April 7, 1928

Hello everyone. I have to admit reading the first chapter stressed me out a bit. I was trying to keep a running timeline in my head, but every paragraph seems to be in a different timeframe. Eventually I realized that the timeframe doesn't matter. I remembered a famous Faulkner quote, "The past is never dead. It's not even the past". In the context of The Sound and the Fury, this notion is extremely important. I feel that Faulkner wants us to abandon concern about time and realize that the real human experience--the experience we have everyday--includes past, present, and future. We don't focus solely on what is in front of us, we draw from past experiences and look forward to new ones. I think disorienting the reader is Faulkner's way of forcing us to abandon the confines of a timeline. That being said, there is a distinct timeline. Faulkner just wants us to realize that it's not what we should be focusing on.

As a mentally handicapped person, Benjy proves to be a very effective narrator. The word narrator is not quite accurate, actually. It is more like we are seeing things from Benjy's perspective in his chapter; we get to be in his mind, seeing what he sees, and hearing what he hears--the reader gets to experience what it's like to be Benjy. The word effective is not quite accurate either, he is a confusing narrator, but that is functionally effective because it seems to be Faulkner's intent. There is a lot of dialogue in the first chapter, but it doesn't come from Benjy. He is addressed almost as a child--and often as a baby--by those around him. The date April 7th is significant coupled with Benjy's age as an allusion to Easter and Jesus. It evokes a sense of anticipation for me; what will the symbolic Easter be for the Compsons? The disorientation of the first chapter adds more to the sense of anticipation as I wait for some sort of explanation or sense to come from it all.

From Benjy's perspective, the Compsons don't seem like the friendliest people. Caddy is the most friendly, although she is bossy. The servants are quite harsh to Benjy. He cries a lot, and he is ridiculed for it. I feel bad for Benjy, and I feel confused as Benjy. I'm not entirely sure what his symbolic role is, but I am eager to discover what it is.