The Sound and the Fury

[Big Al]

Has anybody here read and understood this novel? If so, how did you pull that one off?

[djy78usa]

LOL... that is a tough one, esp. the first part. I read it all the way through the first time, but I definitely didn't understand the whole story. I recently read it again, this time with an online reader's companion, and was able to more thoroughly grasp everything. I can't remeber which site I used, but there are a couple good ones out there.

[Virgil]

The Sound and the Fury was a Forum Book Club monthly read. We had a fine discussion and reading through I think you can get a better understanding of the novel. Here: http://www.online-literature.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16592&highlight=sound+fury.

[SirJazzHands]

Yeah I used SparkNotes and some other things. Faulkner is my favorite author. I have to read notes with him in conjunction but I see no shame in that. Don't try to act bigger than you are, more or less.

[waryan]

SirJazzHands, whatever works to help you grasp it. I'm no genius- I too prefer much of the same supplementation when availible.

[kelby_lake]

All I know is that the title is from Macbeth :)

[Quark]

Has anybody here read and understood this novel? If so, how did you pull that one off?

Upon two readings I think I have pulled that one off. The first attempt is always going to be challenging because Faulkner doesn't indicate to the reader what the focus on the novel is. The Sound and the Fury is really about Caddy, but we don't entirely understand that immediately. It seems like it's the story of these three brothers, but actually the focus is always on the sister. Having the brothers tell her story is brilliant, of course. Unfortunately, though, it really makes it difficult to follow because their personalities get in the way of smooth narration.


The Sound and the Fury was a Forum Book Club monthly read. We had a fine discussion and reading through I think you can get a better understanding of the novel.

I wish I had been there for that. It was a little before I started posting regularly, though. Maybe Faulkner will come around again sometime soon in the book club. Have you done Absalom! Absalom!?

[mayneverhave]

I feel like I've answered this question a million times on this forum.

Just a few things.

Don't overly concern yourself with plot - it is secondary to style and theme.
I believe there is a hypertext version that you can find on google that lays out the first two sections of the novel in chronological order so check it out.

The prose is absolutely gorgeous, and the novel is easily my favorite ever written. The varying themes include nihilism, absurdism, the hope for rebirth/renewal, etc.

Absalom, Absalom! is stylisticly harder but a great novel in its own right. I'm just partial to The Sound and the Fury myself.

[Virgil]

I wish I had been there for that. It was a little before I started posting regularly, though. Maybe Faulkner will come around again sometime soon in the book club. Have you done Absalom! Absalom!?

No but I would love to do Light In August. :)

[Jozanny]

No but I would love to do Light In August. :)

I'm off-topic, but I would not know if I have the energy to do Light In August again. It was one of my main studies at Temple, and to me, represents Faulkner in his bleakest condemnation of Southern society, not just its racism.

Many of Faulkner's works have a certain pathos, but in this novel, the protagonist is a hard man, we get to see what made him that way, and what happens to him is almost perverse in the understatement of its horror, not that I want to be too specific about that for those who are unfamiliar with the book, but Faulkner bragged that he created a Nazi before he read about them in the papers.

I think he's right about that.

[integrity]

Has anybody here read and understood this novel? If so, how did you pull that one off?

Ha! This cracked me up.

I tried reading it about three years ago. I got about a quarter of the way through and gave up. I chalked it up to "literary taste." I don't like to do homework when I read :lol:. I thought it was interesting, and if I was willing to read it, say, three times, maybe I would figure out what it was all about...I just wasn't willing to invest that much time into it. Maybe one day. (Prizes go to those who have done their homework. And if you mastered Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce...you are awarded the biggest prize of all!)

[Quark]

No but I would love to do Light In August. :)

That's the novel I had problems reading. It just seemed so slow. Does it go anywhere eventually?


I feel like I've answered this question a million times on this forum.

Well it couldn't have been more than 128 times, right? Are there even that many Sound and the Fury discussions open? I'll have to a do a search.


Don't overly concern yourself with plot - it is secondary to style and theme.
I believe there is a hypertext version that you can find on google that lays out the first two sections of the novel in chronological order so check it out.

The prose is absolutely gorgeous, and the novel is easily my favorite ever written.

I sort of agree. I think you're right that the novel is less about the plot and more about the manner in which the plot is told. But, I don't know if I'd say that the style or prose is really the main attraction. This is, of course, personal opinion--and I know a lot people love simple, unadorned prose--but I've never found the actual wording of The Sound and the Fury to be particularly interesting. It seems more functional than anything else. You're not going to get many vivid images, well-constructed symbols, witty lines, or precise descriptions. Also, some things about the prose really annoys me. He keeps using repetition to show subjectivity or to create dramatic effect, but it just get tiresome after a while. At some point we get it, and shouldn't Faulkner move on? So, the prose isn't much of a draw for me; but, that isn't to say that Faulkner didn't tell the story well. No, I think he told to story extremely well, and that's why I sort of agree. Faulkner was one of the best at using perspective and voice. Having the three brothers tell the story was great choice by Faulkner, and it makes the novel what it is.

[Proust71]

Haha. Indeed, it took me at least a couple days of re-reading the first segment to realize Ben was associating present reality with past experiences he occurred with his sister Caddie. What really helped in my reading, or rather, perusing, this novel was the edition I purchased, the Norton Critical Edition. The appendix detailed thoroughly the historical background of the Compson family, geography, and personal profiles of the essential Compson personages in the novel. Very enlightening.

[Virgil]

I'm off-topic, but I would not know if I have the energy to do Light In August again. It was one of my main studies at Temple, and to me, represents Faulkner in his bleakest condemnation of Southern society, not just its racism.

Many of Faulkner's works have a certain pathos, but in this novel, the protagonist is a hard man, we get to see what made him that way, and what happens to him is almost perverse in the understatement of its horror, not that I want to be too specific about that for those who are unfamiliar with the book, but Faulkner bragged that he created a Nazi before he read about them in the papers.

I think he's right about that.

Jozy, it was bleak but I do think there was redemption at the end. Hightower helps Lena with the birth and Byron will marry Lena and raise the baby and family. Frankly Light In August is one of the greatest novels ever. The double Christ motif (cruxifiction of Joe) and the miraculous birth of Lena's baby is truely one of the great structural conceptions I've encountered. Plus the writing is Faulkner at his best.

[hhc]

Frankly, I don't think you have to understand a book to like it.

The first time I read it, I didn't understand a single word.
Still, I cried when Quentin died and I fell in love with Jason's ruthless sarcasm.
And, of course, I was something more than amazed with Faulkner's poetry. (I suggest that you read the book aloud to yourself and listen to what it sounds like. Pure music, makes you ecstatic.)

But if you don't really care about all that and want to know what in Heaven's name was Faulkner trying to say with 200 pages of incomprehensible text, I don't think there is an answer. ;)
Faulkner is dead.

So you'll have to figure it out for yourself. After all, that's the point of reading. :)

[book_jones]

Hey cool my first post!

I didn't have that much difficulty understanding the book on my second attempt. By then I had read several Faulkner books and was very much used to his style. Perhaps only experience makes reading The Sound and The Fury easy. It's similar to how you have to read Shakespeare for a little while before it makes any sense to you.

As far as the story goes you have to piece it together yourself. I love how the narrators are telling their own stories and ignoring the book's story. It was a very bold move, and I never get offended when people say they don't understand it. It isn't easy.