Ceremony

I think this is supposed to be about political commentary, but I'm not positive. I also think the most interesting part of the section comes when Tayo finally finds Josiah's cattle on that white guy's ranch. Tayo is really surprised to find that a white man, Floyd Lee, is the one who stole the cattle. He actually and inherently believes that Native Americans are morally inferior to white people. This speaks volumes to how confused Native Americans are in general about their relationship with white people. In fact, it is the white man who is the real culprit, destroying Native American culture. Hopefully Tayo realizes that he has done nothing wrong and has actually been wronged himself. Yeah.

oh geez, I don't remember the topic...

For some reason, I can't seem to find the assigned blog topic in my notes, and I can't seem to find it in this blog either. So I'm just going to say some random stuff about this weekend's passage.

First off, the passage with Tayo confronting the mountain lion was interesting. The way that Tayo reaches out and talks to the lion without any fear shows that he has finally abandoned the white influences on him, as the whites would probably have just cowered in fear or shot the lion, as they attempt to do later. While earlier, science teachers and Christian priests told him how things were, this time, he follows his Native American traditions and communicates with nature. Later on, when the mountain lion saves him from being taken captive by the Texan mercenaries, I think it shows that nature has accepted Tayo.

However, I do not think Tayo hates the whites. Rather, I believe that he simply realizes their folly and sees that while some Indians fear and want to be like the whites, the whites are just deceived by those witches into following their destructive ways, just like the Indians were. Although I can't really explain why Tayo wants to kick the whites into the Atlantic Ocean without hating them :/

conflict

The thing that really stood out to me were the lines on page 232 -
"They have their stories about us- Indian people who are only marking time and waiting for the end. And they would end this story right here, with you fighting to your death alone in these hills."
I think that it really shows the conflict and the contrast in the beliefs and views of the Native Americans and of those of the Whites. The Whites kind of have their own view of the Native Americans and choose to use what they think of them as an overruling opinion for all. These stories of the Native American people, culture, and traditions are not something that end or are just simply forgotten, but to the Native Americans they are the values that last and transcend time, passed on from generation to generation.

The rainstorm and river are my brothers...

Oh Emma! I knew you'd make a Pocahontas reference! But in this case I absolutely agree with you. I also found the nature imagery in this section to be particularly beautiful - I loved the image of "blurred boundaries between the earth and the sky." (207) But something I was particularly struck by was Tayo's relationship with living things. Tayo sings to a Mountain Lion and cursers the hunters for trying to kill it. He brushes off snow laden trees with care, so the branches won't break. He seems to truly value every living thing, something I think is a very Native American ideal. As Tayo begins to come to terms with his identity, he begins to see that is the white men who are at fault, because they are the ones destroying the land he cares for so deeply. "He lay there and hated them. Not for what they wanted to do with him, but for what they did to the earth with their machines, and to the animals with their packs of guns and dogs and their guns."(203) In this section Tayo is able to distinguish his feelings towards whites as those of hatred.

Ceremony reminds me of "Colors of the Wind"

In last night's reading, there is an insane amount of nature imagery. When reading, I didn't feel like this was just Silko trying to beautify the writing. I instead feel like all the nature-details are through Tayo's eyes. He's the one who sees the snow and the grass and the deer and the mountains and the sky - their colors and smells and sounds. By following Tayo, all of our senses are truly tuned into nature. This is so representative of the Native American culture; unlike others, they notice, admire, love, and - most importantly - respect nature. The whites, on the other hand, see nature as something to own. It's territory to claim. It's land to take over. It's money. In this reading, much of Tayo's anger appears. The whites came in and stole land they never had and never will have rights to. They took something that isn't theirs to take. Tayo here shows that the white people don't understand the land and can't own it. But, then I wonder: is he also saying the Native Americans can't own the land? Does the land rightfully belong to the Native Americans (because they were there first) or does it belong to no one? The line that struck me as especially significant is found on page 221, "As far as he could see, in all directions, the world was alive." Perhaps what Silko is saying here is this: nature is something we should revere and take care of, but it's not something any group of people can claim and own.

(To those who don't get my title... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkV-of_eN2w)

Better late than never? Alice in Wonderland...

Anything I say at this point will most likely be very repetitive but I completely forgot about that topic post and it seems interesting. I don't know that much about Alice in Wonderland but she is basically this young girl who falls asleep and dreams up this fantastical yet super messed up world. I guess, in a way, Quentin is doing the same. He definitely views the world differently than anyone in the book, maybe even the world. They both have warped perceptions of reality and time. Also, in Alice in Wonderland, if i remember correctly, one of the motifs was clocks. There was that little guy who was running around always saying "I'm late I'm late for a very important date." I think I remember some character saying that, if not then that's a little awkward. I think they are both super confused with the worlds around them and do not understand what is going on.

Two pretty messed up stories...

I unfortunately do not really remember the story of Alice in Wonderland, but i tried to look up a few summaries and gave this blog my best shot...

I agree with the quote, however i think it could simply be rephrased as: "Quentin is Alice in Wonderland." Alice is just as distraught and confused as Quentin. The first tell-tale sign that there will be extreme parallels between the two characters is when Alice sees the rabbit (who she follows into that hole) looking at his watch. Both characters have some sort of obsession with time. They both enter this time warp--literally for Alice and figuratively for Quentin.
Also, they both are searching for their identities and feel to have lost their old life. Alice goes through this Wonderland (which i find just as haunted as Quentin's world) trying to find herself and how she used to be. Quentin is constantly yearning to find his identity, preferably as a gentleman of the Old South, in conjunction with restoring his family's identity.

These two stories seem to be essentially the same..just creepy in different ways with the odd characters in Alice's Wonderland most likely created by a writer on acid and the confusion/disturbingness (for lack of a real, better word) of Quentin's life and the people he encounters, written by a ridiculously intelligent drunk.

Quentin = Alice?

Alice's Adventure's in Wonderland is fantastical. It pushes past reality. It explores places others wouldn't dare to go. It's questioning logic and turning to imagination. It's getting lost in your mind. While - as others have pointed out - Quentin is curious like Alice, his character isn't as bright as hers. Alice's problems are a rabbit and an evil playing card. Quentin's are a slutty sister and a suicidal personality. Quentin is absolutely lost in his mind like Alice is. He sees things differently, like Alice's Adventures in Wonderland does. But. Quentin being lost in his own world is ultimately what causes his downfall; and that's rather haunting.

Quentin and Alice

Quentin and Alice are strikingly similar.

They both have their ideal worlds which they dream of - for Quentin, it's the Old South, and for Alice, it's the "world of nonsense" which she dreams about after listening to her sister read a boring book with no pictures. Both Quentin and Alice fail to achieve their ideals; Quentin realizes that the Old South and its values do not exist anymore, while Alice realizes that a world of nonsense is nothing like what she had imagined it to be.

Both Quentin and Alice are haunted by their own failures. Alice, having had enough of the ridiculousness of the world she's been thrown into, blames herself for having made a bad decision and not following her own advice. Quentin has an inferiority complex about his virginity, and feels guilty about his inability to save Caddy from bad reputation.

I was also thinking about the White Rabbit and his obsession with time and the watch. And then I remembered how the Mad Hatter and the Hare guy destroy the rabbit's watch, which makes him completely paranoid. So I thought that was similar to Quentin's experience with his watch, but I'm not sure if this parallel holds any significance...

Mad as a Hatter

I completely agree with what everyone is saying, but also, the fact that this land she ends up in after she falls into the rabbit hole is actually a dream, or an LSD trip, either or, parallels that idea of almost a suspension of time, but not really because the rest of the world is still moving forward. Alice is confronted with all of these crazy situations and because she is so Harvard-esque and pedantic, but simultaneously the epitome of innocent, she turns everything into her famous philosophical conversations that she has with herself. However, I can see more similarities between Quentin and the Mad Hatter. He is always having tea because the Queen of Arts accused him of "murdering the time." It's like when Quentin smashed the clock face, but it continued to tick. As a punishment for this "attempted murder," Time halts himself for the Hatter, keeping the Hatter and his bud at the same unbirthday tea party at the same exact time, forever. He is the one who is truly trapped having basically no perception of time at all. He ends up conforming and just accepting his fate to exist in a world where time doesn't exist, but it really does, but he just thinks it doesn't... if that makes sense. I do agree with everyone on the whole Alice and Quentin situational thing, I just think that character-wise, he is much more similar to the Mad Hatter. Unlike Alice, the Mad Hatter can't leave Wonderland because it's not his dream to wake from, it's Alice's. Quentin can't escape from the world he lives in either, because it's not his, the only way he can escape is if he just doesn't exist anymore.

Alice in Wonderland

There are very clear parallels between Quentin's experience at Harvard and at his home and Alice's experiences in Wonderland.

Clearly, both are confused and unsure of what to make of this new world before them. In Alice's case it is Wonderland, and for Quentin it's Harvard and the "new" South. Both characters also have relationships with strange characters. For Alice, she meets the overbearing and unreasonable Queen of Hearts (a good parallel to Mrs. Compson) and the ever-mysterious grinning cat (similar to Caddy).

Both Alice and Quentin eventually return to reality. Alice, by waking up and Quentin by constantly returning to his watch.

Quentin in bad wonderland

I think that the most apt comparison that can be made between Quentin and Alice in Wonderland is the nature of their surroundings. Alice's wonderland is a figment of her imagination which is really composed of moral fables and imagery, which is how Quentin sees the world, reading subtexts about purity and change into his daily life. However, Quentin's worldview is what drives him over the edge, as it is not a wonderland like Alice's but somewhat of his own quiet nightmare.Something else similar between Wonderland and the novel might be the sort of dreamy, detached way in which Quentin confronts his surroundings.

Alice and Quentin

In alice in wonderland, Alice is extremely confused with time. She is locked in her past and cannot deal with the present or future just like Quentin. Quentin often describes his conversations with his father about the meaningless aspect of not only life but of time. Time is a man made thing and as with Alice, Quentin seems locked with the past of the Old Southern ways. Thus he is unable to adapt to the present values in society. As with Alice he is caught up in the whirlwind of time. And seems predestined to end his life, it is inevitable.

alice in wonderland

I agree that Quentin is similar to Alice because he is completely confused by the world around him. His vision of the world is far from reality; the depiction of the South that he idolizes has not existed for decades. Quentin is obsessed with keeping order in his life and values abstract concepts such as honor and pride. In fact, right before he commits suicide, he brushes his teeth and straightens up his room. However, the world can never be as pure as Quentin would like it to be. The two people in his family who he respects the most--his father and Caddy--seem unconcerned with the downfall of the Compsons, which torments Quentin. Although he tries to see the world through his idealistic perspective, he is continuously reminded of his father's cynical comments, and he is forced to accept that the world is flawed. Unlike in Alice in Wonderland, Quentin isn't dreaming. The only way he can escape his nightmare is to kill himself.

Quentin/Boston, Alice/Wonderland

I must confess that I have never read/watched the original/complete "Alice in Wonderland," so my knowledge of the place is based on abridged stories and hearsay.

That said, Quentin, like Alice, is a displaced individual in a foreign land, in which his rules (Southern chivalry codes) do not apply. Besides the fact that it does not play by his rules, it is also quite surreal - there are meaningless arguments about fish, creepy Italian girls, and nonsensical police officers. While they are all portrayed in a real world setting, each encounter is strange and somewhat unnatural. Alice, I believe, escapes this odd alternate reality by killing its tyrant, the Queen of Hearts, while Quentin attempts and fails to defeat time, which I suppose could be the tyrant of reality.

Quentin in Harvardland

Is Quentin a distraught Alice in a haunted Wonderland?

There is no question that Quentin himself is distraught, or that nearly everything in the world haunts him. But the parallels between Quentin's and Alice's experiences run deeper than that. Alice literally tumbles into her Wonderland by chasing a white rabbit down a hole: she falls because of her desires and her proximity to the hole. Quentin's world is also a combination of personal and situational factors. He was unfortunate enough to have been born into the Compson family, which seems a recipe for disaster, and then worsens his situation by insisting on chasing after the elusive white rabbit of the Old South.

Like Alice's Wonderland, Quentin's life is dominated by inexplicable characters to whom he cannot relate. Mrs. Bland could be the Queen of Hearts, garrulous but darkly mean-spirited. Benjy could be the hookah-smoking caterpillar, distant and inscrutable. And, like Alice, Quentin is an utter victim of his circumstances. He doesn't try to change what will happen to him because he cannot understand why any of it is happening. Alice's Wonderland disappears when she wakes up; for Quentin, death is the only available exit.

Quote

Okay, so I have never read/seen Alice in Wonderland so I will base the following off what I have heard and what I know from the song "White Rabbit" by Jefferson Airplane (If you have never heard it, I highly recommend it). Quentin is a misfit in a world that he finds not only different, but scary. He is struggling with his identity just as she had when her adventure started. They are both in confusing lands in which they are uncomfortable. He meets and interacts with many characters along the way as she does, but neither one is really helped by any of them, and their outcomes are unaffected by many of the relationships formed. That is about all I can gather from what little I know about Alice in Wonderland.

I thought it would be interesting to look at imagery in Quentin's section and compare it with imagery from Alice in Wonderland (bear in mind I've never read the book and only seen the movie once when I was like 7). Alice's journey through wonderland was triggered by her pursuit of the white rabbit, and I think that white rabbit can be paralleled with Quentin's old south. This Old South ideology that Quentin teases himself with is far gone both culturally and personally for Quentin, and even though a big portion of his musings reflect a longing for the Old South, it is unattainable, much like the white rabbit Alice chases. Quentin had a big struggle with time, as evidenced by his destruction of the watch his father passed down to him and his obsession with the idea of time. I think the whole idea that time isn't real, and the style Faulkner uses to portray what goes through Quentin's mind really skews the perception in this chapter, and the seemingly distorted reality is similar in many ways to Wonderland where everything has a sort of grounding in reality but is clearly skewed and unreal and difficult to understand. One scene I remember from the movie is when Alice is falling down the rabbit hole, and forgive me if I don't remember this correctly, but I think as she falls she gets surrounded by images of the real world as they become images of Wonderland (am I mixing this up with the tornado scene from the Wizard of Oz?). Anyway, if that's right, then Quentin's migration from Mississippi to Massachussets is definitely reminiscent of this sort of fall from grace into a haunted wonderland - as the things he leaves behind begin to fall apart and he has to fend for himself in this altered reality. Oh, and I suppose that the creepy cat that follows Alice around is like voices of Quentin's father and mother which manifest themselves inside his head. And I'm not sure what to make of Quentin's obsession with Caddy, because that still freaks me out a little bit.

While Hannah makes a good point that it is this unattainable idea of the old south that makes Quentin the distraught alice, I would have to disagree with her that it is not his mind. I feel like the main issues that plague Quentin all come from his mind. This idea of the Old south is simply a manifestation of this past that Quentin longs for. Something that I noticed about Jason's passage is that it is written in present tense. This made me see a trend in both Benji's and Quentin's parts... they are both written in mostly past tense with constant flashbacks as neither has a future. Quentin's haunted wonderland is his obsession with the past, and his inability to escape it and to move into the future. He is so trapped in the past with these concepts of the old south, caddy's virginity... things that no longer exist, that he is unable to move forward and live a normal life.

Quote

Throughout his section, Quentin has trouble facing reality. Instead, he would rather dream about a perfect world or a wonderland. For him, this is the old south. While the thought of the old south comforts Quentin at first, it ulimately destroys him as he eventually realizes that he will never experience this world that he dreams about. He spends most of his time thinking about this ideal world but whenever he manages to face reality, he knows that the old south is gone. This truth is what makes his wonderland so haunting. Quentin cannot overcome this realization that there is no better place than where he is which leads to his suicide.

Quentin/Alice

Quentin is madder than the hatter himself i think that Quentin is similar to Alice because they are both curious people who follow around strange creatures for no apparent reason the queen of hearts is definitely his mother his mother is an over-bearing domineering bad person just like the Queen i think that his

White Rabbit

is the little girl Alice follows the rabbit and Quentin follows the girl also Quentin and Alices stories are each cop-outs with Quentin killing himself and Alices whole story just being a dream

a dream come on

while Quentins life has similarities to Alices i think that it is obvious that he is distraught over the worlds lack of innocence and values Quentins real wonderland would be theOld

Old South

quote

Quentin is a distraught Alice in a haunted wonderland.

I think that Quentin is trying to find himself and is trying to find his own identity, and is distraught because of that. He is distraught because he's trying to find himself while trying to save Caddy's reputation all at the same time. Quentin feels like an outcast because he is physically away from his family at Harvard and it is there I think that could also be considered his "haunted wonderland" because he commits suicide at Harvard. It is at Harvard where Quentin begins to fall apart rather quickly through his section.

Alice vs. Quentin

I completely agree with what everyone is saying, but also, the fact that this land she ends up in after she falls into the rabbit hole is actually a dream, or an LSD trip, either or, parallels that idea of almost a suspension of time, but not really because the rest of the world is still moving forward. Alice is confronted with all of these crazy situations and because she is so Harvard-esque and pedantic, but simultaneously the epitome of innocent, she turns everything into her famous philosophical conversations that she has with herself. However, I can see more similarities between Quentin and the Mad Hatter. He is always having tea because the Queen of Arts accused him of "murdering the time." It's like when Quentin smashed the clock face, but it continued to tick. As a punishment for this "attempted murder," Time halts himself for the Hatter, keeping the Hatter and his bud at the same unbirthday tea party at the same exact time, forever. He is the one who is truly trapped having basically no perception of time at all. He ends up conforming and just accepting his fate to exist in a world where time doesn't exist, but it really does, but he just thinks it doesn't... if that makes sense. I do agree with everyone on the whole Alice and Quentin situational thing, I just think that character-wise, he is much more similar to the Mad Hatter. Unlike Alice, the Mad Hatter can't leave Wonderland because it's not his dream to wake from, it's Alice's. Quentin can't escape from the world he lives in either, because it's not his, the only way he can escape is if he just doesn't exist anymore.

the quote

At first I thought that Quentin's Wonderland was his mind for he constantly gets lost in it, but the more I thought about the Alice bit, the more I started to think that perhaps this haunted Wonderland is simply the real world. Quentin dwells on the Old South; that is the world he chooses to live in. But that is not the world he is actually living in. So when reality hits, like Caddy becoming pregnant, he doesn't know how to react. He is lost.

The Quote

Sorry Everyone! I do apologize about not having this quote up here sooner, but it is 9:10 p.m. and I am still at school working on photocopying and folding those letters of recommendation. IF you ever need to apply to multiple places again, be nice to your letter-writers and give them self-adhering envelopes, okay???

So...here it goes...

"Quentin is a distraught Alice in a haunted wonderland."

Synesthesia, Punctuation, and the Compson Boys

I realize that many people have already spoken about the similarities between Benjy and Quentin, but I feel that it is one of the most obvious topics while reading The Sound and the Fury.

When we read Benjy's section, it was easy to say that the strange descriptions and confusing punctuation were because of his mental retardation. When we got to Quentin's section, however, many things remained or worsened. He referred to "feel[ing] noon" and often interrupted his own sentences several times. Benjy showed us the world as well as he could, with almost no interpretation. Quentin, on the other hand, shows us interpretation without the world.

The format of Quentin's section, with its lack of punctuation and structure, made it difficult to understand. But what I really wonder is how accurate Quentin's portrayal of others' thoughts is. Once I figured out that it was no longer his own stream of consciousness (for example, his mother's martyr-like rant), I immediately began to question whether this was the true course of events/conversation, or if Quentin was simply inferring.

Faulkner is a strange guy

After reading Benjy's section, I still didn't have a very good idea of what Faulkner's writing style is all about. But now, after Quentin's section, I get it. By lapsing into complete stream-of-consciousness writing, Faulkner allows for an unobscured glimpse into the human mind. However, the overall impression seems far from clear, because the human mind we are observing (Quentin's) is muddled and turbulent no matter how you look at it. The result is a sometimes painful, often uncomfortable but thoroughly worthwhile experience. Quentin's memories are relayed the way memories actually occur inside someone's mind: fragmented and disordered. Though some of the sections with no punctuation were hard to get through, I greatly admire Faulkner's unique style.

P.S. Sorry this post is late, I forgot how to find the blog!

Boston's a strange place...

Why is everyone so messed up there? It's as if no one wants to be happy. Two people argue over a cigar and a nickel - which they got for free, three guys fight pointlessly about a hypothetical $25 fishing pole, the cops hate foreigners but would gladly arrest a university student simply because a foreigner accused him of kidnapping (a $6 bribe works things out though)...Quentin lives in a grey world indeed; it's no surprise that he feels out of place in this unfriendly Northeastern city. I can see why Quentin dislikes the world; he escapes a dysfunctional family, only to end up in a godawful slum of a city. Someone should have taken him to Disney World when he was a kid.

On an unrelated note, I wish Quentin would use more punctuation and capitalization. Especially with his conversations with Caddy; I get that it conveys a sense of desperation, but ugh, I'm sure many authors have been able to convey similar emotions without turning their works into gibberish. Still, it was much more understandable than Benjy's section...I guess that Ivy League education was put to good use.

Quentin = Benjy

I agree with Michael that Quentin and Benjy are VERY similar. Quentin's frequent and random flashbacks just confused me as much as Benjy's did, and the flashbacks are done very similarly - italics, no punctuation... I would say that Quentin is even worse in his mental state than Benjy is because his narration is so much more incoherent - he stops and starts mid-sentence, continues the same sentence paragraphs later, and uses no punctuation whatsoever that you just don't get where sentences begin and end. He is just as much confused as Benjy is, if not more. Also, there's the similarity with confused senses - they both feel, hear, and smell things rather than seeing.

The relationship between Quentin and Caddy is also kind of similar to that between Benjy and Caddy. Quentin is constantly reminded of Caddy like Benjy is. On page 151, Quentin remembers crying while leaning on Caddy, after he asks her if she loved Dalton Ames - I thought this was similar to Benjy moaning and holding onto her dress.

-May

The Three Boys on the Bridge

I found Quentin's encounter with the three boys to be particularly significant. The fish they try to catch is a symbol for Quentin himself - as he will eventually commit suicide by drowning himself. I think committing suicide is the only way for Quentin to escape the pressure he faces from his family and the reality of the world he is stuck in - and the mere idea of the fish represents the kind of freedom he yearns for. "Can't anybody catch that fish" (p. 120) --> the freedom the fish has symbolizes the life Quentin wants to live for himself. His life thus far has been dictated by his family - they sent him to college to continue the family name, the fate of the family lies in his hands, and he has no opportunity in the situation he is stuck in to do what he wants - he is "caught". Also, the boys' argument about whether they would take the fishing pole or the twenty-five dollars as a reward for catching the fish parallels the image of the boys arguing over who would get Quentin's cigar and who would get the nickel, and further adds to the futility of the world for Quentin in that idea that no one will ever have what they really want. The fact that this encounter takes place on a bridge further adds to its significance, in that the setting represents a sort of passageway, and I think it's a point of realization for Quentin's ultimate decision to end his life.

Grass is greener on the other side

I think i saw a connection to what erica said in class earlier this week and another event in the text we read over the weekend. Erica pointed out the scene with the 2 men who received things from Quentin but immediately tried to trade each other what they got from him. Erica said that this scene revealed the idea that people are not satisfied with what they have (the grass is always greener on the other side). I thought this idea was brought up once again with the 3 boys standing on the bridge talking about the reward for catching the trout-- a 25 dollar fishing pole. They spoke about how they would try to trade the fishing pole for other things. I feel that Quentin constantly thinks about what his life could be if Caddy was not promiscuous or had a real mother, etc. That is why in Quentin's section we hear more people bickering about what they do not have and what they want. 

Confusing Quentin

Quentin's section is even more confusing than Benji's. I found it really interesting that Faulkner starts the book with Benji who provides no insight into any situation, leaving it up to the reader to interpret every event, and then goes to Quentin who not only gives his own insight, but also puts himself inside the mind of others, particularly his mom. I agree with Mika, that Faulkner's lack of punctuation is frustrating, but in this section I think it makes the ideas he puts forth about what other characters are thinking even more interesting. It adds to his stream of consciousness as a complete run-on of ideas. It makes this section even harder to disect, but at this point, i am pretty positive one of Faulkner's goals was to confuse the hell out of all of us and make readers work to understand his points.

Addressing his relationship with Caddy, I think it is completely bizarre as many others do. I do not agree with his father, that he is so hung up on her promiscuity because he is a virgin, but I think there is something more going on. Their relationship reminds me of Louisa and Tom's relationship in Hard Times. There is definitely some sexual tension going on and a lot of jealousy coming from Quentin's end. However, I was thinking that Caddy could also just be a representation of Quentin's feelings about women in general.

I just think all of this confusion is really enticing and makes me keep reading. I actually have to sit down and reread pages multiple times before somewhat understanding what is going on, and even though i do not fully comprehend what Faulkner is trying to say. I end up appreciating his writing even more after we talk about it in class because i definitely lose a lot of components just reading it on my own.

And btw, I still feel like a toothpick.

Q

I know most people are super confused/ intrigued by Quentin's relationship with Caddy, but I was actually slightly more interested in his relationship with his father. I'm not entirely sure whether or not Q is completely in awe of him or if he is frustrated by him. He keeps mentioning him but half the time he is recalling a disagreement. Yet he's completely obsessed with time and clearly his father is the root of this. He toout tld Quentin that man is a "sum of his climatic experiences" (124). One of the major debates abhis novel is whether or not each date for each section is the present or just the sum of each character's experiences to that date.

Benjy hardly mentioned his father and I'm still not entirely sure what to think about him. I wonder if he'll make such a large appearance in any other section

Quentin's Section

The punctuation (or lack thereof) is really frustrating. Not only is it unclear who's speaking, but all of the sentences run into each other, making it hard to figure out what's happening. The only helpful thing is Faulkner's use of italics, which tell us when a conversation is happening in the past.

P.S. Quentin's relationship/obsession with Caddy is really weird. I don't understand what's going on there.

Quentin : Caddy :: Benjy : Caddy

When reading Quentin's section, all I could think about was this odd relationship between Quentin and Caddy. Why would Quentin's relationship be so weird? I understand Benjy's, but Quentin's? And then when it was all over, it hit me. Faulkner uses the two character's relationships with Caddy to show how similar they are. At first glance, Benjy (who is mentally retarded) and Quentin (who is at Harvard) would not be similar at all. However, since they actually have kind of similar relationships with Caddy, it groups them together more and shows the reader their similarity: not being well mentally. Neither Benjy nor Quentin is very mentally stable and arguments could be made that they are not only both idiots, but both actually mentally ill (Benjy obviously being retarded, and Quentin with the whole "Old South" thing, the fact that very little punctuation is used in his section, and the fact that he commits suicide). I feel that Faulkner is trying to show us just how similar these two seemingly different characters are.

Quentin

Quentin is an absolute lunatic. He is the one who should be sent to the insane asylum in Jackson, not Benjy. He over-dramatically breaks a clock and he spends his last day alive with a little Italian girl. I think this is because she reminds him of not only Caddy, but also Benjy. He calls her "sister" (Caddy), but I think this girl has to be an idiot like Benjy because he talks to her for hours and hours and she just stares at him. Then at the last second, she nonchalantly says "There's Julio." Something is off there. Also, he is clearly distressed over Caddy's sexual actions and for some reason believes either pulling a knife on her or crying incest will make things better. I can see why he wants to commit suicide (the whole virginity/nonexistent Southern values thing) but I would imagine that most people just do it on impulse and don't spend their last day alive wandering around Massachusetts. He is a strange boy who just succumbed to the pressure of attending Harvard and dealing with a hypochondriac mother with a flare for the dramatic. I liked the interesting spacing in the section and appreciated Faulkner's reference to Othello on p.148 (beast with two backs).

Caddy, Quentin and the Old South

As I read Quentin's section, I thought his relationship with Caddy was creepy and just didn't know what exactly to do with it. Now looking back, thinking about his obsession with time and the Old South, maybe he's just overcompensating. This might be far-fetched, but maybe he's trying to utilize her as a vessel of sorts to become that southern gentleman he desires so much to be. If she killed herself it would have salvaged the Compson name, so he tries to strike a deal with her so they'd do it together. He then pretends to be the father of her child as a desperate attempt to save his sister's reputation. In both of these situations he is sacrificing his life, either literally or figuratively because for a southern gentleman it was all about the reputation, manners and whatever other standards they had. He's almost trying to be a martyr for his sister, who is the epitome of taboo for someone who holds the old south so close to heart. It's kind of sweet if you think about it because he's just trying so hard to be there for his sister, but it comes across as sick because he is going by the standards of a time period which just doesn't exist anymore. He just can't exist in this world. I might be really off.

After reading Benjy's section, I was surprised to find Quentin's even more incoherent and hard to follow. While Benjy omitted question marks, Quentin often omits any punctuation and capitalization. His mind jumps to the past much more than Benjy's. It's interesting how similar the voices of these two opposite characters are. I think Faulkner is trying to say that no one can escape memories of the past.

About the young Italian girl.. I think Quentin helps her because he feels he failed at helping his own sister. He feels he should have protected Caddy better and wishes she had not been forced to marry Herbert Head. He calls the Italian girl "sister" several times, and is very distressed that she doesn't have a home.

senses

Throughout the section, Quentin has flashbacks and he uses his senses to describe the past, similar to the way Benjy did. However, as the section progresses and Quentin nears his suicide, his senses seem to play a much larger role in remembering the past, such as the smell of the honeysuckle. Also, his flashbacks become fragmented and very confusing at times. I feel like Quentin becomes increasingly similar to Benjy as he reaches the peak of his insanity. Maybe Faulker uses the senses to represent the progression of Quentin's mental illness.

Q's Section

I cannot get a grasp on Quentin and Caddy's relationship. At all.

Benjy's section is so, so, so much about Caddy - about how he depends and relies on her, how he needs her. But Benjy is also mentally retarded. His obsession with Caddy comes across to the reader as both sad and endearing. Quentin's section now shows an even greater obsession with Caddy. Yet this obsession I can't comprehend. Siblings are protective over their siblings, sure. But this is taking that to a whole new level. Stop obsessing over your sister's virginity! Stop caring if she kisses other guys! That's not normal protective-brother-behavior. Quentin is positively consumed by Caddy and her purity. It's almost like he's in love with her... almost... but I'm not sure if that's it. He tried a suicide pact (sort of ish?) with Caddy. And then later on killed himself. I find that very interesting; he revealed his suicidal behavior to Caddy, while he excluded everyone else. Is Caddy the ultimate reason Quentin commits suicide? Is he in love with her - or is he just too enamored with her? Part of me thinks maybe he's not romantically interested in his sister; maybe I'm just missing something with Q. I hope I am. Incestuous feelings make a character so unlikable.

Oh, and P.S. I second Gabby's post. The little Italian girl was there WAY too long not to mean something. She must be a symbol - I don't know for what either, though.

More on punctuation

I would also say that Faulkner's lack of punctuation serves to highlight how Quentin is so intelligent and how his mind is constantly racing. The way the section is written tells us a lot about Quentin's mindset and how unstable he really is. There is a lot going on in Quentin's mind and he has a lot of trouble concentrating and thinking clearly. It is amazing how Faulkner conveys who Quentin is through the way he is writing.

Quentin

Something that struck me was when Quentin asks Caddy if they should kill themselves and also later when Quentin wants to kill Dalton Ames. It only reinforced the idea that Benjy isn't the only character in the novel that is mentally ill. On the surface, readers might think that Benjy is the only character that has a problem, but Quentin as well has problems. Quentin is intelligent and goes to Harvard, and to society, someone like Quentin is respected and put above others for his intelligence. Benjy, on the other hand, to society is someone who is often looked down upon because of his mental capacities. However, Quentin can actually be placed as equal as Benjy because he himself has emotional and mental problems which leads to Quentin's suicide.

Faulkner, the mind, and real life (Punctuation is important)

It seems to me that Faulkner uses punctuation in Quentin's section, and to a lesser degree Benjy's section, to blur the line between real and internal life. Quentin is an inwardly focused character, and the uninterrupted transitions between his own thoughts and concerns and frets and the details of his present situation serve to place Quentin's section on a really fuzzy line between events and considerations and the importance of these to the story. This all falls into line with some of Faulkner's opinions on the nature and importance of the past, that past events are equally important to a narrative, if not more so, than the events of the present. This ambiguity of time in the novel creates a sense of fatalism, the entirety of the narrative arc contained less in a line than in a single dot, the ends of the characters as predetermined and unchangable as their beginnings.

Quentins section

Throughout the section you see Quentin struggling with the idea of Caddy losing her virginity which obviously causes him great distress. However, when he recalls a time when he was talking with his father about the ideas of virginity and purity, his father told him those ideas were completely nonsensical and unnatural. I found this interesting because throughout the book Quentin often refers to his father in such high esteem and takes to heart what he says. But in this one instance their viewpoints are so different which made me wonder why Quentin holds on so tightly to the idea of a Southern Gentleman when his father doesn't even hold these same values. Also, i was confused about the part with the young italian girl. This story continued pretty uninterrupted for several pages, one of the longest memories in the section, therefore I'm assuming their interaction holds some symbolic value, I'm just not sure what it is.

Faulkner the Screenwriter

After writing four great American novels (The Sound and the Fury, Light in August, As I Lay Dying and Absalom! Absalom!) and winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1936, William Faulkner turned to screenplay. He contributed to the writing of To Have and Have Not (1944), which stars Humphrey Bogart and is based on a novel by Ernest Hemingway. Though Hemingway had already stated that to read Faulkner, one had to "wade through a lot of crap to get to his gold," the competitive relationship between the two writers did not seem to affect Faulkner's work on the screenplay.

Faulkner later contributed The Big Sleep (1946), a detective film which also starred Humphrey Bogart.

Faulkner vs. Hemingway

Faulkner is well-known for his contrast with another popular writer of the era, Ernest Hemingway. While Faulkner's style is full of long sentences containing powerful emotions, Hemingway's approach was much more simple. His sentences are short, rarely exceeding a few words, and many said he wrote without emotion.

Far from embracing their differences, the two were apparently not fans of each other.

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary."
William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?"
Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

You have to hand it to writers-their insults put the rest of us to shame.

Love Life

Faulkner dated a girl named Estelle Oldham, but during their time dating, she also dated other men! One of them proposed to her before Faulkner got a chance, and she said yes. Ten years later, the marriage would fall apart, and Faulkner would marry her. He actually married her even after she had dated other people at the same time as him and then married one of them instead of him!

He took from what he knew

• Faulkner's great-grandfather, William Clark Faulkner, was the inspiration for Colonel John Sartoris, a character in several of his novels. Furthermore, Faulkner's fictional Yoknapatawpha County, the setting for most of his novels and short stories, was based upon Faulkner's real county, Lafayette. The name came from the bordering Yokona River that was once called the Yockney-Patafah.
• I thought it was really interesting how he used in his own life and the people around him as inspiration for his stories.

Postmaster

After he dropped out of college, Faulkner got a job as postmaster in the University of Mississippi's post office. Supposedly, he was a terrible postmaster, spending much of his time reading or playing cards with friends, misplacing or losing mail, and failing to serve customers.

-Rachel

Drunk

Faulkner was an alcoholic who frequently went on prolonged drinking binges after major accomplishments. While he claims that he never drank while writing, Faulkner was reportedly intoxicated when he gave his Nobel Prize acceptance speech in 1949. Glad to see that there is a legit screening process for this prestigious award...

 

Mustache

Faulkner's high school sweetheart, Estelle Oldham, dumped him for another gentleman. But then she divorced that other guy and married Faulkner. He also had a really nice mustache.

Faulkner worked as a screenwriter for Hollywood, contributing to movies such as To Have and Have Not and The Big Sleep. When he was younger, he was not only interested in writing, but also art. Seems like a well rounded guy with a lot of interests

Interesting Fact

Although William Faulkner is one of literature’s best-known alcoholics, he insists he never drank while writing. He used liquor as a way to escape his life, but he did not feel that it aided the creative process in any way.

Awards

Apart from winning the nobel prize as well as two national book awards, the United States Postal Service created a 22 cent stamp with Faulkner's picture on it, so he was probably pretty good at writing.
A.J.

Shorty

Toward the end of WWI, William Falkner attempted to join the U.S. Army, but was rejected because he was too short. Determined to follow in the tradition of his great-grandfather, who served as a colonel in the Confederate Army, he added a "u" to the spelling of his last name. This apparently passed him off as English and he was able to join the Royal Air Force in Canada. When the war ended, he returned to his home in Oxford, Mississippi without seeing combat. Somehow, he was full of action packed stories including injuries that left him in constant pain and a silver plate in his head. Liar, liar?

-Sam

Writing on Walls

Faulkner used the walls of his home to writes notes on (about whatever he was working on at the time).

Given the amount of literature he penned, I imagine his walls are completely covered in writing...it must have been awkward to visit him at his house.


-Caleb

Cheater.

Faulkner, apparently, had two extramarital affairs. (Good writer, bad husband?) First was with Meta Carpenter. Second was with Joan Williams, a young writer who thought Faulkner to be her mentor. Williams's novel The Wintering is about her love affair with him. I just looked up one of his very famous works, As I Lay Dying, and saw one of the plot lines is about an extramarital affair. It'll be interesting to see if any similar themes come up in The Sound and the Fury.

See http://www.lsu.edu/lsupress/bookPages/9780807122273.html and http://www.amazon.com/William-Faulkner-Joan-Williams-Romance/dp/0786425997 for more.

-- Emma Laperruque

Dropouts

Joining the ranks of the greats: Albert Einstein, the Wright brothers and of course Tom Cruise, William Faulkner never finished high school.

Not that I'm suggesting anything...

-Emma Strickler

Faulkner fun fact

Did you know that....
Faulkner attempted to enlist in the US military during World War I but was turned down because, at under 5'6 he was too short.


I thought that this fact was funny, but also interesting
He wrote his novels and essays about war - but actually never experienced it himself firsthand.

-Anna

Faulkner's speech

Hi!

I found Faulkner's speech for the Nobel Prize on Nobleprize.org

Reading this speech made me really excited for The Sound and the Fury; he sounds so passionate about writing about the human spirit, and I'm looking forward to see how that is displayed in The Sound and the Fury!

http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/literature/laureates/1949/faulkner-speech.html

- May

Welcome to AP Literature Period 4!

This will be our virtual classroom of sorts! It will serve as an extension of class discussion and be a forum to debate, inquire, and posit. I look forward to your contributions on this blog! So, let's get started. Please do some research this weekend on William Faulkner and post your responses by 11 pm on Sunday night! See you Monday!