by his nostalgic return to fonder moments and then the present at which everyone is disappearing or having problems. I think this is saying that the South is filled with a lot of drama and sometimes the people there lose sight of what is really important. Faulkner shows that those who are underestimated may just have reality in tact while others have lost the importance of relationships despite them being able to communicate. Faulkner uses Benjy as a strong symbol of stability and truth in The Sound and Fury.