Wrapping Up The Sound and the Fury

While I try as best to keep an open mind about literature, especially that of a different time period, I had a difficult time in doing so with The Sound and the Fury. I felt that while this novel had a lot of meaning and thought to it, obviously, I just had a very difficult time getting very attached to it, as well as having a difficult time in figuring out why this book should be apart of the canon of American Literature.
The language and word choice that Faulkner supplies us with adds even more difficulty in reading his novel. The time period that this novel takes place in is a very different time then what we live in today, making it hard ot understand the diction in the book.
Aside from language, I felt that in this book, basically every bad thing that could possibly happen to a family, happened. At times I just felt depressed and saddened for these characters.
In comparison to the other texts that we have read this year, I do not see much of a connection to the Sound and the Fury and The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald. While there was unfortunate events and sadness in The Great Gatsby, it was more accidental, and expected. For example Myrtle’s death was an accident, be it ever sad. And Mr Wilson murdering Gatsby and himself was certainly sad, but it wasn’t completely shocking. Wilson believed that Gatsby had killed his wife, so he reacted in a psychotic way. In The Sound and the Fury, the incest and tears and deaths were more depressing and unnecessary. I actually was reminded of the novel Of Mice and Men. This is probably one of my favorite books that I have ever read, inside or outside of an english classroom, but I did find it to be very sad and depressing. Benjy realled reminded me of Lenny, and even reading the novels you can tell how much love and appreciation these fictional characters have to give and its just sad when you read all the horrible things that happen to them.

The End of The Sound of the Fury

Page 319 -
“Ben quit wimpering. He sat in the middle of the seat, holding the repaired flower upright in his fist, his eyes serence and ineffable. Directly before him Luster’s bullet head turned backward continually until the house passed from view, then he pulled to the side of the street and while Ben watched him he descended and broke a switch from the hedge. Queenie lowered her head and fell to cropping the grass until Lester mounted and hauled her head up and harried her into motion again, then he squared his elbows and with the switch and the reins held high he assumed a swaggering attitude out of all proportion to the sedate clopping of Queenie’s hooves and the organlike basso of her internal accompaniment. Motors passed them, and pedestrians; once a group of half grown negroes…”

After looking very closely as this passage, I have reached several conclusions, as well as questions.
At the beginning of the passage we learn that Benjy had been crying, but was now calming down. What was calming him down? It could have possibly been the flower that had been broken, but was now “repaired.” Benjy is a simple person and it seems that the act of fixing a flower could relax and please him.
As Benjy is calming down Luster is watching a particular house and turns his head only when he can no longer see it. I can’t help but wonder, who’s house is it that Luster is so content on watching?
Once it gets to the point Luster can no longer see the house, they pull the car over and Queenie becomes upset. What happened to her that caused her to get emotional.
The next few sentences left me very confused. Something happens between Queenie and Luster, but I don’t really understand what. There is a discussion of mounting and hauling and Queenie’s “internal accompaniment.” I can’t help but wonder was there a sexual experience happening right here in which Benjy is watching? Or merely an argument or conversation? And what are all the bypassers thinking of this situation?

The Sound and the Fury

The passage that I picked for my post this week can be found on page 151, the 6th line up starting with “then I was crying…”
In this situation Quentin is very upset and Caddy is trying to comfort him. Something was really upsetting Quentin, causing him to cry, but Caddy acted out her role as a mother and tried to make him feel better by talking to him. They begin to reminisce about the day of Damuddy’s death. Not just her actual death, but the situation when Caddy sat down in the water in her underwear and got in trouble for it. As soon as they discussed this the narrator, Quentin, says “I held the point of the knife at her throat.” This statement took my by surprise. I didn’t understand what Quentin was doing, nor did I understand his motive. As I read on, I realized that Quentin was going to slit Caddy’s throat, and then his own. She is telling him to push harder on the knife, but he starts to cry and she ends the crazy idea to comfort him. All of a sudden she jumps up, asking what time it was, and did not continue with the knife.
This passage really confused me just because, to me, it seemed as though it was such a random thing to happen: have Quentin kill Caddy and then himself. He just doesn’t seem as though he would have that inside of him. While, obviously, he did not go through with it at this point, he seemed pretty intent in the moment. I think that Quentin truly loves Caddy, possibly in more ways than one, and this is why he was willing to end her less than perfect life, and then take his own. It seems like this is a popular love for Caddy… that unconditional, will do anything for you. Benjy also has a love for Caddy that is not exactly like Quentin’s love, but it is a very strong and meaningful one.

Comments.

Jan 26th – Devyn
Jan 26th – Alex

Feb. 2nd – Alex
Feb 2nd – Amanda Lea

February 9th – Michelle P
February 9th – Amanda Lea

Feb 16 – Michelle P
Feb 16 – Tammy

Feb 23 – Michelle P
Feb 23 – Devyn

March 2 alyssa
March 2 kaylin

March 9
March9

March 16 – Amanda Lea
March 16 – Becca

March 23 – Amanda Lea
March 23 – Becca

March 30 Kaylin
March 30 Dawn

April 6 Alyssa (blog11)
April 6 Becca

April 13 Courtney
April 13 tammy

April 20 Devon
April 20 cody

April 27
April 27

The End of the Great Gatsby

As Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby comes to an end, we are able to see some characters reach closure, while others are not as fortune. It seems that the end of the novel is a bit of a downward spiral in which all the things we, the readers, didnt want to happen, happened. It seems that this cycle began with the car accident, in which Daisy killed Myrtle outside of Wilson’s gas station. After this happens, it leads Tom to becoming very upset and depressed. Although Myrtle was just Tom’s secret mistress, and although he physically abused her, in some strange way we can sense that he does have some sort of an attachment and has feelings towards Myrtle. His marriage with Daisy is less than perfect, and it seems that Myrtle truly gave him happiness. Another obvious reason for Daisy and Tom’s failing marriage was that they were both having affairs. Daisy’s affair had much more meaning, and history to it. She had loved Gatsby for many many years and had very strong and real feelings towards him. Clearly Gatsby returned these feelings, because he offered to take the blame for Myrtle’s death, when it was in fact Daisy that was driving and ran her over. Gatsby was willing to sacrifice anything for Daisy, and this false confession he made, sacrificed his life. Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, was clearly very upset and angry over his wife’s accident. He went to Gatsby’s house and killed him, before killing himself. At this point the book just seems like it can’t go on, as the book’s namesake and one of the most central characters is dead. Without Gatsby, Daisy has no one to love who will love her back the way she deserves, and Nick Carraway is without a very close friend. After Gatsby’s death, the novel “wraps-up.” Daisy and Tom, both without their affairs, move out west, as they have nothing but each other anymore. This is very upsetting, because I think it is safe to say that Fitzgerald’s audience really wanted to see Daisy and Gatsby have their happily ever after.
The end of the novel, as sad as it is, is rather ironic. Death, exposed secrets, and rekindling bad relationships don’t seem like they will happen in the end of the book, but they all do. While the book is very sad, in a sense it is reality. In a perfect fairy-tale Daisy and Gatsby could have been together forever and lived the lives they had always dreamed of. But in real life, this would be very hard to achieve, as Fitzgerald demonstrated.
Although I have read The Great Gatsby before, reading it a second time, as an older and more mature person, I am able to understand that although it was a sad ending, it was most appropriate. Many movies and books just provide us with a happy, feel-good, unrealistic ending. Fitzgerald took the initiative to give his audiences an ending that, unfortunately, can be seen as realistic.

The End of the Great Gatsby

As Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby comes to an end, we are able to see some characters reach closure, while others are not as fortune. It seems that the end of the novel is a bit of a downward spiral in which all the things we, the readers, didnt want to happen, happened. It seems that this cycle began with the car accident, in which Daisy killed Myrtle outside of Wilson’s gas station. After this happens, it leads Tom to becoming very upset and depressed. Although Myrtle was just Tom’s secret mistress, and although he physically abused her, in some strange way we can sense that he does have some sort of an attachment and has feelings towards Myrtle. His marriage with Daisy is less than perfect, and it seems that Myrtle truly gave him happiness. Another obvious reason for Daisy and Tom’s failing marriage was that they were both having affairs. Daisy’s affair had much more meaning, and history to it. She had loved Gatsby for many many years and had very strong and real feelings towards him. Clearly Gatsby returned these feelings, because he offered to take the blame for Myrtle’s death, when it was in fact Daisy that was driving and ran her over. Gatsby was willing to sacrifice anything for Daisy, and this false confession he made, sacrificed his life. Wilson, Myrtle’s husband, was clearly very upset and angry over his wife’s accident. He went to Gatsby’s house and killed him, before killing himself. At this point the book just seems like it can’t go on, as the book’s namesake and one of the most central characters is dead. Without Gatsby, Daisy has no one to love who will love her back the way she deserves, and Nick Carraway is without a very close friend. After Gatsby’s death, the novel “wraps-up.” Daisy and Tom, both without their affairs, move out west, as they have nothing but each other anymore. This is very upsetting, because I think it is safe to say that Fitzgerald’s audience really wanted to see Daisy and Gatsby have their happily ever after.
The end of the novel, as sad as it is, is rather ironic. Death, exposed secrets, and rekindling bad relationships don’t seem like they will happen in the end of the book, but they all do. While the book is very sad, in a sense it is reality. In a perfect fairy-tale Daisy and Gatsby could have been together forever and lived the lives they had always dreamed of. But in real life, this would be very hard to achieve, as Fitzgerald demonstrated.
Although I have read The Great Gatsby before, reading it a second time, as an older and more mature person, I am able to understand that although it was a sad ending, it was most appropriate. Many movies and books just provide us with a happy, feel-good, unrealistic ending. Fitzgerald took the initiative to give his audiences an ending that, unfortunately, can be seen as realistic.