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  • Essay / Faulkner's Disastrous Centerpiece in The Sound and The Fury

    William Faulkner presents Caddy's story in The Sound and the Fury in a unique and accurate way by showing how her family perceives her. Caddy's life becomes the central conflict in the Compsons' lives, and her story, paralleling the ultimate demise of the family and its members, is depicted in the novel's four distinct narratives. While Caddy remains speechless throughout Faulkner's book, it is her absence that singularizes her importance in the novel and her brothers' obsession with her purity that reveals her character and influence on the decline of the Compson family . Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Benjy's section, consisting mostly of childhood flashbacks, reveals Caddy's initial innocence. Benjy considers his sister a living mother figure and he always turns to her for comfort. He associates it with all the love and kindness he has ever known. Benjy can "smell" Caddy's purity, which he associates with the clean, pure smell of trees. He becomes very upset when she seems impure to him. For example, when Benjy catches Caddy and a boy kissing on the swing, he cries and drags her away. He remembers: “Caddy took the kitchen soap and washed her mouth out at the sink, hard. Caddy smelled like trees” (48). Benjy is comforted when he can feel her purity again. Just as Benjy depends on Caddy's purity for comfort, Caddy also finds comfort from her shameful life in Benjy's innocence and faithfulness. Benjy remembers Caddy once saying, “It’s always raining.” I hate the rain. I hate everything. "And then her head came into my lap, and she was crying, holding me, and I started crying" (57). When Caddy leaves, Benjy has lost his only true source of love and comfort TP tells Benjy, “You can't do anything good by looking out the door Miss Caddy's already gone far away… You can't do anything good by crying… She can't hear you” (51). Benjy becomes sadder after he leaves and is often upset, increasing the burden he places on the family. Benjy's section is the only one where Caddy is shown in an innocent light, due to the ironic fact that Benjy. , mentally retarded, is the only one who can see his goodness. Faulkner uses Quentin's obsession with Caddy's purity, which ultimately leads to his suicide, to further illustrate his central importance. purity of his sister for comfort He becomes very upset when she begins to behave promiscuously. In his anger, he often asks his college roommates, "Did you ever have a sister?" He develops a hatred for all men who "take away" Caddy from the family and from himself. Partly because he wants to protect the "purity" of Compson's ironically shameful name, Quentin develops the idea that he should have Caddy all to himself. He said to his father: “Father, I have committed incest” (79). Watching from the bridge, he thinks of Caddy and wishes: "If it could be hell beyond this, then you'll only have me, then only me" (116)2E Quentin's need to save purity of Caddy evolves into an anxious state of depression which is only intensified by her father's philosophical advice. Mr. Compson tells Quentin that life has no meaning and that “time is dead, as long as it is moved by little wheels” (85). Mr. Compson, a convicted alcoholic, repeatedly tells Quentin that nothing is important, that virginity (Caddy's) is "just a word" (116). Quentin, who refuses to accept the fact that the purity of his.