Summary:
Faulkner is one of the most unique writers in American history, which makes him good. Although his work may be nearly impossible to understand at points his literary devices and use of dialogue are extremely effective.
The Sound and the Fury
William Faulkner found himself, in many ways an architect as well as a writer. It was important to him that the reader find an underlying meaning in The Sound and the Fury and a complexity that would prove his own intellect. Many English teachers and professors dislike sparknotes and cliffnotes very much, but in the case of William Faulkner most are open to the opinions of any and everyone's ideas of his work.
Through the intricate organization and structure of his novels, in conjunction with other clues, many different ideas are derived from the same piece of writing. Others on the other hand (like myself) are very likely to get lost when reading the piece. This is why it is necessary in many cases to refer to the ideas of a more experienced reader when writing about The Sound and the Fury. It wasn't until I read sparknotes and the view of Maurice Bassan and Phillip D. Castille that I was able to fully grasp a theme and message of this book.
One of these themes that wasn't immediately obvious to me was the books connection to the resurrection of Jesus Christ. The book paralleled it in many different ways. For example, Phillip D. Castille believes that the four books of The sound and the Fury are counterparts to four Biblical gospels. The first three, which are Mathew, Mark and Luke are similar and show sadness and despair toward their leader, whereas the fourth book, John (Dilsey's section) Jesus is seen as a magical god. This last book is also supposedly written for the entire human race such as Dilsey's book, which is written in the view of an onlooker so as to not be the biased view of a character.
Castille may not agree with me in the sense that I believe Benjy to be the Christ figure in the book. Throughout the book innocent Benjy is surrounded by many of the worst sins in the Christian faith including greed, corruption and incest. But Benjy doesn't take part in any of these, he simply dreams of peace and happiness. While Castille hints toward a resurrection in the book which comes in the form of Reverend Shegog's sermon I still maintain that Benjy is intended to represent Jesus Christ because in today's society the modern world rejects its Lord similar to how Benjy is rejected in the book. It is in the final scene of the novel that leads me to think Benjy is symbolically rejected by society.2
Another view that I support much more directly is by Maurice Basson who believes that Faulkner uses characters to support the idea of three pillars and therefore three different types of people. Basson says, "The Sound and the Fury shows through it's characters the three main types of people; the ignorant conservative, the practical liberal and the lazy." I agree that the characters do show very clearly the three different types of persons, but don't agree that it is a Biblical reference. The main characters that support each type of person are Benjy, Luster and Jason.1
This is made clear once again in the infamous final scene. Benjy is clearly the ignorant conservative because of his need to stay in the past, however I disagree on the place of Jason and Luster. Basson believes Luster to be the lazy man because he wants to take the shortest path home, however, any practical man wouldn't want to waste unnecessary energy to go home so I see Luster as the practical liberal and Jason as the lazy man. I understand that he believes Jason to be the liberal for being controlled by the "movement of hours." I maintain that Jason is more lazy than practical because I look at the actions of the characters as the main motif whereas Basson looked at the main motif to bee time. While time is important to the structure of The Sound and the Fury I find the stream of conscious thought in the book too hard to overlook.1
Faulkner is one of the most unique writers in American history, which makes him good. Although his work may be nearly impossible to understand at points his literary devices and use of dialogue are extremely effective. He uses more symbolism than any writer I have ever read, but that is what makes him William Faulkner. The Sound and the Fury is a classic book and should be read by everyone even if they need to see someone else's thoughts to fully grasp what he is trying to say.
Bibliography
- Basson, Maurice. "Benjy at the Monument" http://www.usask.ca/english/faulkner/main/criticism/bassan.html
- Castille, Philip D. "Dilsey's Easter Conversion" http://faculty.millikin.edu/~moconner.hum.faculty.mu/e232/faulkner1.html
- Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury. New York, NY: Jill Faulkner Summers, 1984
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