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  • Essay / The Individuality of Caddy Compson in The Sound and The Fury

    In Faulker's The Sound and the Fury, Caddy, the central character, never has a voice. Instead, his character is revealed through the stories of his three brothers. As the novel is largely surrounded by the notion of alternating truths, these three perspectives take very different angles. By using the three different narratives, Faulkner emphasizes the individuality of man, even among family members, and facilitates this idea of ​​alternating truths: this truth is essentially subjective in nature and relies heavily on the eye of the beholder. The fact that Caddy has no voice forces the reader to examine the perspectives of Benjy, Quentin, and Jason and come up with their own vision of who the real Caddy is. These three brothers have very different personalities and intelligence levels, resulting in very dichotomous views of Caddy. She is a mother figure, a whore, the only pure thing, a lost case of innocence, or many other things depending on which of her brothers one believes. But despite their disagreement over how good her character is, all of the brothers constantly remember many things about Caddy and are tormented by her memory in one way or another. They lament his loss of innocence or his flight into adulthood or something else that makes them feel violated or insecure. The reader discovers each narrator's feelings about Caddy through reflections, and in these reflections we can understand and learn as much about the narrator as we do about Caddy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In Benjy's case, Caddy simply defines his existence. Throughout her section, there are constant references to Caddy and events that involve her presence. Caddy's first appearance in the novel comes when Benjy remembers her saying: Keep your hands in your pockets... Or they'll freeze... You don't want your hands frozen at Christmas, don't you? -it's not. Immediately, she comes across as caring and motherly. Caddy means a lot to Benjy because she is the only one who respects him and tries to understand his mentally deficient state. Other characters in the novel tend to denigrate him or yell at him to shut up because they don't understand how his mind works. Suffocate. said Frony. You need a whip, that's what you need.(20) Others can't understand what he wants when he bellows. His only form of expression is screaming and crying, but Caddy is able to read his emotions and determine what he wants. Benjy remembers a time when he started bellowing because Caddy had perfume. She is able to recognize what is bothering him and washes away the scent just to ease his mind. Of course, Caddy won't do it. Of course, Caddy doesn't wear the perfume... Dilsey... Benjy has a present for you. She leaned over and put the bottle in my hand. Hold it to Dilsey, now... We don't like perfumes ourselves.(27) Here, Caddy reveals herself as Benjy's protector and the only person who will give of herself to ensure his happiness. This also shows Benjy's obsession with routines. Due to Benjy's mental state, change is an unsettling force for him. In his small world, made up of a very limited number of people and space, it is preferable that everything functions routinely and that he has access to the few things that give him pleasure. He loves Caddy as she is and wants her to remain in her one-dimensional, timeless existence without changing. His maturation and experimentation with perfume become areas of sadness and cause him to cry. You are a big boy. Said Dilsey. Caddytired of sleeping with you. Shut up now, so you can sleep... but I didn't shut up... (28) This memory is particularly revealing because having someone to sleep with to make you feel comfortable and safe is something we normally associate with early childhood. But Benjy has no desire to break out of this shell. His obsession with routines and the norm prevents him from truly growing and results in his fixed state over time. The fact that he lives in this fixed state becomes problematic due to the fact that Caddy is his only maternal figure. Not only does she protect him and sleep with him, but she takes care of him, defends him and ensures his happiness. Is mom very sick? » said Caddy. No, my father said. Are you going to take very good care of Maury? Yes, Caddy said. (p. 48) Although it is good for Benjy to have this mother figure, it becomes dangerous because, unlike a normal mother, Caddy cannot stay there for very long. Finally, she leaves the house and then leaves her brother and his little world. This has a dramatic effect on Benjy as he spends most of his time waiting for Caddy to return and thinking about her because he doesn't understand why she had to leave. We understand this to mean that his attention is so narrow that he cannot comprehend the real world and the expanse beyond the Compson house. He lives only on a ruined estate and goes through life as if it were a day, almost oblivious to the collapse occurring within the family around him. Quentin's section presents the reader with a more intellectually advanced response to Caddy. Like Benjy, Quentin has many memories of Caddy and struggles with some of the same attachments and desires. They are so similar in their obsession with their sister that it is almost fair to say that Quentin's section is the intellectual extension of his brother's. He feels and behaves close to how one would imagine Benjy would if he were mentally capable. Quentin's first memory of Caddy illustrates this extension beyond Benjy's abilities. I committed incest, I said Father, it was me, it wasn't Dalton Ames. (51) Here he remembers confessing that he had committed incest with Caddy to his father, which actually never happened. But the fact that he admits it indicates his quasi-sexual feelings for his sister and also his limit of madness. Due to the explicit nature of the comment, it cannot even be guaranteed that he actually made such confessions. He may be imagining what it would have been like to confess such a thing to his father. Regardless, this scene takes the strong feelings Benjy has for Caddy, which are so pure because of their naivety and ignorance, and twists them into a highly intellectual and contemplative spirit. His sexual feelings are confused, however, because they are only expressed. of a desire to protect her from the world. Only you and me then in the middle of the pointing and the horror walled in by the own flame.(74) Caddy's promiscuity and blossoming sexuality torment Quentin to the point that he can no longer function normally. He mixes his pain over her committing sexual acts with others and the influences around him that try to convince him that virginity and innocence are shams and simply meaningless inventions of men. He said it was men who invented virginity, not women. Father said it is like death: only a state in which others are left.(50) Purity is a negative state and therefore contrary to nature. It's nature that hurts you, not Caddy... (74) His memories of Caddy reveal that he tries to combat his pain related to his sexuality by trying to isolate himself with her. Quentin shot Herbert, he shothis voice through the floor of Caddy's room. (67) He tries to drive away every man she is involved with and at one point even imagines threatening Dalton Ames to leave town. In a setting that resembles an old western, Quentin imagines standing up to Dalton Ames and protecting his sister, which probably didn't really happen. His struggle is analogous to someone trying to put their finger on a leaky faucet in that he wants to temporarily stop the flow of men into Caddy's life. He remembers conversations with her where he talked about running away together. On what money did your school money sell the pasture so you could go to Harvard... (79) Quentin gives Caddy a voice and brings the reader back to reality from daydreams and contemplations of Quentin as she rejects his proposal and tries to make him realize what he should focus on in life. Here we see Quentin's memories and speech become muddled and rapid as the section progresses. Thinking about Caddy gradually makes him frantic and disorganized in his thought pattern. Quentin is ideological because he is obsessed with protecting Caddy, but with no real solution or outcome. Through his references to Caddy's sexual experiences that he witnessed, the reader realizes the high price Quentin places on his virginity and the torment he inflicts on himself. He overemphasizes the importance of her remaining pure and inflates her in a way that causes more internal pain. Her head against the twilight, her arms behind her kimono-winged head, the voice blowing other clothes of Eden onto the bed through the nose seen above the apple.(67) Quentin illustrates the imagery of Garden of Eden when he describes her making love to someone else and this shows the great importance he attaches to this act. Him watching also depicts his apparent level of jealousy and self-destructive desire to emotionally crush himself. After two sections in which the narrators are in love or infatuated with Caddy, Jason offers a strong contrast to this mentality from the beginning. lines. Once a slut, always a slut, that's what I'm saying.(117) Although this comment refers to Miss Quentin, Caddy's daughter, Jason's attitude toward both of them goes hand in hand. He calls Caddy and her daughter selfishly promiscuous and sees their behavior as the main reason for the decline of the Compson family's reputation. Unlike his two brothers, Jason feels no love for his sister and does not care about protecting her from harm to her personal reputation or getting involved with the wrong kind of man. His only concern is how his actions reflect on him and the family name. Jason's memories of Caddy's character are far fewer than those of his brothers and are usually presented vicariously through his mother. “You don’t know,” said Mother. That my own daughter would be rejected by her husband. “Poor little innocent baby,” she said, looking at Quentin. “You will never know the suffering you have caused.” (125) Due to his naturally selfish and petty personality and being surrounded primarily by his mother, who has this kind of attitude towards her daughter, Jason develops a very condescending opinion towards Caddy. His memories are very rarely a direct conversation with Caddy, but instead follow the idea that he has internalized his mother's morally biased preachings. She seeks to avoid Caddy and also blames him for the fall of the Compson family. Mrs. Compson tends to isolate Jason as her only good child and therefore gives Jason justification to continue behaving in a cynical and accusatory manner. In an important memory, we see Jason's character revealed in.