Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Sound and the Fury

My opinions rarely have any value, but here I go again anyway:

The Sound and the Fury is unlike any book I have ever read. The style is extremely confusing throughout the book, jumping in and out of thoughts without warning. The author depends on the reader to determine between a character's thoughts and what is actually happening.
Time means absolutely nothing--Faulkner cares not for chronological order. This is most noticeable in Benjy's chapter when Benjy jumps from reality to his memories of Caddy long ago. It is very similar Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five and Billy's state of being stuck in time to revisit instances of his life.
Quinten, however, is "stuck in time" in a different sense than that of Billy. Instead of revisiting many instances in his life, he is stuck in one particular moment: Caddy's pregnancy. Although he is physically in the now, his mind is permanently left behind in that moment. The chapter constantly jumps back and forth from reality (the now) and Quinten's mind (the then).

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