The Simple View

Because of the precision with which William Faulkner crafted The Sound and the Fury, we know that Benjy’s point-of-view coming first out of the four was no accident. Every aspect of Faulkner’s novel—every word, every sentence—has a purpose, a reason for existing. The order of characters’ sections is no exception. Benjy is drastically different from the other characters; his mind has not evolved beyond that of a two-year-old’s. So why did Faulkner choose his point-of-view over any of the other Compson children’s? Because of Benjy’s mental condition, his ideas concerning what has happened in his lifetime will be the simplest, the least judgmental, and the first impressions Faulkner wants us as readers to establish in our minds.

One of the primary reasons Benjy’s point-of-view is used first is to establish a love and respect in our minds for Caddy. Benjy adores his older sister; as children, he would wait every day at the front gate for her to come home from school. Versh, Benjy’s caretaker when they were children, tells Caddy on one such day that nobody “[could] keep him in…. He kept on until they let him go and he come right straight down here, looking through the gate” (7). Caddy showers Benjy in love and affection. She sleeps with him even after the parents tell Benjy he’s too old to share a bed with Caddy and beats Jason up on the night he cuts up Benjy’s paper dolls. She is his beloved hero. Through Benjy’s eyes, our first glimpses of Caddy are from her younger days when she would outwit the other children into doing whatever she said. She was a bossy little troublemaker that we learned to love because of how sweet she always was to Benjy. In her quote, “It’s a party. Frony dont know anything about it. He wants your lightning bugs, T.P. Let him hold it awhile” (36), we see Caddy caring for Benjy even in the midst of being a know-it-all brat. The scenes involving Caddy entrance the reader; the section revolves around her, even though the thoughts and memories belong to Benjy.

Faulkner’s reason for creating such a positive image of Caddy at first is that her downfall and eventual departure become all the more tragic for us as readers. As Benjy’s mind switches from present to past, we eventually realize that Caddy is gone from his life, and after loving her along with Benjy, we miss her too. Benjy is longing for her in every moment of his day; he cries when he hears the golfers calling to their caddies. Through Benjy’s progressing memories, brought on by his longing, we watch his beloved childhood Caddy becoming a young woman. The fact that Caddy is growing older and Benjy can only stay the same age causes and irreparable separation between the two. For example, the first time Caddy wears perfume, Benjy is horrified; throughout his fondest memories of Caddy, he constantly tells us that “Caddy smelled like trees” (42). The fact that she has a new smell scares Benjy, because he doesn’t want his big sister to change. Unfortunately, neither of them can do anything to stop her changing. Benjy has no way of understanding that Caddy is eventually married off and sent away because she has shamed her family. He just wants his playmate—the girl who gave him the only true love he ever received—to come home. As readers, our hearts break to know that Caddy can never come home. Even if she did, she wouldn’t be the same girl Benjy remembered. He has lost her forever and is doomed to live his life in his memories of her. (612)