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.