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Chandler Nowell. Mr. Hammer . Ap English, C Period. 16

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Chandler Nowell
Mr. Hammer
AP English, C period
16 February, 2017 Time’s Running Out: “The Compson Downfall” In William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury, the Compson family passes from respectable to despicable as they relate their history through memories. Faulkner uses a stream of consciousness narrative style that confuses the chronology of time and the sequence of events. The story unfolds through the experiences and interpretations of three brothers obsessed with the actions and the absence of their sister, Caddy. Time has not been kind to the old Southern aristocratic family and the children are on the brink of both social and moral decay. The concept of time is a central theme throughout the novel that is altered by each …show more content…

He cannot get over Caddy’s absence from his life, because she was the only person he felt a connection with. For Benjy time blends together and his memories of the past often foreshadow the bleak future. His memory of Caddy with muddy clothes that she easily sheds suggests she may grow up to be rebellious and promiscuous. When Caddy runs away it is very similar to the events that lead her daughter, Quentin to run away and cause history to repeat itself. When the family goes on their daily carriage ride around the graves in the square, Luster enters a different way and this causes Benjy great distress. Benjy likes to go counter clockwise, or backwards which could indicate a fear of moving ahead in time. By erratically shifting between time periods, Benjy allows himself to become lost in memories with no hope of ever moving forward. Time fuses and creates a world for Benjy where time is irrelevant. For Quentin, time is the enemy. Early in his narrative, he tries to break the hands off the clock, because he feels like a prisoner to time. He feels the need to escape time, but no matter where he goes he can still hear the clock ticking. The present has been eaten up by the past and he is haunted by the memories of Caddy. Quentin has been “worn away by a minute clicking of little wheels that had no sister” (Faulkner 77). Time becomes an unhealthy obsession which leads to insanity. Thoughts of Caddy take over his mind as he replaces one obsession for

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