The Sound and the Fury is a compelling story that shows different aspects of a family that is slowly deteriorating. William Faulkner made it clear that one of the most important aspects of this novel is the theme of loss. Faulkner gave the views of four different individuals who all had one main obsession, their sister Caddy, who in a way symbolizes the loss that each person endures and the deterioration of the south. Caddy, who did not have a part in the novel to tell her side of the story, was viewed very differently by each of her brothers. This novel tells a story of the Compson family on their way of distinction.
The story begin with Benjamin who is mentally challenge tells the first section of the story; this is one of the most difficult chapters of the book that is very difficult to comprehend for the simple fact that Benjamin has no motion of time. Therefore he constantly goes back in forth with the present and past. In order to fully understand the chapter, you must slowly comprehend when he is speaking of the past and when he is speaking in the present. All his memories have to do with Caddy. She was the one who gave him order. His life was based around Caddy because she was the mother figure in his life. She was the one that gave Benjamin the love he needed. There was a point in the novel were Luster was taking Benjamin and he started to cry hysterically because Luster took him on an unfamiliar route; Jason found out he hit Luster and told him to never do that again or he’ll kill him because Benjamin lost the order he lived with. Without the familiarity of his surroundings there would not be any meaning to his life. The only thing he has left in his life is the memories he had with his sister. When Caddy ran away Benjamin lost the order in his life and the loved he needed.
The second chapter was told by Quentin, which was much easier to comprehend than the first chapter and he tells his perspective of events that happened in his past that he hasn’t quite gotten over. Quentin had a close bond with his sister Caddy. Quentin cares about the old southern code of honor.
Throughout Faulkner’s “Barn Burning” the reader acknowledges that the protagonist Sarty exhibits an intuitive sense of
In the 1930s, America’s Great Plains experienced a disastrous drought causing thousands of people to migrate west. As their land was devastated by the Dust Bowl, deprived farmers were left with few options but to leave. The Grapes of Wrath depicts the journey of the Joads, an Oklahoma based family which decides to move to California in search of better conditions. Coming together as thirteen people at the start, the Joads will undertake what represents both a challenge and their only hope. Among them are only four women embodying every ages: the Grandma, the Mother and her two daughters, the pregnant Rose of Sharon and the young Ruthie. Appearing in Chapter Eight the mother, who is referred to as “Ma”, holds a decisive role in Steinbeck’s novel. She is, along with her son Tom (the main character of the book), present from the early stage of the story until its very end. We will attempt to trace back her emotional journey (I) as well as to analyze its universal aspects and to deliver an overall impression on the book (II).
William Faulkner is widely considered to be one of the great American authors of the twentieth century. Although his greatest works are identified with a particular region and time (Mississippi in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries), the themes he explores are universal. He was also an extremely accomplished writer in a technical sense. Novels such as The Sound and the Fury and Absalom, Absalom! Feature bold experimentation with shifts in time and narrative. Several of his short stories are favorites of anthologists, including "A Rose for Emily." This strange story of love, obsession, and death is a favorite among both readers and critics. The narrator, speaking for the town of Jefferson in Faulkner 's fictional Yoknapatawpha
...ation, she is his ultimate view of womanhood. He creates this woman who he builds up to perfection, only to bring her back down. By placing Caddy Compson as the anchor character of the book, Faulkner gives a voice to his own feelings about women.
Ren’s story begins in St. Anthony’s Orphanage where he has no biological family. Ren is surrounded with the other young boys where he views Brom and Itchy as “his only friends” (Tinti 8). Ren’s one dream living at the orphanage is to one day be adopted and have a family. He knows that his chances are limited because of his lack of an arm. Once Benjamin comes into the orphanage and chooses Ren, he is surprised that he will finally have the family he’s been dreaming about. As Ren and Benjamin travel to a destination unknown by Ren, Benjamin paints a picture of Ren’s past. He tells him about their mother and father and how “they were murdered” (48). Ren believes that Benjamin is his brother and because his dream has come true it makes him vulnerable and willing to do whatever Benjamin wants him to do. Ren ends up helping Tom and Benjamin take dead, “fresh”, bodies from a cemetery to Doctor Milton “at night, to the door that leads to the basement” in exchange for money (134). After this scene, Ren’s morals begin to vary significantly from where he began. Tom, Benjamin, and other people he comes in contact with affect the way he views life and how he judges others. Ren becomes a different person because of his environment and his expectations in life change, making him an unhappy boy in the end. Hannah Tinti gives an analogy at the end of the novel comparing Ren’s search for a family to a game
Have you ever read short stories by ray bradbury? In this essay i will be taking you through the similarities and differences i found while i was reading the three stories. I will also be discussing the characters and how they helped to give a better picture of the settings. Shall we begin.
The old saying “The South never dies” appears to be all but accurate in William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. Each member of the Compson Family is practically a contrary of old southern ideals and beliefs. Caddy’s promiscuity, Benjy’s mental disability, Jason’s vulgar attitude towards his family, Quentin’s crooked obsession with Caddy, Ms. Quentin’s rebellious attitude due to her own upbringing, and Mrs. Compson’s ability to see her children as punishments from God; they all diverge from an idyllic well-ordered Southern family. Mr. Compson was the only member who managed to held on to his Southern Morality for the most part, only straying from the norm after the death of his son, Quentin. Each character in their own way depicts how old Southern ideals of gentility have begun and continue to dissolve.
Every time the family comes to a confrontation someone retreats to the past and reflects on life as it was back then, not dealing with life as it is for them today. Tom, assuming the macho role of the man of the house, babies and shelters Laura from the outside world. His mother reminds him that he is to feel a responsibility for his sister. He carries this burden throughout the play. His mother knows if it were not for his sisters needs he would have been long gone. Laura must pickup on some of this, she is so sensitive she must sense Toms feeling of being trapped. Tom dreams of going away to learn of the world, Laura is aware of this and she is frightened of what may become of them if he were to leave.
Chapter 2 starts out in the bunkhouse. Lennie and George just got new jobs and they were just told were they would be staying while they work there. In this chapter we were introduced to Curley’s wife, most of the workers here did not like his wife. Then, when George and Lenny were introduced to Curly he looked like he could start a fight with Lennie, because Lennie is big guy and Curly isn't he feels he needs to prove himself. After, George promised Lennie a puppy since one of the workers had a litter of puppies. Following, the workers suggested that they get the swamper a puppy since his dog is so old he can barely walk. Finally, in chapter 2 Lennie asks George to talk about how their future life will be like, this is because it gives
Sheetz 1 Sarah Sheetz Ms. Rosenberger English 4 October 17, 2016 Faulkner’s Self Help Book In “Barn Burning,” Faulkner illustrates a boy’s coming to age story, including his struggle in choosing whether to stand by in the midst of his father’s destructive cycle of spiteful burning or stand up for his own belief in civic duty. While most readers do not relate to having a father that habitually burns others’ belongings in a strange power scheme, readers relate to the struggle between blood ties and their own values. Taking the theme even broader, readers relate to any struggle with making a decision. Through imagery, reoccurring motifs, and diction, Faulkner creates an intense pressure which enhances readers understanding of Sarty, his struggle,
William Faulkner takes us back in time with his Gothic short story known as, “A Rose for Emily.” Almost every sentence gives a new piece of evidence to lead the reader to the overall theme of death, isolation, and trying to maintain traditions. The reader can conclude the theme through William Faulkner’s use of literary devices such as his choice of characters, the setting, the diction, the tone, and the plot line.
William Faulkner uses multiple narrators throughout The Sound and the Fury to depict the life of Caddy Compson without telling the story from her point-of-view. Benjy, a mentally disabled 33 year old, Quentin, a troubled and suicidal Harvard student, and Jason, a racist and greedy man, each give their drastically different sides of Caddy’s story to create an incomplete chronicle of her life. Faulkner’s first chapter explores Caddy’s life through the silent narrator Benjy. As a result of Benjy’s inability to talk, much of how he describes the world is through his heightened sensory awareness. Benjy constantly repeats the fact that, which, to Benjy, symbolizes Caddy’s innocence (Faulkner 6). Later in the novel when, Benjy realizes that Caddy has lost the innocence Benjy once idolized and loved (Faulkner 40).
Margaret Mitchell’s epic tale is impossible to dissolve down to a “brief” description. Her story is the War and Peace of Southern Literature. It is a tale of extremes and contrasts, telling the tragic story of peaceful affluence destroyed by the ravages of war and the destitution and desolation of its aftermath. It is a love story that examines the motivations of the heart contrasted against the will to survive. It is a story of the destruction of an aristocratic society and its disintegration from nobility, honor and hope to humility, disgrace and despair. It is a historical novel and graphic retelling of the Civil War and the Reconstruction of the South as well as a journal of the human side of those events as it recounts the characters struggles to adapt as their lives and their world crumbles. Gone with the Wind is a literary classic that gives the reader a compelling history wrapped in a thrilling romance. Mitchell recreates an idyllic Antebellum Society complete with simpering Southern Belles and Noble Gentlemen, grand plantations and vast fields of cotton, privileged white land-owners contrasted against the poverty of captive black slaves. She details a horrific reenactment of the bloody clash between the Southern Rebels and the Northern Yankees, then like the Phoenix, she raises the South from its own ashes to a new, but very different way of life. Somehow in this rich and vibrant historical tale she manages to bring her equally rich and vibrant character’s lives along the same metaphorical path of affluence, destruction and survival in a mesmerizing account that is the stuff of legend.
Vickery, Olga W. The Novels of William Faulkner A Critical Interpretation. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959
“The Sound and the Fury” is a novel full of literary devices used to portray the crazy lives of the Compson family. Symbolism is used heavily throughout, and helps to explain what goes through each character’s mind as they trudge through many life experiences. The two symbols that stuck out the most would have to be the clock symbolizing time, and Dilsey symbolizing Jesus.