After reading this chapter, or section, or monologue, I began to feel a lot of sympathy for Benjy. As he goes about his life, the members of his actual family are extremely procuppied with their own lives and he is left to their servant. The servant, Luster, beats or whips Benjy whenever his memories cause him to cry or whimper. Overall, this chapter is extremely hard to understand. The text refers to Quentin and Caddy and the Jason and the Father, everything happens quickly and the directions seems unclear. Although understanding this chapter proves quite difficult, it serves a clear purpose.
The structure of this section and the simple language with its choppy rythm reveals the way Benjy would actually think. The text is realistic for a person who is mentally disabled, and that makes it difficult to read and understand. Faulkner began his novel with Benjy's monologue purposefully, but at this point what his purpose was remains unclear. The quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth refers to a story, "told by an idiot, full of sound and fury", so a clear link exists here. The entire Compson family along with the servants, Uncle Maury and Mrs. Patterson especially all refer to Benjy as "an idiot".
In addition, sensations and objects trigger Benjy to remember specific scenes from his past that appear in the text as the sections in italics. Each thought moves and jumps incoherently from one to the next, though to Benjy all of this would make sense. Long strings of dialogue exist without signifying the speaker, yet the shifts are still relatively clear. Benjy loves his sister Caddy, Candance, and after reading about his life and the lack of control he has over his thoughts and emotions, I feel for Benjy.
It was difficult at first to get through this section, but with the help of the guide, I slowly began to grasp all the twisted plotlines and time schemes.
I was fascinated by Benji's perception of sleep - he is unable to distinguish between the conscious and unconscious. It is also interesting that when he is falling or tumbling down a hill, he feels as if the hill is falling. At Candy's wedding, when he is drunk, he attempts to stand on a box, but falls and hits his head on it. However, he perceives the situation differently: he thinks that the box has moved from under him and hit him on the head.
Another thing that was very intriguing was that Benjy often seems to get his senses confused. He sees sounds and hears smells. Everything for him is just a sensory blur. Last year in French Lit, we studied the poet Baudelaire, who used a literary device called "correspondance," which basically mashed together sound and smell and sight, very similar to the way Benjy does.
I'm glad that we dove into this section with an in-class 'brace yourself' lesson first. I tried to throw my clock out the window, throw my rational thinking out the window, and see through Benjy's eyes.
I thought that it was interesting that Benjy cries frequently, but never makes a connection between his emotions and his surroundings. His moaning and crying can seem random to the reader. He also continually slips into memories through sensory triggers. Whether he is aware that these are memories, or caught in a perpetual time warp, is up for grabs.
Although I loved Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Hard Times, etc., I think that this is a breath of fresh air from our typical reading. As haphazard as it seemed, I enjoyed the choppy diction and use of dialogue unfold scenes.
Benjy is really interesting as a narrator in the novel. Faulkner's diction is very representative of who Benjy is and really conveys the simplistic way in which Benjy views the world. This is an extremely cool part of the book that can be difficult to understand, especially at the beginning of the novel but does lend a lot of reality to the situations that the characters encounter early in the story. Faulkner conveys this section from the point of view of Benjy so well that as a reader you cannot completely understand what is going on immediately, which is a problem that Benjy faces when other characters talk to him.
I don't like how the other characters are really selfish and mean to Benjy. Luster is physically abuse of Benjy which is horrible. They call Benjy an idiot which to me seems like a terrible thing to say but may have been slightly less insulting during the time period this section of the novel was set. What really comes through in Benjy's interactions is just how much he loves his sister Caddy which undoubtedly an important aspect of the novel.
I agree with Alicia about having a brief overview of "the sound and the fury" before we started we reading. In general, I understood Benjy's memories, but at times, I was thrown off by certain episodes. It wasn't the content but the juxtaposition of one memory to another random one. On whole, it wasn't too bad.
What I found interesting about Benjy is that he's a mentally retarded character who can't express himself. Unlike Lenny in "Of Mice and Men", Benjy is a "dumb", in the sense that he's a mute. Altough Lenny just talks about farms and rabbits, Benjy is only crying and keeping silent. Because of this, he can't defend himself when everyone starts abusing him, physically, verbally and emotionally. I liked how Faulkner used simple diction and poor grammar to convey Benjy's point of view; the lack of proper punctuation keyed into the idea that Benjy is narrating a simple stream of conscious, which I found interesting and different.
One facet of Benjy that I couldn't get my head around is that he's castrated. Maybe I read to fast, but I didn't catch that scene. The only reference that I got to his castration is at the end of section one, when he cries when he's undressing and Luster says that he can't cry over something that's gone. The point is is: which memory is the scene where Benjy is castrated?
This was rough! I was sort of confused...a lot! I know we were told to throw the clock out the window. However, it was really hard to do. I really don't think I ever did. I was trying to figure out when everything was going on and did not have much luck. I just couldn't get rid of time. It was annoying. I had to start thinking like Benjy, which was really hard but it kind of helped because he can't understand the concept of time, which causes all the confusion. I felt like I was Benjy the entire time...well he was the narrator after all...but I really got in his head. I felt sorry for him because everyone is mean to him except Caddy, who he really depends upon. She is his only source of affection. At times, Benjy was aware of surroundings, especially when he can tell something is wrong. He is really aware of the decline of the family.
I hated how Benjy was used a messenger between Mrs. Patterson and Uncle Maury.
6 comments:
After reading this chapter, or section, or monologue, I began to feel a lot of sympathy for Benjy. As he goes about his life, the members of his actual family are extremely procuppied with their own lives and he is left to their servant. The servant, Luster, beats or whips Benjy whenever his memories cause him to cry or whimper. Overall, this chapter is extremely hard to understand. The text refers to Quentin and Caddy and the Jason and the Father, everything happens quickly and the directions seems unclear. Although understanding this chapter proves quite difficult, it serves a clear purpose.
The structure of this section and the simple language with its choppy rythm reveals the way Benjy would actually think. The text is realistic for a person who is mentally disabled, and that makes it difficult to read and understand. Faulkner began his novel with Benjy's monologue purposefully, but at this point what his purpose was remains unclear. The quote from Shakespeare's Macbeth refers to a story, "told by an idiot, full of sound and fury", so a clear link exists here. The entire Compson family along with the servants, Uncle Maury and Mrs. Patterson especially all refer to Benjy as "an idiot".
In addition, sensations and objects trigger Benjy to remember specific scenes from his past that appear in the text as the sections in italics. Each thought moves and jumps incoherently from one to the next, though to Benjy all of this would make sense. Long strings of dialogue exist without signifying the speaker, yet the shifts are still relatively clear. Benjy loves his sister Caddy, Candance, and after reading about his life and the lack of control he has over his thoughts and emotions, I feel for Benjy.
It was difficult at first to get through this section, but with the help of the guide, I slowly began to grasp all the twisted plotlines and time schemes.
I was fascinated by Benji's perception of sleep - he is unable to distinguish between the conscious and unconscious. It is also interesting that when he is falling or tumbling down a hill, he feels as if the hill is falling. At Candy's wedding, when he is drunk, he attempts to stand on a box, but falls and hits his head on it. However, he perceives the situation differently: he thinks that the box has moved from under him and hit him on the head.
Another thing that was very intriguing was that Benjy often seems to get his senses confused. He sees sounds and hears smells. Everything for him is just a sensory blur. Last year in French Lit, we studied the poet Baudelaire, who used a literary device called "correspondance," which basically mashed together sound and smell and sight, very similar to the way Benjy does.
I'm glad that we dove into this section with an in-class 'brace yourself' lesson first. I tried to throw my clock out the window, throw my rational thinking out the window, and see through Benjy's eyes.
I thought that it was interesting that Benjy cries frequently, but never makes a connection between his emotions and his surroundings. His moaning and crying can seem random to the reader. He also continually slips into memories through sensory triggers. Whether he is aware that these are memories, or caught in a perpetual time warp, is up for grabs.
Although I loved Jane Eyre, Wide Sargasso Sea, Hard Times, etc., I think that this is a breath of fresh air from our typical reading. As haphazard as it seemed, I enjoyed the choppy diction and use of dialogue unfold scenes.
Benjy is really interesting as a narrator in the novel. Faulkner's diction is very representative of who Benjy is and really conveys the simplistic way in which Benjy views the world. This is an extremely cool part of the book that can be difficult to understand, especially at the beginning of the novel but does lend a lot of reality to the situations that the characters encounter early in the story. Faulkner conveys this section from the point of view of Benjy so well that as a reader you cannot completely understand what is going on immediately, which is a problem that Benjy faces when other characters talk to him.
I don't like how the other characters are really selfish and mean to Benjy. Luster is physically abuse of Benjy which is horrible. They call Benjy an idiot which to me seems like a terrible thing to say but may have been slightly less insulting during the time period this section of the novel was set. What really comes through in Benjy's interactions is just how much he loves his sister Caddy which undoubtedly an important aspect of the novel.
I agree with Alicia about having a brief overview of "the sound and the fury" before we started we reading. In general, I understood Benjy's memories, but at times, I was thrown off by certain episodes. It wasn't the content but the juxtaposition of one memory to another random one. On whole, it wasn't too bad.
What I found interesting about Benjy is that he's a mentally retarded character who can't express himself. Unlike Lenny in "Of Mice and Men", Benjy is a "dumb", in the sense that he's a mute. Altough Lenny just talks about farms and rabbits, Benjy is only crying and keeping silent. Because of this, he can't defend himself when everyone starts abusing him, physically, verbally and emotionally. I liked how Faulkner used simple diction and poor grammar to convey Benjy's point of view; the lack of proper punctuation keyed into the idea that Benjy is narrating a simple stream of conscious, which I found interesting and different.
One facet of Benjy that I couldn't get my head around is that he's castrated. Maybe I read to fast, but I didn't catch that scene. The only reference that I got to his castration is at the end of section one, when he cries when he's undressing and Luster says that he can't cry over something that's gone. The point is is: which memory is the scene where Benjy is castrated?
This was rough! I was sort of confused...a lot! I know we were told to throw the clock out the window. However, it was really hard to do. I really don't think I ever did. I was trying to figure out when everything was going on and did not have much luck. I just couldn't get rid of time. It was annoying.
I had to start thinking like Benjy, which was really hard but it kind of helped because he can't understand the concept of time, which causes all the confusion. I felt like I was Benjy the entire time...well he was the narrator after all...but I really got in his head. I felt sorry for him because everyone is mean to him except Caddy, who he really depends upon. She is his only source of affection.
At times, Benjy was aware of surroundings, especially when he can tell something is wrong. He is really aware of the decline of the family.
I hated how Benjy was used a messenger between Mrs. Patterson and Uncle Maury.
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