The Sound and the Fury Analysis

Benjy has the mind of a three-year-old kid while in a real sense he is thirty-three years of age. In this book, he out brings and shows mental retardation through his family impact, development, language development and cognitive. Benjy’s sections set the tone for the entire book. This novel is highly experimental and highly complex it deals with the impossibility of ideal communication (William, 135). The author Faulkner decided to open the story with a character who is disabled and cannot communicate well and articulate his speech. For example, he only understands and comprehends Caddy’s name any time he hears the name called out or pronounced (Noel, 87). This is what assists Benjy to come up with judgments and discriminates against people’s actions even though Benjy has no idea what caused him to react so.

For example, he identifies when Caddy is promiscuous because of her smell which does not resemble perfume but that of a tree. Benjy demonstrates the prelinguistic stage of people with mental retardation. Benjy is unable to communicate with other people and is unable to articulate words because of his premature in language development. Benjy is never aware of the time, and the period he lives. The concept of time is unknown and strange in his life. Benjy illustrates happiness in this story. He is always a happy champ reason being his inability to communicate his opinion and views of changes in matters. Benjy leaves things to stay the way they are, and this tends to seem to be his source of happiness (Collins & Carvel, 119). From the look, the pain is more than beyond words meaning words are not enough to explain the depth of Benjy’s pain.

Also, Benjy can foresee how some members of his family will be as grown-ups. Benjy does this by paying attention and observing specific details when they used to play together as children. The author also places Benjy in the position where he is the one aware of the family secrets and this done intentionally. Exposing all types of thing to Benjy who is mentally disable made sense. Benjy also can store memories of events in his mind. Even though Benjy does not have excellent communication, he is mentally disabled, and does not understand the concept of time; he still can narrate three incidents. These events are the most important in Benjy’s life because even with his disability he has not lost track of these events. These events are Caddy’s wedding, his name change, and the death of his grandmother Muddy (Faulkner, 125).

The present events taking place around him are what triggers his memory. Benjy was initially named Maury by his parents. However, at the age of five years, his mother decided to change his name after his mental disability was confirmed. Benjy’s mother; Caroline Compson did this because Benjy was sharing a name with the brother Maury. She feared the embarrassment of her other son in public and socially by having Benjy as a namesake. It was caused and brought by Benjy’s state of mind. Finally, the result is a mother who has brought disgrace and disintegration into her own family by failing to perform her duties as a mother. Also, Mrs. Caroline Compson; Benjy’s mother begins to develop psychological problems. She is the one affected first by her son’s disability she is the mother.

The bonding between small kids and their mothers is always healthy, so Benjy being confirmed mentally disabled at the age of five shocked her (Faulkner, 176). However, the mother was not ill she just pretended to avoid spending time with Benjy. Caddy always tries to accommodate the needs of her brother. She talks to Benjy as a concerned mother. For instance, she always tells him to place his hands in the pocket when it is cold. She teaches and explains random things to Benjy. It hit by the shock that His son Benjy was not mentally stable. He tried to play his role and perform his duties as a father towards Benjy, but he still expressed and encountered stress. He also had and felt this burden; however, hard he tried to shake off this feeling.

He employed someone who would ensure that Benjy received excellent care and well treated ( William, 166). Fortunately, he found an excellent nanny who took good care and treated Benjy as her son. She lives wholly in the present time since she is aware that no one can change the course of events but God alone. Quentin, who is the oldest child in the Compson family, born in 1891 seems to have faced trouble since childhood. He stressed by the burden of being the firstborn in a dysfunctional family. Although he is intelligent, Quentin is very sensitive that is why even small things might look they always occupy and take his attention (William 67). His brother Benjy also contributes to this. It implies that if any part had come first, these themes and subjects would have lost their power and would not be well brought out.

Also in this section, Benjy can recall and present the scenes happening in 1898 with the freshness and vividness of the events have just taken place. Therefore, this makes the section present the earliest view chronologically in the novel. The first scene begins with Caddy climbing a tree with her brother Benjy waiting for her down since he did not have the ability and courage to climb. This scene illustrates the fearlessness of Caddy and Benjy’s ability to sense deviations. However, this assists the author to acquire a more powerful emotional impact in his novel. It enlightens the reader and makes them aware of some things through the scenes. Later in the section, there is a sudden and overwhelming awareness of what was taking place in the part of Benjy. Therefore, this impact could have lost it intensity if not illustrated in the first section of the novel.

Benjy’s character determines the flow and structure of the story. Therefore, that is the reason Faulkner has stated down the year the events in the sections occurred since as per Benjy he is not aware. Benjy’s affected the events in such he led Faulkner the author to talk and discuss racism. Their house nanny Dilsey was perfect and took great care of Benjy this led to her appearance in the scenes. She had lived with them, for a very long period and Dilsey was already used to the Compson’s (Emerson, 6). The author’s relationship to racism can be complicated, and at times even contradictory. So for Benjy to speak there factors and things that must be applied and this affects the events of the story since to have Benjy speak and understand the importance of things and people is not an Easy task.

Conclusion There are several things which are always stable for Benjy. When Benjy has them or stares at them, he acquires some understanding, and Benjy can remain calm. It would be challenging for some actions to take place when he is upset since Benjy would be very unstable. For example, when he sees fire, he feels comfortable and can look through some beautiful things. The events are scattered all over the novel. Benjy makes the story more confusing. This paper still proves how Benjy’s role affect the events of the story. In summation, The sound and the Fury is an excellent novel that discusses more the Compson family. The story has four main parts narrated by the three sons of Compson followed by an omniscient narrator. Collins, Carvel Emerson.  The interior monologues of The Sound and the Fury.

No. Dept. of Humanities, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1954.  The Southern Review 8. Faulkner, William.  The sound and the fury. Random House Digital, Inc. Feldman, Noel. On the sound and the fury: Time in the work of Faulkner.  The Sound and the Fury (1994): 265-71. Sartre, Jean-Paul. Time in Faulkner: The sound and the Fury.  William Faulkner: three decades of criticism (1960): 225-232.