Veggies for the Mind

I’ve been thinking a lot about Faulkner’s fondness for playing around with different points of view. What I think of it is this: I like it. Sure, it wasn’t really easy getting through The Sound and the Fury, but I feel, now that I have finished reading the blasted thing, that I am richer for the experience. Take that, whiny high school students…reading is actually a good thing for you, like veggies for your mind. So here is what I’ve been thinking about with regards to Faulkner’s way of telling the same story several times: I like it. My minor is Psychology, so I like to understand, even empathize, with people, fictional or no. I think that we better understand each other if we can see for ourselves the thought patterns behind a person’s, or in the context of this class, a character’s actions. This is why I am not fond of writing or reading works that are written in the third person, whether limited or omniscient. There’s always that sort of Fourth Wall between the reader and the characters. So maybe you get the story in a relatively quick and efficient way, and maybe you get some expositional information along the way, but there’s not a lot on paper to bring you into the story completely. At least that’s how I feel. This is not to say that all works should be written in a Faulknerian style (I don’t know if that’s a real thingor something I just made up, but I like it), because if everyone wrote like Big Willie (as I’m calling him in my head right now), I think all reading would die out really quickly, save for 140 character tweets or what have you. I just think that this is a form of storytelling that should not fade out of existence. I don’t think it will, but I just want to make sure that my opinion on the subject is noted by anyone and everyone who reads this. So…..on that note, I will bid you good day so that I can go start on a new book by Big Willie Faulkner…It’s As I Lay Dying…pray for me.

A Comparison: Jason and Quentin Compson

I decided to write an essay comparing Jason and Quentin Compson.
I began with the theme of a crisis of authority that both brothers, and really all of the Compson
children, share. This creates a warped way of thinking for Jason and Quentin, thus my thesis sentence:

 "So both Quentin and Jason grew up like vines wrapping themselves twistedly around the wrong things, clinging to the wrong ideas, and yet never realizing that it is neither healthy nor stemmed from the crisis of authority the elder Compson’s create for their children." 

I separated my essay into seven different paragraphs, including introduction and conclusion.

The first two are Quentin and Jason's sole focus in life. The next two are their relationships and effects of such from their father and mother. The last two, excluding the conclusion, are based on their relationships and obsessions with Candace Compson.

I just really wanted to focus on the differences and similarities between the two older brothers, such as Quentin's confused chivalry and Jason's focused cynicism. They are fairly different in a lot of ways, but they share the same foundation that lacked authority thus creating children who cannot seem to free themselves from the fall and demise of the Compson name. 



 

Jason

I chose to do my character analysis over Jason's character. There are multiple instances where Jason is recalled in Benjy's stream consciousness. Also in Jason's section there is a clearer view on Jason's character. I'm going to include a random paragraph from my paper.

Jason’s section is the clearest view the reader gets of Jason’s character.  After his father died Jason has become the “man of the house”.  Although he is in charge his mother always undermines him, even when trying to discipline Quentin.  Jason tells his mother, “if you want me to control her, just say so and keep your hands off.  Every time I try to, you come butting in and then she gives both of us the laugh” (Faulkner 181).  Because Caroline Compson doesn’t fully let Jason be the head of the house, Jason’s esteem is being lowered because he doesn’t feel like a man.  Although Jason may be in denial about this, I think it affects his character immensely.  This goes back to when Caddy tried to make him “mind” her, now Jason is trying to get Quentin to mind him but she won’t; even as an adult Jason has no control over his household and is still in a power struggle.  Another characteristic of Jason is that he cares about his “position” in town and what people will think about him.  This plays another role in his denial, although he acts confident on the outside, I believe he is very insecure.  Jason is a misogynist and distrusts every woman.  He gets angry that Caddy’s check arrives six days late, and “yet [women] try to make men believe that they’re capable of conducting a business” (Faulkner 190).  Another example of his misogynistic behavior is when Jason recalls Lorraine, the prostitute he visits, and believes to, “never promise a woman anything nor let her know what I’m going to give her. That’s the only way to manage them.  Always keep them guessing.  If you can’t think of any other way to surprise them, give them a bust in the jaw” (Faulkner 193).   Jason is the complete opposite of southern gentlemen, with no respect for any woman.

Backwards Essay

It was interesting while writing my essay for this class, which focuses on the topic of Religion and the Episcopalian hymnal's influence prevalent in Quentin's section of The Sound and the Fury, that all the hymn references Faulkner makes occur on the very first pages of Quentin's section. In my essay I began discussing the hymn verses which Quentin relates to Caddy and the original reason of his shame. This is John Keble’s poem “The voice that breathed o’er Eden,” set to music which discusses the pure bond between a man and woman joined in matrimony and is commonly sung at weddings. I go on to relate it to Genesis 3:8 in the bible of Adam and Eve hiding in shame. Both this hymnal allusion and bible reference, however, happen to be the very last religious allusions Quentin makes if you are going in succession. The next religious reference that I spoke of was the one only paragraphs before that in which Quentin briefly reflects upon Christ and his crucifixion. I relate this latter quote to the direct reference made (again) only paragraphs before where Quentin is recalling his father speaking cynically of St. Francis's "The Canticle of Brother Sun." Here I said that Quentin reflects on sister death as his only other available option. All of these references occur in succession to each other, however, the way that I ended up presenting them in my essay were backwards. At first I was irate thinking that I would have to restructure the entire essay when I went back to put in page numbers to the direct quotes. After some reflection and laughing at myself, however, I realized how indirectly Modernist of me to structure an essay in a backwards manner as if for a tribute to Faulkner. I had connected the dots in my mind to points I wanted to make in my essay using the quotes unknowingly putting them in order backwards, which in the end kind of made sense when related to the backwards novel I was writing the paper about.

Help Wanted!

Okay so I'm sticking with my idea about comparing and contrasting Benjy to Frankenstein's monster. I have a list of similarities and differences but I need help putting them in some sort of order.
Same:

• Both are considered/labeled "monsters" or something that is not a social norm and therefore scares society. 
• Both lose their "creator." monster obviously loses Dr. Frankenstein and Benjy loses Caddy who he sees as a mother/creator figure (as seen by the parallelism Faulkner makes between the scene where Benjy is pawing at Caddy and Jason is pawing at his mother).
• Both try to make sense of the world the best way that they can, but can't without help. The monster sort of figures out the human race by the end, but still can't survive in it by himself. Benjy never really makes sense of the world (both of these points could  possibly represent the attitude of society at the time period 
• There is a simple solution to help these two characters but other people don't see it. (For Frankenstein the solution is that the doctor can either kill his creation or love it, and for The Sound and the Fury the family can send Benjy away to an asylum)
• Both novels are Gothic
• Society doesn't give these characters a chance to prove their worth; they only expect negative things from them
• At some point both characters made inarticulate noises as a means of communicating
• While Frankenstein's monster learns how to "act" human and somewhat make sense of the world he knows he will never fit in with it. Benjy never does fit in  (pg 320 when Jason hits Benjy, who represents the old way of trying to find structure within your own little world and not deviate from the path, Jason essentially slaps society in the face trying to wake them up to the reality that the way they have been living doesn't work.)

Differences:

• Frankenstein's monster was created through science, while Benjy, according to his mother, was created the way he is through religious purposes; God was punishing his mother for her sins

Is it accurate to say that Faulkner might have been influenced by Frankenstein and that both authors are trying to tell society that the way of life they have been living is wrong? Does it sound like I have somewhat of an idea of what I'm talking about?

Also, on a side note, could the relationship between Caddy and Benjy be a little bit like Oedipus Rex? We are all in agreement that he sees Caddy as a mother figure now if we also agree about Benjy doing something sexual with her then it would be somewhat of an Oedipus  complex and then at the end Faulkner throws in the whole "it was horror; shock; agony eyeless, tongueless..." I mean both stories ended with this image. This is just a thought.

Intro. to Paper- Inevitability of Time

Time is not a material object; it is not something that can be touched, played with, or reversed. Time is a measurement, a measurement of advancement or declination. The inevitability of time is something unavoidable, something that eventually leads to death or resentment or even destruction. William Faulkner expresses the inevitability of time in The Sound and the Fury, through memory and setting, which ultimately leads to the decline of the Compson family, and in turn also symbolizes the decline of the aristocratic south.

Random paragraph

I chose to do my paper on how Faulkner uses the stream of consciousness method to portray his characters. It was a new method for me to read. I think it would be interesting to try and write a story using stream of consciousness if one had the time. I decided to publish a random paragraph from my paper. This paragraph comes  after I talk about Benjy's and how I think the method of stream of consciousness works for his section. Here are some of my thoughts about the always elusive but beloved Caddy:

 

The only problem is Caddy is the only person Benjy feels attachment too. For a person of Benjy’s limited intelligence, he becomes attached to the point of obsession. Almost everything in Benjy’s section of the book revolves around Caddy or a memory of her. When Caddy marries and leaves the house, he becomes extremely upset and cries at every mention of her name. One of Benjy’s memories with Caddy includes Jason, the youngest brother cutting up the dolls Benjy and Caddy had made together (Faulkner, 65). This becomes ironic later in life when Jason is the prime suspect in leaving open the gate so Benjy can get out and follow some school girls that remind him of Caddy. Jason, as Benjy’s power of attorney, agrees to Benjy’s castration, though it isn’t clear that Benjy did anything wrong but to follow the school girls. -Esther Millette

On Jason

At first, I wanted to try to connect Jason's attitude towards everything with much of the resentment certain groups still feel today. However, as I started trying to draw parallels, my paper became convoluted and even rambling. As a result, I simply wrote about how Jason's rejection of certain characters embodied a rejection past, present, and future and how that is the source of his cynicism.

I choose his apathy of Quentin's suicide and the bitterness he harbored against his father as a way for Jason to reject the antebellum South. He rejects the present by scorning blacks, Jews, Earl, and shorting the cotton market. Finally, I point to his abusive relationship with his niece Quentin as a means to portray his feelings towards the future.

Despite the fact that there is no shortage of evidence within Jason's section to prove my points, I still find it a little difficult to write this essay with some conviction. Perhaps the biggest reason is Jason is incredibly one dimensional; making it difficult to point to any one point or another with any real certainty. Best anyone can infer is Jason simply hates life, attaching reasons to it seems arbitrary as many of them are merely Jason's own deflections of his short-comings.  For example, he scorns blacks for being lazy, but he can't even change a tire without their help.

Perhaps another problem is Jason is not a relatable character; easy to understand, sure, but--unless you are a prison psychologist--he doesn't resemble any person we normally come into contact. As a result, presumptions being made about him seem to ring hollow, despite their accuracy.At times, the topic feels too broad, then later too narrow. I do enjoy a challenge, and this paper is no exception; however, at times during the process I feel like I've bit off a bit more than I can chew.

Ideas

I started off wanting to draw parallels in the incestuous relationships of the Compson family… but after working through my thoughts a little bit more, I think I want to focus on Benjy and Jason.

Even though Benjy’s experiences of the world are more or less bodily, I feel that he has a better grasp on making sense of the world than Jason does. Jason is lost in his denial of who he is—one who can’t think separate from himself; one who can’t put himself in the shoes of others. Jason is often verbally abusive to his niece (and with sexual undertones). Jason has no real love that he shares with a significant other (unless money is the significant other); Benjy has pure love (perhaps a sexual desire) for Caddy. Caddy makes sense of the world for Benjy, and he heavily relies on her to make sense of the things he feels physically. While he does so independently from other people, Jason can only make sense of the world through money; everything is filtered through his money hungry eyes. Benjy has Caddy-hungry eyes.

I feel like I’m really close—but what I’m trying to find and point out about Benjy and Jason keeps running away.

I’m still not completely sure how I’m going to draw these two into a compare and contrast… but I’ll figure it out after working on it a lot more.  And I'll update this if I change my mind or something, or if I decide to just stick with Benjy's relationship with Caddy/the other relationships among the Compson family.