Structure Of The Sound And The Fury By William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying, a novel written by William Faulkner, describes the journey that the Bundren family makes to bury their mother. Along the trip Mrs. Bundren passes away and leaves behind her 5 kids and husband. The kids all have their own serious issues, and their father, Anse, is too self absorbed to care. The children transport their mother, and the hatred they have towards one another builds up and becomes exposed. Throughout the novel, Faulkner asserts that families need an understanding of love in order to form successful relationships and meaningful bonds.

The idea of death can be, and is an enormously disturbing, unknown issue in which many people can have many different opinions. To some individuals, the process of life can progress painstakingly slow, while for others life moves too fast. In the excerpt We Were the Mulvaneys, by Joyce Carol Oates, a innocent farm boy named Judd Mulvaney has an eye-opening encounter by a brook near his driveway. During this encounter, Judd faces a chain of feelings and emotions that lead to his change of opinion of the issues of life and death, and change as a character. This emblematic imagery of life and death, as well as jumpy, and retrospective tones benefit the development of Judd as an innocent child as he begins to change into a more conscious and aware adult.

Since Caddy eventually grew up and left home, assumedly there is no longer a female figure to care for the “children.” Moreover, in the South, the death of a Mother would result in the finding of a new woman to be in charge of the children and the home (Haynes 122). The loss of Caddy’s innocence marked her “death” and therefore started the end of the Compson legacy. Without Caddy, Benjy’s ability to function diminished causing him to “sexually assault” a girl walking by him home whom he thought was his sister (Faulkner 35). Caddy’s push for the future, complete with having her daughter, is very progressive and diminishes the notion of a stable South. Caddy is a representation of right of moving forward, however, now that she left she cannot come back. Her mother and brother Jason banish her from the family (Faulkner 131). Slowly the Southern ways are dying, and as more and more individuals leave, are forbidden from re-entering. Upon leaving, many do not want to return causing a shrinking population. Faulkner used the Compson family as a metaphor for what he perceived to be currently happening in the South.

The house feels much like people feel when things or people leave their lives; empty, alienated, and sorrowful. The house is almost jealous that the man left to paint other houses and towns because it only cements the fact that this house is not “good enough” to be painted and to keep the interest of a painter because it is nothing special. The last three lines tie the feelings of the house to the feelings of humans in that the house feels sorrow just as people do and it mourns the loss of friendship and relations in general. The house anticipated and will always anticipate that the person in its life for the time will not stay because they never do. The house again blames this fact that no one stays around it to the originality of its design and how because of its originality, it is somewhat awkward or weird. This is true for people too because many are trying to fit into a certain social norm that is accepted by society and if you don’t fir in this box then you are an outsider and are alienated just because they are a little different and do not conform to what everyone around them is doing or saying or

He compares the house to “an altar with ten thousand attendants” and the absence of people as “the gods had gone away” (Bradbury 2). By including this extended metaphor, Bradbury confirms that the house is indeed the last remaining structure and entity of the now decimated society. Through detailed comparison, Bradbury helps the reader infer the twistedness of the situation and understand the reality of the setting.

As the women walk through the house, they begin to get a feel for what Mrs. Wright’s life is like. They notice things like the limited kitchen space, the broken stove, and the broken jars of fruit and begin to realize the day-to-day struggles that Mrs. Wright endured. The entire house has a solemn, depressing atmosphere. Mrs. Hale regretfully comments that, for this reason and the fact that Mr. Wright is a difficult man to be around, she never came to visit her old friend, Mrs. Wright.

Faulkner also talks about the stench of Emily’s home. Our attention is drawn to her home when it is used to symbolize Emily and how she is growing old over the years. Emily’s home also has a great deal to do with the story because the home seems to be the townspeople’s vocal point. Everyone wants know where the horrific smell is coming from and what is in the closed out room that not a soul has gone into. The smell, the foul order reaches out past her home and the smell seeps out under the floor of her home. The town’s begins to complain about the smell emanating from the house. Faulkner’s says,

Faulkner’s use of southern gothic writing style helps the reader build a mental depiction of Miss Emily. When the town sent their ambassadors to discuss the taxes that were owed, Faulkner described Miss Emily as “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water” (2182). This description gives the reader the sense that the character is not well. Faulkner’s description that Miss Emily looked bloated achieves the desired effect on the reader to show how hideous she appears. This graphic description, combined with the author’s depressing description of the parlor (2182), makes the reader think of death. The reader gets the sense of being in a funeral parlor which helps to strengthen Faulkner’s narrative.

The house’s efficiency and helpfulness seem to make it cold and emotionless and the fact that it lives on after its inhabitants have passed just proves how the house is only a machine that is unable to love, this house will always be a house but it will never be a home.

“When Miss Emily Grierson died, our whole town went to her funeral- (Faulkner,1)”, this is the opening sentence to Faulkner’s short story. Immediately the reader is left wondering who is Miss Emily and how did she die. As the story begins to unravel, more suspense is built. The first major instance is after Emily’s father dies. She claims he is not dead

reader feel a sense of dread and despair because unlike the house the reader knows the owners

One of the biggest themes in the novel “The Sound and the Fury”, written by William Faulkner, is how the presence of time affects human life. The novel is separated into four different parts, Benjy’s, Quentin’s, Jason’s, and a third person narrative that could be considered Dilsey’s section. Benjy, Quentin, and Jason are all Compson children, and Dilsey is their black servant. The motif of time is obvious in this novel, as Faulkner emphasizes how the passing of time affects all four of our narrators differently.

At the beginning of the story, the reader learns that Miss Emily “is portrayed as ’a fallen monument,’… because she has shown herself susceptible to death (and decay) after all” (West 264). The house can also be perceived as a “fallen monument”(Faulkner 81) as the narrator

William Faulkner’s unconventional writing style is widely renowned for his disregard of literary rules and his keen ability to peer into the psychological depths of his characters. His novel As I Lay Dying is no exception to his signature style. This book sets forth the death of Addie Bundren, her family’s journey through Yoknapatawpha County to bury her with her relatives in Jefferson, Mississippi, and examines each character in depth from a variety of perspectives. While this journey wreaks havoc among members of the family, As I Lay Dying serves as a dark reminder that life is to be lived and that happiness is within reach.

The first section of the essay, “The Most Splendid Failure,” examines The Sound and the Fury as a(n) (ironic) modern recognition of the novel as a failed art form – if not language as a failed communicator.