Tag Archives: Caddy

Unclear Sentiments about TSAF [#1]

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A Note: I wanted to focus on the impressions I made of Caroline and Caddy in Benjy’s section. I realize that there’s more to Caddy in Quentin’s section.

There were several components about The Sound and the Fury that stuck out to me, even as I remain unclear about how to process them. Readers are first introduced to Caroline Compson [Mother] on page 5, when she’s  protesting Benjy going outside on account of it “being too cold” but preferring that he “go to the kitchen” rather than stay near her. Uncle Maury’s persuasive skills convince Caroline that it’s in her best interests to let him go, since worrying over him will make her sick, to which she responds [as she frequently does], “I know…it’s a judgement on me.” I can’t help but be mostly annoyed with Caroline’s martyr-like tone, especially as she worries about her impeding departure, almost as if she wants everyone around her to both pity her and pay attention to her.

I was comparing Caroline to her stubborn and haughty daughter, Caddy, and thought of how different Faulkner created them. As Faulkner himself wrote, he had a certain kind of joy, as one “approached women, perhaps with the same secretly unscrupulous intentions” [Faulkner on TSAF, top 226]. I was wondering if Faulkner’s secretly unscrupulous intention was to demonstrate the fragility of women [Caroline] as well as the indecorous sexuality of women [Caddy]. I get the impression that Caroline was painfully aware of her maudlin-like anxieties, such as when she said, “nobody knows how I dread Christmas. Nobody knows. I am not one of those women who can stand things. I wish for Jason’s and the children’s sake I was stronger” [TSAF, 8]. Perhaps I am determined to dislike Caroline, but I read her words as something she was almost proud of. I read “I am not one of those women who can stand things” as though ‘those women’ ought to be ashamed of their strength or resilience, as though whatever things ‘those women’ could stand were not things proper ladies should bear. Since Caroline also kept mentioning she was sick and other people, such as Dilsey and uncle Maury echoed her claims, I wondered if she was actually sick, or if people had long ago learned to humor her. Furthermore, I thought of Caroline as a mother; although she made frequent displays of concern for Benjy’s well-being, such as not wanting him to go out and play in the cold because he would get sick, she did not want to be near him. While Caddy called him Benjy, Caroline insisted on calling her son by his newly-given name, Benjamin, which seemed to stress a formal kind of relationship. Then there were times when Caroline would refer to Benjamin not by his name, but as “that baby” [TSAF,8] right in front of him. I understand he’s deaf, but it seemed  cruel, which got me wondering if being a kind mother to a disabled child was one of those things Caroline could not stand.

I think if Caroline thought she embodied what was was proper, then Caddy’s outrageous behavior was Faulkner’s mischievous way of playing with the norms of ‘proper Southern girls.’ Caddy is boisterous, commanding [Benjy mostly obeys her ‘hush’ orders], defiant, foolish [threatens to run away], reckless [apparently having had rendezvous’ with Charlie], and messy [ her muddy drawers and wet dresses]. ‘Good girls’ do not muddy their drawers and they most certainly do not climb trees that give the boys on the ground a view [even if those boys happen to be your brothers]. Though there is something inspiring about Caddy’s rebellious nature mixed with her tender affection for Benjy, I can’t help but think things won’t end well for her, like the world will either quell her defiance or permanently subdue her, but I want to find out. As Faulkner stated in his introduction, “Art is no part of Southern life…[for art] to become visible [in the South], must become a ceremony” [Faulkner on TSAF, bottom 228]. Are the polarities between Caddy and Caroline the ceremony? Are their exaggerations the art?

Similarities between the Compson and the Bundren Family

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As I Lay Dying has many analogous ideas and themes to The Sound and The Fury. Many of the contrasting ideas and themes are metaphoric representations of the protagonist through different objects, time unable to move forward, and similar character roles each family member play. In As I Lay Dying there are various accounts of human- animal interconnections that relate Addie to a fish and a horse. Similar to The Sound and the Fury, Caddie is symbolized to Benjy as fire, a caddie in golf, and a slipper. Faulkner uses these projections to symbolize that Caddie and Addie are always internally present within their family despite Addie’s death and Caddie’s lack of presence.  On pages 53, 67, and 84, Vardaman’s narrative focuses on the dead fish to embody Addie’s existence. Vardaman’s paranoia arises as he becomes unable to articulate and differentiate Addie’s existence from the fish’s existence and concludes someone killed Addie while she has been dead in her bed for ten days (54). Through Vardaman’s narrative, Addie is able to remain present in society only if the fish is devoured by each family member thus each family member will embody a part of Addie’s spirit (66-67), an example of animal magnetism;  “A magnetic charm or appeal” (Merriam Webster) towards the perseverance of Addie’s existence.   Furthermore, instead of an embodiment as a fish, Jewel perceives his mother as a horse. On pages 135-136, Jewel purchases a horse with his own money saved from “cleaning up forty acres of new ground Quick laid out last spring,” he also tells Anse the horse will never eat anything that belongs to him which shows Jewel’s separation in the family as well as his affection for the horse. By comparing his mother to a horse, we come to the realization Jewel isn’t cruel or mean hearted as Cora perceives him to be (21), instead he’s misperceived.

“Without stopping it overends and rears again, pauses, then crashes slowly forward and through the curtain. This time Jewel is riding upon it, clinging to it, until it crashes down and flings him forward and clear and Mack leaps forward into a thin smell of scorching meat and slaps at the widening crimson-edged holes that bloom like flowers in his undershirt” (222).

The movement of the river rushing the casket downstream compares to a wild horse attempting to thrust Jewel off it. From the beginning of the novel it is clear Jewel treats his horse with tough love, caring for it through derogatory movements (13), but for Jewel to risk his life to safe the casket would emphasis his care for his mother is a mere reflection for his care of his horse. Thus, for Jewel to state his mother is a horse only further indicates his feelings towards his mother is more personable and more profound which leads to the question if Jewel is not able to perceive his mother as a horse would he have rescued his mother from the river?

Time unable to progress forward is made clear from each family member’s inability to cope with Addie’s death. After Addie’s death each family member develops onset of problems: existence for Darl, sexuality for Dewey Dell, and the parallels of reality for Vardaman and Jewel. This exemplifies Addie’s death only hinders each family member’s ability to progress in life.  On page 146, “It is as though the space between us were time; an irrevocable quality. It is as though time, no longer running straight before us in a diminishing line, now runs parallel between us like a looping string, the distance being the doubling accretion of the thread and not the interval between,” implicitly draws upon the burden of Addie’s death as an entropic effect not only on her children but on time as well. The idea that separation of Addie and her children is not a spatial factor but a temporal factor implies Addie’s death disrupted the continuous rhythm of time moving forward, instead, time is now hindered and doubling backwards into the past. A disastrous foreshadowing for the Bundren family once Addie died. This is very much contrasts to Quentin’s narrative in The Sound and the Fury; his constant battle to irrevocably attempt to escape time and his past leads him to commit suicide since the progression of time and the memories from the past are inescapable.

Lastly, from Addie’s narrative it is clear Jewel is the “black sheep” of the family due to an erroneous affair Addie has with Whitfield. Addie favors Jewel and firmly believes Jewel will be her salvation saving her from water and fire (168), similarly to Mrs. Compson with Jason in The Sound and the Fury, she believes Jason will rescue her from the downfall of the family’s name as she constantly reminds him he is a Bascomb and not a Compson. Dewey Dell relates to Caddy as they both are impregnated out of wedlock and is at a threshold between womanhood, Benjy and Darl would relate to one another due to their observant personas but Darl is able to comprehend what he sees, every character but Anse would relate to Quentin due to them repressing time and their inability to cope with their past, and finally, Anse and Mr. Compson are both not present/ active father figures in the story since Mr. Compson’s most indicative role in The Sound and The Fury is to leave Quentin at a threshold between time and the meaning of life in comparison to Anse who sells Jewel’s horse

Benjy

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In beginning The Sound and the Fury from Benjy’s perspective, Faulkner challenges his readers’ instinctual perceptions both of the story’s physical setting, but also regarding the atmosphere of the characters’ personal interactions. With this approach Faulkner prevents readers from projecting narrative conventions upon the story while also highlighting the subjectivism of experience, a valuable notion to keep in mind while engaging with such a socially stratified society. Indeed, if we are to gain anything from Benjy’s section, we must submit to his way of relating to his world. After all, Benjy’s way of understanding his surroundings is marked by an extremely unique hierarchy of senses. For example, most people deem their sense of sight as primary to their understanding of reality. For Benjy, neither reality nor sight are clear or trustworthy.

Benjy doesn’t associate so much with distinct images as he does with the relative brightness of an object, or the shadows they cast. He describes how shapes fall and spin, and start and stop moving (arbitrarily, as it would seem to Benjy). And yet, he is not at a total cognitive loss: “When I was still, they were still. When I moved, they glinted and sparkled” (41). Here, Benjy recognizes the dependent factors intrinsic to the glittering phenomenon that occurs when he changes his physical position in relation to the box of stars. Moreover, whether or not he reserves obedience for those he trusts, he does have a basic understanding of the concept: “Caddy turned around and said ‘Hush’ So I hushed” (19).

Benjy’s gravitation towards Caddy may be explained by her effort to accommodate his unique perspective. While most of the other characters mock or patronize him, Caddy truly attempts to construct a system of communication between them, even though verbally it remains one-sided. At the branch, on a day that it is frozen over, Benjy perceives Caddy to be breaking off a piece of the water. To his knowledge, perhaps, water is simply a clear substance. Caddy explains the difference: “Ice. That means how cold it is” (13). She also touches the piece of ice to Benjy’s face, so that he may feel, too, the difference.

Most of the other characters either mock or dismiss Benjy’s experience. His own mother, for example, denies his limited capacity to connect facts and make logical deductions. When Benjy becomes fixated on waiting by the gate after Caddy marries and moves away, T.P. explains to Benjy’s mother that “[he] think if he down to the gate, Miss Caddy come back” (51). His mother’s narrow-mindedness results in her denial of the situation altogether: “Nonsense,” she responds (51). She is right, it is non-sensical to believe that Caddy will come through the gate just because she has come through the gate in the past. But her denial of his experience is counter-productive and limiting to her own understanding.

Jason

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Jason Compson lives a bitter, isolated existence in each and every sphere of his life, be it work, family or pleasure. As he progresses from his position as the youngest and least powerful Compson child to the symbolic head of the family’s household, Jason develops a massive superiority complex. For while he comes to be the partial breadwinner of the family, other characters, like Dilsey, still maintain a more practical authority over how the house is run. The early alienation he experiences from his family combined with the over-flated sense of pride his mother reserves for the two of them, who are “more Bascomb than Compson” at heart, leaves Jason with a dangerous sense of unfulfilled deserving (103). Moreover, just as he feels that he has been perpetually and disproportionately slighted, he also believes the converse: that others have been given unwarranted advantage.

From an early age, Jason comes to resent his father and his older siblings, who have formed an unspoken alliance from which he is excluded. Growing up, he is constantly targeted by his siblings, and receives little defense from his father, Jason Sr.. During Damuddy’s funeral, for example, Caddy calls Jason a “[c]ry baby” and specifically targets him with the temporary authority Jason Sr. has granted her for the evening, despite Jason’s opposition (26). When Jason attempts to stand up for himself and the others, Caddy retorts: “They will [mind me] if I say so…Maybe I wont say for them to,” taunting him with the implication that she could choose to exercise her authority over Jason solely, while letting the others retain their relative autonomy (33). And when the family’s financial struggles prevent him from receiving the same opportunities that were granted Caddy and Quentin before him, Jason’s resentment takes on an aspect of cynicism: “I believed folks when they said they’d do things, I’ve learned better since” (206). Moreover, he allows his cynical outlook to justify his own lying and scheming; because he was cheated out of what was rightfully owed to him, it is acceptable, in turn, for him to steal and manipulate from those around him.

As a grown man he constantly speaks ill of his deceased father and brother and openly disrespects all other living members of the house, even his mother, Caroline, the one character in the novel who loves him unconditionally. Jason and Caroline’s relationship is characterized by a complex love-hate dynamic: Caroline smothers Jason with undying praise and adoration, fueling his pride and consequently, his lack of respect for others, including her. Indeed, his superiority complex is so extreme that it manifests itself as utter contempt for the people he interacts with day to day: his family, his servants, his boss, and any townsfolk unlucky enough to be sharing the sidewalk with him at the same time.

Jason’s hatred is so complete that he tends to project essentialist (most often racist and sexist) qualities onto other individuals or groups of people, i.e. “Once a bitch, always a bitch” and “I never found a nigger yet that didn’t have an airtight alibi for whatever he did” (180, 218). He is too narrow-minded to be sympathetic towards others’ societal predicaments, so he ends up holding the oppressed responsible for their oppressions. Indeed, Jason’s pride is so great that he finds endless faults in others, but none in himself; any self-criticism is really just a disguise for self-glorification. Jason is the kind of person whose remorse for his own actions stems only from his disdain for others (Others), and hence, he won’t pass up an opportunity to make vicious, underhanded attacks: “You’re a nigger. You’re lucky, do you know it? I says I’ll swap with you any day because it takes a white man not to have anymore sense than to worry about what a little slut of a girl does” (243). He plays off his vengeful desire to dominate Quentin as concern, while simultaneously upholding racist and sexist ideologies, and trivializing the experiences of those affected by their institutions.

A family Led on Seperate Roads

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Quentin and Jason Compson both have very different ideologies towards their past and present lifestyles. Quentin obsesses with time and indulges in past failures as his narration is hindered by retrospective memories of his father and sister, Caddy. In contrast, Jason Compson reflects on his past experiences as a method to bring reassurance and to motivate him for future success. Both narrators approach their past in very contrasting ways, Quentin in a crippling manner while Jason in an empowering manner, but ultimately they are unable to escape their past.

Raised closely by different parents, Quentin by his father and Jason by his mother, Quentin’s obsession with time represents his desires to escape his father’s ideals of time and sexuality but gain his acceptance. But as his mind constantly fluctuates between the past and the present it becomes obvious, he obsesses with his father’s ideals while Caddy is used as a scapegoat to deviate from his father’s principles and for Quentin to gain his own identity. From the start of the chapter, Quentin’s father warns him to separate himself from time but contradicts himself and hands Quentin a watch.

Quentin’s father tells him, “to forget time… try not to conquer it because no battle is ever won. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair” (76).  As Quentin tries to separate himself from the past, the constant ticking of clocks and watches haunts Quentin indicating its not Quentin’s sense of time that is crippled but it’s the memory of his father that Quentin can’t forego and separate from. Many memories that arise, are often focused in on Caddy but they are all reflected off of conversations between Quentin and his father. “I have committed incest I said Father it was I it was not Dalton Ames” (TSAF 79). Quentin calls upon incest relations with Caddy as a way to propose the idea, Caddy’s child does have a known father and Caddy is not ruining the reputation of the Compson name through her promiscuous actions. However, on page 78, the conversation between Quentin and his father states, “In the South you are ashamed of being a virgin. Boys. Men. They lie about it. Because it means less to a women, Father said. He said it was men invented virginity not women….Why couldn’t it have been me and not her who is unvirgin and he said that what that’s sad too.” In this passage, the idea of losing virginity as a male serves as a passage from becoming “a boy to a man.” Quentin who is still a virgin, is looked down upon, and grasps at the concept of, if he mentions to his father he had sexual relations with his sister, he will gain his father’s approval as well as save the rest of the reputation that is left of the Compson name, that has not been destroyed by Caddy’s pregnancy out of wedlock.

Another moment that brings Quentin to arrest at the thought of his father’s memory is when Quentin is accused of spying on Caddy, “The street lamps would go down the hill then rise toward town I walked upon the belly of the shadow. I could extend my hand beyond it. feeling father behind me beyond the rasping darkness of summer and August the street lamps Father and I protect women from one another from themselves our women Women are like that they don’t acquire knowledge of people we are for that they are just born with a practical fertility of suspicion that makes a crop every so often and usually right they have an affinity for evil…”(TSAF 96-97). Faulkner incorporates this passage to implicate several things. Mr. Compson, Quentin’s father is the primitive source that haunts Quentin. While his sense of time and Caddy represents the disorder that builds within Quentin as he tries to gain his father’s acceptance but gain his own identity.

Lastly, the Italian immigrant girl depicts Quentin’s last attempt to separate himself from his father. He calls her his sister and does not try to take advantage of her as he is able to lose his virginity to her making his father proud he is no longer a virgin. Instead, he tries to lead her to her home. The Italian girl may be representative of purity and as Caddy untouched. He views her as his last attempt to separate himself from his father; allowing himself to bring her home without memories of his father clouding his judgment. Though memories of Caddy and Natalie arise during this moment, this represents a struggle he has with his morals versus expectations he has as a man (134).

Jason obsesses with money and social status like his mother and unlike Benjy and Quentin he does not respect women. He views himself superior over all others, authoritative, sees himself as a person who should command respect and attention, and is extremely cynical of everyone’s actions. In contrast to the views Benjy and Quentin had for their mother, Jason’s narration views Mrs. Compson as a very emotional and caring mother whose actions are controlled him Jason. Mrs. Compson constantly repeats the words “flesh and blood” as she pleads Jason to allow Caddy to return for Quentin, “I’d gladly take her back, sins and all, because she is my flesh and blood. It’s for Quentin’s sake.” Jason’s relation to time is blended with jealousy of Quentin’s Harvard education but also biased as each memory he has is propelled through blame and misery while he is a spectator. Jason is constantly comparing himself to Quentin’s Harvard education by stating the education is completely unnecessary as he is doing fine without it (196,197, 206, 235,). However, he also mentions Quentin is the reason for the downfall of the family due to selling property to pay for his education (206) and him having to be a father figure for the family. In this narration, Jason does not have flashbacks of Caddy instead his memories are targeted at Quentin and moments of his superiority. He views black people as inferior to him and him having to install a method to control and put fear into them so they know their role in society (207).  Jason’s relations to economics are very derogatory as he is fueled with hatred towards Jews and black people (234). He constantly remarks on their laziness and incompetency but on the contrary he is dependent on them (186), dependent on Dilsey to make him his meals, and the Jewish people who run the market.  Jason is not only racist but he is also sexist. On page 247, he states he does not need any more women in his life as she may “turn out to be a hophead”- a drug addict. Basically, women are virtually of no use to society.  His authoritative persona brings about his insecurity. He does not allow Caddy to return home probably because he’s afraid she will be favored, (on page 220 he forces his mother to burn the check) as well as the constant reminder of Quentin’s Harvard education he carefully attempts to show was a pointless education (235).

Analysis of Benjy’s Narration

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Benjy, a thirty three year old man with the mental state of a three year old, does not have the ability to formulate his own thoughts or understand the significance of what he experiences. His life is dictated by scents, sounds, shapes, and cues from the present that leads a chain of displaced memories; all of which may present Benjy’s inability to discern the past and the present. Though Benjy may seem as an unreliable narrator due to his mental disability, in fact, from his mental disability it becomes clear the constant disarray of memory shifts is targeted by his sensitivity and awareness to the present. He does not have the ability to understand what he sees, which presents only a reliable and unbiased view of his family. The irony presented in his narration is his family views Benjy’s disability as the downfall of their family, on the other hand, the downfall of the family is sought upon their own incompetency.

Though his memories are discontinued and leaves much of his memories unclear, each memory brings misfortune upon the family. From the scene with Benjy’s mother wearing a veil carrying flowers into a carriage (9-10) emphasizing death, to Caddy’s threats of running away (19) signs of the family breaking apart, early signs of promiscuity from Caddy’s comfort of undressing in front of her brothers by the lake,  Caddy and Jason’s fight over the drawings (65), and to the mother’s illness all indicate signs of drastic change and the overall downfall of the family(74). Throughout each timeframe a new dilemma occurs amongst family members in which Benji seem’s to be at the fore point and cries as he witnesses the separation amongst each family member.

April 7, 1928 does not have much significance except it gives us a disarray of memories. From Benjy’s narration, Faulkner does not give us much insight into Quentin, Jason, and his father but it is clear how Caddy, Benjy’s mother, Roskus, and Dilsey affects Benjy’s life. Caddy and Dilsey act his true caretakers/mother while Benjy’s mother, Mrs. Compson, believes her son is deteriorating her family’s reputation and slowly isolating the family from other people (8).

The most significant character presented in Benjy’s narration is Caddy. Many if not all of Benjy’s memories have Caddy present, conscious of her physical appearance. Her undergarment as dirty,  his sister removing her clothes(18,74), Caddy and Charlie by the swings (47), and when he sleeps with her he notices she does not take her bathrobe off (44). Those all indicate physical awareness and perhaps physical attraction towards Caddy. The end of the chapter may indicate his mother dying from her illness and Caddy’s innocence taken from her as she develops into a women and into more of a motherly role. Perhaps Caddy’s promiscuity is the catalyst for her family’s destruction.