In William Faulkner’s TSAF, the reader is introduced to the author’s uniques style from the first page. Benjy is the first narrator in the novel who presents the story from his own perspective, the perspective of a person with disabilities. However, it is through this disability that Faulkner excels in conveying his literary ability to use sensual imagery to draw light on Benjy‘s insecurities and fear, as well as the constant transition in time with flashbacks which are completely in compliance which Benjy‘s mental immaturity. However, we discover the consistent peculiarity of Faulkner’s style when we reach the second section of TSAF with Quentin’s narration of events which occurred prior to Benjy‘s section.The dates presented as titles for each section draw our awareness of the continuation of Faulkner’s time shift. Again Quentin’s narration focuses on the use of sensual imagery ; nonetheless, Faulkner suits the imagery used to his narrator.Thus, TSAF’s introduction and rising action is seen through the lens of Benjy’s and Quentin’s character and their own sensual interpretation of events.
April Seventh,1928 is an ideal date for Benjy’s section with ” Caddy smelled like leaves” (p.6) as the source of security and happiness to Benjy. April allows for all the outdoor narration “out of the bright cold, into the dark cold.” (p.7) where smells and shadows have a major effect on Benjy’s emotions and consequently on his narration. For him, Caddy as a motherly figure was always compared to a beautiful smell ” Caddy smelled like trees” and then when events start changing ” Caddy smelled like trees in the rain”(p.19) and reaching the point where “I couldn’t smell trees anymore and I began to cry.” (p.40) Faulkner also uses Benjy’s smell lens to compare between Versh’s compassion towards Benjy in the past and Luster’s aggressiveness in the present .” We went to Versh’s house. I liked to smell Versh’s house.”(p.28) Through Benjy’s narration of the lake incident, the different characters are seen in action with Caddy caring but rebellious, Quentin strict yet easily swayed character and Jason balanced but uncaring nature. Benjy ‘s purity allows the reader the objectivity needed to form his/her opinion of each character through their words and actions especially with regards to their attitude towards Benjy. The different flashbacks highlights an important moment in the Quentin’s family which is Damuddy’s sickness. As Benjy describes it ” A door opened and I could smell it more than ever, a head came out. It wasn’t father.Father was sick there”….”Better keep him there. It wasn’t Father. He shut the door, but I could still smell it.”(p.34)
Quentin’s section opens with a direct flashback through the titled date ‘June Second,1910’; however, the shadows haunting the events are still present and ties the two sections together. Mother’s gift to Benjy with the soothing box of stars “Caddy got the box and set it on the floor and opened it. It was full of stars. When I was still they were still. When I moved, they glinted and sparkled.I hushed.”(p.11) is replaced by Father’s gift to Quentin with his grandfather’s watch. The sound of the watch replaces the soothing effect of Benjy’s stars with Quentin’s restless and stressed feeling ” I was in time again, hearing the watch….when father gave it to me he said …apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experience which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father’s”(p.76) The futility of the watch in helping its owner adjust in society is literally expressed at the beginning of the chapter preparing us for the succession of events in the family, especially with regards the brother-sister relationship of Quentin and Caddy till it reaches its peak with Quentin falsely confessing ” I have committed incest I said Father it was I it was not Dalton Adams.”(p.79) For Quentin, the flow of time, water and blood allows him to form an opinion of rapidly changing events. His loving overprotective nature towards Caddy and towards the little Italian girl in the parallel sub-plot conveys his constant attempt to protect others as a means of fitting in the family and fitting in society. ” The displacement of water is equal to the something of something. Reducto absurdum of all human experience… What a sinful waste Dilsey would say. Benjy knew it when Damuddy died. He cried he smelled hit.”(p.90).
It is the intermingling of different sensory images that takes us to the confrontation between Quentin and Caddy and Quentin’s full realization of Caddy’s situation. The italic flashbacks for his mother and father are no longer important to convey Quentin’s thoughts ; it is his obsession on knowing Caddy’s true feelings. In a regular clock pace the text shifts to short interrogative phrases between Quentin and Caddy ” Caddy you hate him don’t you…she moved my hand up against her throat her heart was hammering there”(p.151) The pulse and sound become an indication of her feelings. Nonetheless, it is through the change of the phrase she uses towards her brothers that Faulkner escalates the scene starting from ” poor Benjy” to “poor Quentin”moving to”Don’t cry poor Quentin” and “stop Quentin”, ” whatre you going to do Quentin” and finally revealing ” Im bad anyway you can’t help it theres a curse on us its not our fault.”(p.158)
Both sections depict significant dates and flashbacks which represent key moments for the Quentin’s family. One with the constant flashback to Damuddy’s sick days and the attempts to provide a quiet and silent surrounding despite Benjy’s condition. The other is the tumultuous realization of Caddy’s incest and Quentin’s shock towards her desire to leave the family. All in all, Faulkner creates a lively image of his TSAF’s characters through the peculiarity of his narrators and the analogy between different sensory images of smell, shadow, sound and water which makes the reader eager to follow the succession of events within this cursed family.
