Another Post about TSATF

I don’t know what else to say about ‘The Sound and the Fury’… It was a very peculiar and sad book. One thing that struck me was at the end of our discussion, we talked about the influence of the title. Taken from Macbeth and one of the monologues… I do feel like it was alot of idiots making sounds over nothing. The entire story just seemed to be a family making nonsense over their every day life… I’m sure if anybody had their history written as controversally as this novel it would’ve been just as big a hit as ‘The Sound and the Fury.’ The exception is that it was written, and it chronicles the life of one family. Nothing extremely out of the ordinary happens, in America alot of families have to deal with the same issues that the Compson family had to deal with.

It is said that the Compson’s were put in these circumstances, but it wasn’t anything new that I haven’t read about before. Maybe because it was perhaps something that was new in the era that it was written, that it gained such a gathering. It is a good story, in a normal perspective. It was very much like an episode of Jerry Springer… and that’s sad, aint it?

Another.

    Once a bitch always a bitch (You get the idea that he had problems with women before.), what I say. I says you’re lucky if her playing out of school is all that worries you (Insinuations? What does Jason know that others dont?). I says she ought to be down there in that kitchen right now (Chauvinism), , instead of up there in her room, gobbing paint on her face (disrespectful.) and waiting for six niggers (Shows that he thinks that she wants to be waited on hand on foot) that cant even stand up out of a chair unless they’ve got a pan full of bread and meat to balance them (racism, sounds like an old racist joke.), to fix breakfast for her.

I get a sense of jealousy out of this from Jason. When other people are jealous, they tend to talk down about people and their endeavours (such as her gobbing paint on her face.) He talks alot of garbage about other people, yet can’t take a joke himself. He’s very envious of everybody, which is a fault for him. He’s always trying to better himself, but always looking down on others in the process.

 

 

  Through the fence (possibly the sense of entrapment? looking through the hour glass?), between the curling flower spaces (benjy has an attention for detail even though he’s an ‘idiot’) , I could see them hitting. They were coming toward where the flag was and I went along the fence (others were playing, while benjy only got to watch. sounds like a jail scene.). Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower tree. They took the flag out, and they were hitting. Then they put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit. Then they went on, and I went along the fence. (repetitive notion) Luster came away from the flower tree and we went through the fence and they stopped and we stopped and I looked through the fence while Luster was hunting in the grass (what was Luster hunting for? shows a sense of aggression. also more repetition).

 

What i get from this passage is that Benjy, even though mentally retarded, has a real attention for detail that other characters in the story seem to lack. He’s more innocent, even though he is ‘trapped’ by the Compson curse, and into a really twisted ordeal.

 

Benjy watches, while others act on their will. Also the repetitive notion seems to show what really imprints into what Benjy sees, and what the reader should be focusing on. Although, Benjy isn’t a reliable narrative, he could be paying attention to what Caddy smells like while she’s having sex. Odd.

 

 

Passage from ‘The Sound and the Fury’

Page 152, one of the pages discussed in class

‘I held the point of the knight at her throat

it wont take but a second just a second then i can do mine i can do min then

all right can you do yours by yourself

yes the blades long enough benys in bed by now

yes…’

and the next couple of pages, it really intrigued me how much more deep this argument is. Read in context, you know what’s going on… but out of context and read outloud, it sounds much more sensual. Alot of this family wanton love goes around, even from Benjy’s chapter. Caddy must know how her brother’s feel about her, right?

I learned from this passage that there is something going on that is very taboo in the Compson family. It hasn’t reared it’s head yet, but evidence is pointing towards some explicit acting. What an odd little book.