Classics Without All the Class discussion
March 2014- Sound and the Fury
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Chapter 1 - Benji's Section
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Beth
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Feb 26, 2014 06:14PM
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How do you learn to find your way in Benjy's chapter? How many time periods are interspersed?
What are some of the events Benjy is remembering?
Why would Faulkner choose Benjy to introduce the reader to his story?
Benjy is stream of consciousness personified.
I think Faulkner chooses Benjy to introduce us to The Sound and the Fury because in his disjointed, time jumbled, stream of consciousness delivery, Benjy manages to introduce nearly every character and create a bulleted outline of the story that we are about to read. Faulkner sucks us in - we want to understand what on earth is going on - my brain was fried after the first section but I was intrigued, not annoyed. I wanted to continue - not quit. How can Quentin be a he and a she? Is his name Benjy or Maury or are they even the same person? Is Jason Benjy's father or his brother? Am I understanding this right; did they really castrate Benjy? I wanted to know all of these things and lots more. The section was like an elongated Introduction. I learned to find my way through the section by just going with it. At first I read and re-read, skipped the italics and then went back and read them and skipped the regular typeface - finally I realized I wasn't supposed to get it and I just read it through. When I finished the section I consulted some critical analysis and then re-read the whole section. It started to fall into place pretty quickly the second time through. In the end, I probably have to say it was my favorite section.
All those questions will be answered for you as you progress through the book. Faulkner is anything but black and white. Context clues are the key to piecing this puzzle together and there are a few places where the answer is not clearly stated and the reader has to make inferences/draw conclusions.
As I was reading through Benjy's chapter, I was mostly understanding what was happening in each section, but I had such a difficult time piecing a timeline together. So I would read quite a few sections, and then go to shmoop.com to look at how each section fit with all the others, and then mark them in my text. Then I went back and read them in chronological order just to really understand how everything happened.
Great strategy Crystal. I wouldn't want all books to be like this one in complexity but having to work to find meaning was interesting and more satisfying than I thought it would be.
I remember reading this in college and my prof saying that everything you need to know is in Benjy's section... but because of the way it's put together, you really have to dig to find it. We went through with highlighters in different colors to point out the different time periods in his section. Crazy stuff!
