Final Chapter & Revelation

It's over. Not only the novel, but also the Compson family. In this final chapter, we see, through third-person narration, almost everything at once. It's like a revelation, or it feels like the reader is this omnipresent being that can now witness everything as whole and not from only one character's tainted point of view. I think Faulkner wrote the novel like this because he wanted to set the tone by beginning the story from Benjy's perspective, and making his readers favor one character over the other right off the bat. Typically, authors write a story in a way that makes the reader decide who they like and who they don't. With The Sound and the Fury, it seems that Faulkner is trying to persuade his audience to choose one over the other, and the obvious best choices if that.


We see throughout every chapter, Caddy is mentioned once or twice. However, each brother has a different view of their sister. To Benjy, Caddy is like a safe haven and he is comforted by little things that remind him of her, like her scent. Quentin is constantly remembering Caddy for her "sluttiness", which is something he is obsessed with. And Jason thinks of Caddy as the person who ruined his job opportunities due to her divorce from Herbert Head. With that being said, the novel seems to be about Caddy, told from four different perspectives. This brings us back to the Macbeth quote: "(life) is a tale told by an idiot, signifying nothing." The novel is about Caddy herself, yet we aren't blessed with a chapter narrated by her. Her life story is told to us the readers by three other idiots, her brothers. But the "signifying nothing" aspect of the quotation still ponders me. Caddy's life is insignificant? However, that can't be true because she has unintentionally affected so many people's lives. That has to be significant. Perhaps this is Faulkner's way of defying that quotation by saying life doesn't signify nothing, life is always important, and with four different narrators, three with different interpretations of the subject of the novel, it doesn't signify nothing. More than one "tale-teller" represents a stronger influence than simply nothing.

Jason's Chapter

In the third chapter, it's obvious that Jason is the narrator and that he's also a jerk (I could use some other more descriptive words, but I'll leave it at that); the first sentence of his chapter already consists of two insulting names to describe his own niece, which hinted to me that this guy doesn't genuinely care about his family, which is a parallel to Mrs. Compson, who actually sees Jason as "...the only one of them that isn't a reproach" (to her), (page 181).


One thing we notice in this chapter is yet another reference to Caddy and her marriage, or I guess divorce now. All of the siblings, Benjy, Quentin, and Jason, each think back to Caddy, but specifically her wedding. They all have different memories from the event, Jason's mainly focusing on the divorce aspect because due to the split, Jason lost his job opportunities with Caddy's (ex)husband. Because of this, Jason seems like an angry man who blames other people for his problems, which is what Faulkner was trying to say by bringing up Jason's interpretation of the divorce itself.


I think the most ironic thing about this chapter was Mrs. Compson's undying love for Jason and not for her other children, although, in my opinion, Jason is the worst child. He's a bitter human being, to say the least, and his mother can't see that. Granted, her vision is deteriorating, somehow she had to have seen Jason for the person he really is. I think this can all be described by "blind love", where Mrs. Compson loved Jason so much, that she didn't even notice his mischievous ways.


In all, we see that Jason is a smart man, considering that he came up with a clever money-stealing scheme. But it's clear to see that Jason doesn't put his brilliance to good use because the hatred in his life seems to linger, but only because he doesn't look on the bright side of things. However, he has no one to really impress because his mother thinks he's a god-sent perfect human being. Nevertheless, we all see the kind of person Jason really is, and personally, I've never hated a character so much in my life.

Quentin's Chapter

I think Quentin's chapter is much more difficult to understand because immediately the reader becomes lost as to why Quentin is doing the things he is. For me, I felt like a detective in a crime scene type of tv show who has to identify the problem that is causing the individual to carry out such odd things, like buying tailor's weights, for what seems to be no apparent reason yet. Quentin's chapter is perplexing because it seems like a bunch on staggered thoughts, which is Faulkner's "stream-of-consciousness" technique; however, this writing style suggests to the reader that Quentin's mental state isn't completely stable, which is later confirmed when we discover that he plans to commit suicide.


Unlike Benjy's version of confusing, Quentin not only has thoughts from the past that interrupt his current narration, but also visions of desire, where he talks about Caddy and his strange incestuous relationship with her. This puzzled me, and probably other readers, because it was difficult to distinguish what really happened between those two, and what was simply a daydream.


So far, it's clear that both Benjy and Quentin both felt very strongly about Caddy. However, Benjy seemed to mostly see her as a type of safe haven, while Quentin seems to be chronically disgusted with her actions. Quentin's constant rewinding back to any situation with Caddy and her virginity, or rather, lack there of, hints to some kind of obsession. Even his father concludes that his struggle with Caddy's sexual ways comes from his reputation as a virgin. To his father, virginity isn't a real thing, only something made up, which seems to deeply offend him. Quentin then proclaims that he too has slept with Caddy, which is bewildering because either he really did, wished he did, did it to protect his sister's reputation, or only said it to obtain Mr. Compson's approval.


After reading the chapter, a lot of questions arose. If Quentin claims to be pure and wouldn't dare stain his reputation as an honorable man, why does he resort to suicide? Is it because he is also searching for acceptance, which he struggles so hard to find, even within his own family? Also, what is the situation between him and his sister Caddy? Throughout the chapter, he constantly asks other men if they have a sister, or questions to himself if someone, like St. Francis, for example, had a sister. This is a prominent theme throughout his narration. Another theme is time. Although Quentin's thoughts are jumbled from past, present, and fantasies, it seems that he is always followed by time, due to the constant debuts of clocks and ticking. All of these motifs confirm Quentin's rocky mentality and answer only a few of the mind-boggling questions, nevertheless, there's still something lost in translation.

Benjy's Chapter

I think William Faulkner begins his novel The Sound and the Fury with Benjy Compson as the narrator because it reveals the true nature of all the characters. The narrative is quite disoriented, and it's difficult to distinguish the present from the past; however, this is how the reader is introduced to Benjy's mind. Benjy is extremely handicap, with obviously no concept of time. His narration allows the reader to get a glimpse of what is really going on in his mind. Also, it lets the reader see the real personalities of all the characters before they have a chance to introduce themselves in their own chapters. This hints to the reader that Benjy's interpretation of situations throughout the novel is the most accurate because he is the most observant and the most innocent, having nothing to hide, which again proves that he says it how it is.

In the Compson household, Benjy seems to be emotionally neglected by almost everyone except Caddy. For example, Benjy's original name was Maury, after Uncle Maury. However, after the family found out that Maury had a mental retardation, they changed his name to Benjy. This seems odd, since by this time, he was already 6 or 7 years old. It didn't matter to the family because leaving his name as Maury would be a dishonor to the family, especially Uncle Maury. In general, Benjy seems to be a burden on the family; Luster even claims that if Caroline Compson, his mother, were to die, his father would send him off to the insane asylum.

In this chapter, the date is said to be the Saturday before Easter Sunday, and Benjy is 33, the age of Jesus when he was crucified. I haven't read on yet, but after learning this, I originally assumed it was foreshadowing for Benjy's death. But then I learned that really Benjy suffers everyday at the hands of the people he loves unconditionally, like Jesus did. Benjy hasn't done anything for people to dislike him, he was just born that way.

Benjy also seems to live a lot in the past, due to his countless sporadic memories. I think he recalls so much from the past because people tend to love the past when their present isn't as satisfying. In his past, Benjy had Caddy, who obviously loved him the most and made an effort to show it. Now, with her off and married, Benjy's present isn't as lively, and mostly dark from outside hatred. Also, the older he gets, the more judgmental people of the South seem to become because they expect more from a man, but little do they understand that he still hasn't matured as much mentally. When they see an adult man acting the way he does, they're more appalled. When Benjy acted the same way as a child, it wasn't as noticeable, so to say, because he was still a  kid. Adult men need to control their sexual impulses, as Mrs. Oles mentioned, and it's clear that Benjy isn't mature enough to do so yet. However, he is still a 33 year old man, so what he does now can be seen differently from what he was doing as a child, although the actions are the same, despite age. Adults are held to a different standard than children, and that goes for every society, not just that found in the South during that time.

In the novel, Benjy Compson is the most innocent character, which says that his narration is the most true because he sees everything through "unfiltered" eyes--he doesn't choose what to see or ignore, he sees it all. He is also persecuted daily for who he is, although he didn't choose his lifestyle. But this doesn't affect how he feels about others, because due to his innocence, it seems that he still loves everyone unconditionally. This behavior closely resembles Jesus, who Benjy could easily represent in the novel. This God-like character symbolizes innocence in Faulkner's narrative.

William Faulkner bio

William Faulkner was a man full of new ideas. His fourth novel, The Sound and the Fury, was highly acclaimed and mainly recognized for it’s unconventional use of punctuation and sentence structure. This was all completely experimental in Faulkner’s time, making him a literary genius. 

Many people claim that William Faulkner’s work is difficult to read and comprehend, but only because, in The Sound and the Fury for example, he uses a variety of different time periods and a “stream-of-consciousness technique” that can be seen as confusing for the average reader.

Faulkner was born into an extremely accomplished family, one of the well-known relatives being  his grandfather,  William Clark Falkner, who was a highly proficient best-selling author as well. It’s safe to say that natural literary talent ran through Faulkner’s blood because he exhibited artistic gifts at a very young age. Although it was almost assumed that he would take up a writing job immediately, Faulkner instead “accepted an invitation to become a cadet in training in the Royal Air Force in Canada”.

The life as a pilot wasn’t one for him, however, that doesn’t mean he didn’t accomplish heroic things in his lifetime.He took up his second love, writing, and he won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1949. Although he was awarded this prestigious award for his work, he didn’t take full credit for the prize; he mostly credited his work itself, saying that his piece “...was not made to me as a man, but to my work”. Originally, the listeners of this acceptance speech didn’t understand this phrase the first time it left his mouth, due to his strong Southern accent and the placement of the microphone. It wasn’t until the next day when his entire speech was printed in the newspapers that everyone was able to fully understand and commend Faulkner.

These events made William Faulkner a very public and well-recognized figure, which is ironic because he was an extremely private person. Nevertheless, it’s said that figures from his private past are prominent in his literature, like his famous grandfather, who inspired a character in his later novels. William Faulkner was a very talented writer, and his works are still topical today and taught in American Literature classes all across the country.