Dilsey the Sweetheart: April 8th,1928

Here goes my farewell piece! Bear with me as this might be lengthy.

Faulker ends with a third person voice, though the chapter emphasizes Dilsey, one of the Compson's most loyal servants. Dilsey is one of, if not the only, sane and mentally strong human running around on the Compson property. The last chapter is lucid and comprehensible, something significantly different than the other three chapters. Within the fourth chapter, character traits are solidified. Mrs. Compson is seen having just as little independence as before. My favorite example of this is when Mrs. Compson becomes angry with Dilsey due to the "poor" placement of Mrs. Compson's bible by Dilsey. Mrs. Compson replies "Do you want me to have to get out of bed to pick it up?" because God forbid she move, or fill her own water bottle, or take care of her children. Jason is just as greedy and horrible as he was before, but now we have more against him. He still continues to dwell on the bitterness he feels due to his lack of the stable banking job he was promised. When Quentin is discovered missing (the true end to the Compson name), I mistakenly, and unwisely, assumed Jason was going to seek and find Quentin, but really Jason just wanted the money Quentin stole.

This fourth chapter, though not nearly as eventful or complicated as the first three, was a pleasant conclusion of the demise of the Compson family. This is exemplified in the sermon given to the Dilsey's congregation. The pastor preaches on the death of Jesus Christ. This brings Dilsey to tears as she repeatedly mumbles "Ise seed de first en de last" referencing her lengthy stay with the Compson family, from the earliest times to the present, or the death of their family. Although the pastor does mention the crucifixion of Jesus, he also focuses on the resurrection. This symbolizes the new future that awaits the South.

To conclude, I believe Faulker chose the order of the chapters to go from confusing to almost perfectly comprehensible in order to allow readers to unravel a story on their own. With Benjy, we received unbiased facts, but had a hard time following the time line. And with every chapter beyond that, we added onto the already existing facts we held in our memory. I think that Faulker also chose the order to be Benjy, Quentin, and Jason because each is obsessed with Caddy in a different way, and in a lesser way as the book progresses. Benjy is reliant upon Caddy due to his own mental ineptness, but also due to the fact that she is the only one genuinely close to him. Quentin is not necessarily obsessed with Caddy as much as he is obsessed with the idea of her sexual innocence. Jason is not obsessed with Caddy in any way, but is instead bitter and obsessed with her choices, and how they ultimately affected him. This type of narration supplies us with increasing insight into the death of the Compson family name as we kept reading, which provided an incentive as the pages turned.

And now the tough part. What is the meaning of this novel? What does it signify? This book contains a million little messages, from the silly concept of virginity to our obsession with time, but one of the most important messages is the farewell of old values, and the acceptance of modern values. In the end, the Compson family is just a symbol of the South clutching onto old values, and refusing to yield to any type of change. The attitude of do or die is clearly doomed, as the Compson family name abruptly halts. Although the Southern values are obsolete, the Compson family clings to them, and their fate is somewhat unfortunate. Faulker is pleading readers to accept change. Our world will always be changing, and rejecting change only further damages ourselves.

Jason, You Rascal: April 6th 1928

Alllllright Faulker, you got me good on this one. Jason's chapter begins with lucid writing, clear sentence structure, no traces of Quentin like lack of punctuation, or Benjy like time shifting, everything you could ask for, right? Well unfortunately Faulker made the clearest narrator the most arrogant. I have never felt this strongly about a character. If I ever saw Jason on the street I would sock him. Let's dwell on a couple Jason quotes.

• A cute line that Jason begins and ends the chapter with, "Once a bitch always a bitch." 
• "Just like a woman. Six days late. Yet they try to make men believe that they're capable of conducting a business." The most ironic thing about this quote is that he is referring to Caddy sending the Quentin's check late, that is the check that he is stealing from his own niece and using to put in stock. To top off his incredible lack of honesty and large amount of deceitfulness, he then decides to degrade women by claiming they are unfit for a working environment. 
• Referring to Jewish people, "It's just the race. You'll admit they produce nothing." 
• "If you can't think of any other way to surprise them, give them a bust in the jaw." Jason is referring to Lorraine, his favorite prostitute, and, in general, how to deal with women. The way he nonchalantly suggests physical hurting women is vulgar.
• Although not a quote, Jason frequently refers to Benjy as "it." Example: "I'll quit work and nurse it myself.." Just fyi Jason, never refer to a person, let alone your little brother, as "it."
• "Like I say the only place for them is in the field, where they'd have to work from sunup to sun down. Let one stay around white people for awhile and he's not worth killing." Clearly Jason is racist and is not even slightly polite about his feelings for "inferior" races.

By now we have concluded that Jason is sexist, racist, demeaning, repulsive, and every other bad characteristic you can throw into the production of a character. The worst part about Jason's character is his influence on other people, specifically his mom Caroline. Caroline thinks Jason was sent down from the heavens, and she is always thanking her lucky stars for such a wonderful child. She claims Jason is the only one who isn't a "reproach" to her. Should we show her the quotes above? At one point when Jason says something rude to her, she even claims she "deserves it."

To enlighten you on the other attractive and appealing aspects of Jason, I will focus on three parts of his chapter. To begin, Jason tells Caddy she would be "better off dead" after tricking Caddy into paying money in order to see her own daughter. Jason, of course, drives by quickly and gives Caddy only a slight glance of Quentin, a cruel and evil move which only further explains to readers the atrociousness of Jason. Next, the part of the chapter when Jason not only refuses, but burns, tickets to a local show that Luster begs for is when I decided I genuinely hated Jason, despite the fact he is merely a character in a book. Lastly, Jason's immaturity and child like actions are evident when he refuses to eat his supper until Quentin and Caroline come downstairs and accompany him. In disregard to Dilsey's hard work in preparing his supper, he refuses to acknowledge supper is ready until he has the company of his niece and mother.

Ok, well sorry readers (reader?) if this blog post was more of a rant than a summary but my hatred for Jason did not simply end upon setting the book down. On a positive note, only one more chapter left ! woooo

Quentin's Eerie Goodbye: June 2, 1910

As I plow through the second chapter of Fury, I would like to hope I am beginning to see eye to eye with the mystery that Faulker was. Although my interpretation may be incorrect, I feel strongly that Faulker gave a voice to the "inferior" through his writings, especially in this second chapter. Though the first chapter, from a mentally handicapped point of view, does unbiasedly introduce readers to characters and events, I believe Faulker is giving a voice to those who are unable to put their thoughts onto paper, hence Benjy. This is seen repetitively, whether it be in Quentin's interactions with foreigners such as the little Italian girl, or the Compson's interactions with their African American slaves. Most importantly in the second chapter, Faulker gives a voice to the mentally ill. This copious empowerment and unique point of view readers receive from these unusual characters is unparalleled in frequent, popular literature.

At times, Quentin's chapter was almost as difficult to understand as Benjy's chapter was. The mental state of Quentin is clearly shaky, and his mental health is degenerating. By the second to last page, Quentin is rambling with no punctuation, with little sentence structure, and quick frankly, with no sense. Although his sentences are difficult to decipher, the overall message is clear. Quentin's obsession with Caddy and his inability to remain mentally sane are what the page long rants symbolize.

Benjy's interactions with time seem to be endless, whether he is setting down a watch, asking for the time, or watching the hands on a clock. This seems to be the polar opposite of Benjy, who is oblivious to how time functions. Although Quentin is more mentally present than Benjy, he is unable to escape this never ending notion of time. Quentin unfortunately feels as though the only escape from time and order that he cannot control is through suicide.

Quentin's obsession with Caddy, and specifically Caddy's virginity, is evident in this chapter. On multiple occasions, Quentin expresses to Caddy the idea of telling people that Quentin is the father of her child. This is another way Quentin is attempting to save the family name, and hold the family together as he watches them disintegrate. Quentin is disappointed upon speaking with his father, who  clearly has differing views on Caddy's loss of pureness. Jason, the father, states, in a new age quote, "men invented virginity, not women," and believes virginity is "just words." This nonchalant idea of virginity is completely horrifying to Quentin as he remains true to his Southern ideals and values.

Benjy's Day: April 7, 1928

Having completed my first chapter of Faulkner's "Fury", I have earned a deep breath and a minute of relaxation, and by relaxation, I mean blogging. Faulker is not by any means an effortless author to read. I found myself captivated by each word, each flashback, each cry. Benjamin, nicknamed Benjy, is the character from whom the first chapter is perceived. Benjy, who is mentally handicapped, is thirty three years old or "three years old for thirty years". His inability to be independent is apparent by the plethora of housekeepers, servants, and nannies that Faulker introduces as characters. Benjy is exceptionally sensitive to touch, smell, and noise, which is noted by his continual line "Caddy smelled like trees." This dependence on his senses is in contrast to his incapacity to decipher time. Benjy is attached to Caddy, his sister, who is the only family member who is patient and affectionate with him. Through Benjy we understand a transformation that is occurring in Caddy as she becomes increasingly promiscuous and smells less and less like trees. Benjy is no more than a nuisance, or a constant annoyance, to Caroline, his mother, and Jason, his father. His mother is ultimately useless in the upbringing of Benjy, as she is neurotic and, as the nannies claim, doesn't even raise her own children. Benjy's nannies could be seen as treating Benjy as though he is not completely human, though Disley, Benjy's only somewhat stable figure, is an exception. Overall, Benjy punctuates the flaws of the Compton family, and their gradual degradation as a family unit. This decline is marked by notions of an affair, a suicide of an adolescent, a loss of pureness, and the deaths of many. Benjy's strong need for consistency, and constant nostalgia for the past can be analyzed as a symbol for both the family, as well as the South's, yearning for the past. With times rapidly changing in the West, the South is seen as clinging onto their history, and refusing to reform. This unwillingness to accept any change is clearly not healthy, as evident in the case of the Compton's, whose refusal to embrace change has led to chaos, at least through Benjy's eyes.

voyage through fury

hi fellow bloggers! here goes my first attempt at an educated blog. no i will not disclose personal details about my dramatic and riveting high school life, much to your dismay, but i will hope to enlighten you on something clearly more fascinating, my journey through the treacherous sound of the fury. as i began my research on this mysterious and complex novel, i encountered interesting information about Faulkner, the masterpiece's author. faulkner was ideally romantic in his literature choices, reading poetry and writing prose for his college newspaper. though a man involved with poetry is indeed sentimental, he was lacking a college degree after dropping out of his studies from ole miss. this did not seem to halt his future successes considering he was able to earn two Pulitzer prizes and one noble prize for his writings. an intriguing aspect of faulker's life is his sudden move to europe, where he lived along side other aspiring, young writers. this decision to leave america for the antiquated europe is seemingly parallel to the lost generation, which includes a group of intellectuals (ernest hemingway, f scott fitzgerald) that was disenchanted by american materialism and lived a bohemian life of drinking (a hobby of faulkner's), writing, and growing their hair long. this lifestyle faulkner lived in europe was only a short stint though, considering he spent the majority of time either in mississippi or virginia writing voraciously. like many current, successful writers, such as J.K. Rowling, faulkner was initially rejected by publishing companies. faulkner often referred to the sound of the fury as one of his most agonizing pieces and stated that sound of the fury was a book written in pure despair due to the countless times he was declined. overall, faulkner's journey towards sheer success is compelling, and the grueling book that became the love child of his relationship with failure is one that will be just as difficult to read as it was for him to publish. cheers to you faulker!