April Seventh, 1928 (Benjy's Chapter)

      The first chapter of The Sound and the Fury was a difficult chapter for me to understand with a first read through due to the shifts between the present and the past, and especially the jumping around of stories in the past. I think Faulkner starts his novel in this disorientating way because he wants the reader to get a sense and be familiar with the setting of the environment, situation, and background of the Compton family. But instead of telling about what happened during years of the Compton children’s lives, Faulkner expresses the situation by using the memories Benjy recalls through his associations with the present and by what he observes through his senses, especially smell. This technique creates a more emotional and personal atmosphere than compared to a chronological account that tells about these significant events, which tend to detached the reader from the emotions of the family. It emphasizes that feelings and contents matter more than the accuracy of when things took place and other frivolous details. Faulkner also uses Benjy’s story first as a way for the reader to dive into the complex story that is to be unraveled. Since his account is told with little emotion and biased opinions from himself, the reader is able to have an honest and factual information about the Compton family and their attitudes and beliefs from an emotional perspective due to technique Faulkner uses.

      Benjy’s account is told on April seventh, just a couple days before Easter, on his 33rd birthday. Through his account, it is revealed that he is a burden to the Compton family. As a result, he suffers greatly from the treatment of his family (minus his sister, Caddie) , the servant boys, and other people. In addition to that, Benjy also suffers from the loss of his name and dignity, and his of his sister. However, through it all, he still remains innocent. These facts and incidents create a strong parallel to Jesus, who was an innocent and pure man that also suffered. The correlation between the date of the narration and the age of Benjy to the date of Jesus’ crucifixion and his age signify that Benjy is the Christ-like figure in the book. 

Benjy’s presence in the story illustrates the old Southern Aristocracy family view on social matters and the decline of his family in this modern age. The scene in which the family changed Benjy’s original name, Maury, to its current one when they found out that he was mentally handicapped to prevent the name of the mother’s brother to be soiled illustrates the family’s shame about Benjy. They care too much about their outward appearance and keeping a high family status, that they will outcast a family member because of their disability. Benjy also shows the decline of the family as they grow to be poor. By the time he is 33, the family had to sell a great portion of their estate to become a golf course for a company. Many other negative events have occurred throughout the years, such as the death of family members and the absence of Caddie, and this makes Benjy nostalgic for the past where Caddie was present and not many changes occurred.  The development over the years shows a lack of unity in the family. As well reflecting the South as a whole as they try to hold up the old prestigious image of an Aristocratic family, but fall to hardship in the modern age. 

Faulkner

I found William Faulkner life to be fascinating. It was amazing all the things he did and accomplished in his relatively short life. From a guy who dropped out of high school and never earned a college degree, he was able complete twenty novels, numerous short stories, and several screen plays for Hollywood movies, as well as earning numerous awards for his literary success, including the Nobel Prize. Despite all his accomplishments, he remained a humble person claiming that he is a “failed poet”. His personal belief is that a writer “must never be satisfied with what he does” because his work is “never is as good as it can be done.” Faulkner never once recognized himself as a major literary person. He was shy about claiming his Nobel award and could never gain enough courage to speak with James Joyce when he had the chance. He even states that “The artist is of no importance. Only what he creates is important, since there is nothing new to be said.” His views on his work are extraordinary compared to other artists and their work. He, in a way, does not take ownership of what he has written and instead writes and gives it to the public.

Another thing I admire about Faulkner was his tenacity in life. Whenever something did not go well for him, he rebounded easily and did something to make it happen. He has even said himself “All of us have failed to match our dream of perfection. I rate us on the basis of our splendid failure to do the impossible.” He accepts failures and use it fuel his determination. For example, he wanted to fly planes and so he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force only to be denied because of his height. Instead of stopping after that point, he continued to pursue his dream and applied to join the Royal Air Force in Canada. In order to raise his chances of being accepted, Faulkner lied about his birthdate and birthplace and changed his last named spelled Falkner to Faulkner in order to make it seem British. In his meeting with the RAF, he affected a British accent to complete the façade. He went through a lot of trouble and risks to achieve his dream. This trait even showed up in his writing. When several publisher denied to publish one of his books early in his career as a writer, Faulkner kept persisting until he found someone who would publish it. After that failure, he kept on pursuing  writing and strictly wrote for pleasure, where  he created one of his best works, The Sound and the Fury, which he called his “most splendid failure.”

The last thing I thought was unique about Faulkner was that he was outspoken and chance the risks of what he did. When he wrote Sanctuary, he wrote it purely to make money off of it which he stated in the introduction. He also took risks in his writing. He would write about controversial topic, such as with Sanctuary which was about rape. He criticized Ernest Hemingway saying he is never brave enough to take risks in his writing and therefore he was “next to last”. He even voiced his opinions about segregation, which was not popular among the people who were anti segregation or pro segregation. These actions made him seem genuine and a down to earth person. It made most anything else he said seem true and from the heart, such as with his Nobel Prize speech about how man will prevail with the foundation of writers who write about the universal truths. Faulkner was a remarkable man who was true to himself and thus the world.