'The Sound and the Fury': Favorites

[Scheherazade]

Who is your favorite character in The Sound and the Fury and why? What is your favorite quote/passage?



Book Club Procedures

[papayahed]

I was thinking about this the other day, my favorites are a toss up between Luster, dilsey, and Miss Quinten. I'm leaning towards Luster though.

[Riesa]

He stood there beside the giant rabbit of a mule, the two of them motionless and unimpatient. The train swung around the curve, the engine puffing with short, heavy blasts, and they passed smoothly from sight that way, with that quality about them of shabby and timeless patience, of static serenity: that blending of childlike and ready incompetence and paradoxical reliability that tends and protects them it loves out of all reason and robs them steadily and evades responsibility and obligations by means too barefaced to be called subterfuge even and is taken in theft of evasion with only that frank and spontaneous admiration for the victor which a gentleman feels for anyone who beats him in a fair contest, and withal a fond and unflagging tolerance for whitefolks' vagaries like that of a grandparent for unpredictable and troublesome children, which I had forgotten. And all that day, while the train wound through rushing gaps and along ledges where movement was only a laboring sound of the exhaust and groaning wheels and the eternal mountains stood fading into the thick sky, I thought of home, of the bleak station and the mud and the niggers and country folks thronging slowly about the square, with toy monkeys and wagons and candy in sacks and roman candles sticking out, and my insides would move like they used to do in school when the bell rang.

Breathtaking. and has so much to do with so many of the themes that have been discussed. I'd love this book just for that passage alone.

[Virgil]

He stood there beside the giant rabbit of a mule, the two of them motionless and unimpatient. The train swung around the curve, the engine puffing with short, heavy blasts, and they passed smoothly from sight that way, with that quality about them of shabby and timeless patience, of static serenity: that blending of childlike and ready incompetence and paradoxical reliability that tends and protects them it loves out of all reason and robs them steadily and evades responsibility and obligations by means too barefaced to be called subterfuge even and is taken in theft of evasion with only that frank and spontaneous admiration for the victor which a gentleman feels for anyone who beats him in a fair contest, and withal a fond and unflagging tolerance for whitefolks' vagaries like that of a grandparent for unpredictable and troublesome children, which I had forgotten. And all that day, while the train wound through rushing gaps and along ledges where movement was only a laboring sound of the exhaust and groaning wheels and the eternal mountains stood fading into the thick sky, I thought of home, of the bleak station and the mud and the niggers and country folks thronging slowly about the square, with toy monkeys and wagons and candy in sacks and roman candles sticking out, and my insides would move like they used to do in school when the bell rang.

Breathtaking. and has so much to do with so many of the themes that have been discussed. I'd love this book just for that passage alone.

Wow, that is very nice, Riesa. Where is that from?

[Riesa]

Virgil, it's from Quentin's chapter, p. 56 of my book, about 8 pages in.

[Virgil]

Virgil, it's from Quentin's chapter, p. 56 of my book, about 8 pages in.

Thanks. I'll check it when I get home. If you like that passage, you should read Faulkner's Light In August, one of his novels in third person. He's got such passages all over the place there. While I loved The Sound and the Fury, Light In August remains my favorite Faulkner novel. It's incredible.

[Riesa]

Thanks. I'll check it when I get home. If you like that passage, you should read Faulkner's Light In August, one of his novels in third person. He's got such passages all over the place there. While I loved The Sound and the Fury, Light In August remains my favorite Faulkner novel. It's incredible.

I'll add it to my list.

[Ryduce]

Thanks. I'll check it when I get home. If you like that passage, you should read Faulkner's Light In August, one of his novels in third person. He's got such passages all over the place there. While I loved The Sound and the Fury, Light In August remains my favorite Faulkner novel. It's incredible.

Light in August is my favorite Faulkner.It's not difficult like TSATF,but it is an incredible read.Joe Christmas is another great character of Faulkners.

[Scheherazade]

Usually I have hard time finding a hard time to find a character I really like in a book but in this one, I have a few.

Dilsey is the obvious one with her solid and reliable character. However, I simply love Benjy's chapter and also Luster himself. His childishly funny antics while tending Benjy, his desperate search for the quarter he lost and desire to go to the show makes him a favorite as well. I like Miss Quentin because she refuses to give in to Jason and, in my opinion, is, like her mother, a survivor. Despite all the pressure, she gets her revenge on her uncle. She is a 'do-er', not a 'talker, unlike most members of her family. Also, Jason... I know that he is not a likeable character as a person; he is mean, seslfish and petty. However, while I was reading I couldn't help feeling that there was a cold humour in his actions and speech even when he was at his cruelest, like when he refuses to give the show tickets to Luster and drops them into stove in front of him. Very funny!

[Basil]

"Aint you a grown man, now. Luster said. "Playing with two weeds in a bottle. You know what they going to do with you when Miss Cahline die. They going to send you to Jackson, where you belong. Mr Jason say so. Where you can hold the bars all day long with the rest of the looneys and slobber. How you like that."
Luster knocked the flowers over with his hand. "That's what they'll do to you at Jackson when you starts bellering."
I tried to pick up the flowers. Luster picked them up, and they went away. I began to cry.
"Beller." Luster said. "Beller. You want something to beller about. All right, then. Caddy." he whispered. "Caddy. Beller now. Caddy."

I don't have a lot of love for Luster.

[Virgil]

I don't have a lot of love for Luster.

Yeah, but don't be too hard on him. He's a kid.

[Scheherazade]

Yes, Luster is a kid, who is charged with the haevy duty of taking care of a man who is at least twice his own age. His childishness shows itself in his desire to impress his friends with the carriage he is riding or his insistence on wearing his new hat on a rainy day etc. And he has to endure constant cruel teasing of Jason.

Carrying on with other characters... I really try to like Caddy in the book because she is a survivor and tries to do her best to please her brothers, trying to step into her mother's shoes. However, we never get to know the 'real' Caddy but her brothers' perception of her. I really wish she had not given up her daughter when she left.

The parents... I think Mrs C is one of the characters I like the least in books. I believe the downfall of the family, husband and her children are mostly her failing. All she seems to care about is herself and what other people will think; not how her children will feel or be affected. The quote 'Whoever God is, He would not permit that. I’m a lady. You might not believe that from my offspring, but I am.' pretty much sums her up, I believe. I wish Mr C was stronger figure to take control, rather than giving in to his wife's antics.

Dilsey reminds me of Mammy-Two Shoes from 'Tom and Jerry' series:



*edit*

D'oh! Just noticed that I voted for Luster instead of Dilsey in the poll! Shouldn't post after midnight on the Forum!

[ShoutGrace]

"And Father said it's because you are a virgin: don't you see? Women are never virgins. Purity is a negative state and therefore contrary to nature. It's nature is hurting you not Caddy and I said That's just words and he said So is virginity and I said you don't know. You can't know and he said Yes. On the instant when we come to realize that tragedy is secondhand."

I never have understood that last sentence. I get to the point where I think maybe Faulkner made a grammatical error (lol). Virgil can you help me?

"Man the sum of what have you. A problem in impure properties carried tediously to an unvarying nil : stalemate of dust and desire. But now I know I'm dead I tell you"

"'Because women so delicate so mysterious Father said. Delicate equlibrium of periodical filth between two moons balanced. Moons he said full and yellow as harvest moons her hips thighs. Outside outside of them always but. Yellow. Feet soles with walking like. Then know that some man that all those mysterious and imperious concealed. With all that inside of them shapes an outward suavity waiting for a touch to. Liquid putrefication like drowned things floating like pale rubber flabbily filled getting the odour of honeysuckle all mixed up."

I guess I was going through an odd period in my life because those parts really meant the most to me when I first read the novel.

And then later when Faulkner (partly) explains the honeysuckle. I guess it is Quentin that is later lying in bed saying that

"Honeysuckle is the saddest odour of all, I think. I remember lots of them. Wistaria was one." And he again uses the phrase "Getting the odour of honeysuckle all mixed up." Those were my favorite parts of the novel. When Faulkner would use a random phrase early on and mention it again later and give it relevance.

[Virgil]

"And Father said it's because you are a virgin: don't you see? Women are never virgins. Purity is a negative state and therefore contrary to nature. It's nature is hurting you not Caddy and I said That's just words and he said So is virginity and I said you don't know. You can't know and he said Yes. On the instant when we come to realize that tragedy is secondhand."

I never have understood that last sentence. I get to the point where I think maybe Faulkner made a grammatical error (lol). Virgil can you help me?

Just a guess here on my part. Aristotle expains that tragedy is a catharsis, that is the reader/audience experiences the pain and suffering of the characters and feels relief from it. But within the context of the novel, Mr C is a real person talking to a real son who is feeling the tragedy. I think it shows how removed from reality Mr Compson is.

"'Because women so delicate so mysterious Father said. Delicate equlibrium of periodical filth between two moons balanced. Moons he said full and yellow as harvest moons her hips thighs. Outside outside of them always but. Yellow. Feet soles with walking like. Then know that some man that all those mysterious and imperious concealed. With all that inside of them shapes an outward suavity waiting for a touch to. Liquid putrefication like drowned things floating like pale rubber flabbily filled getting the odour of honeysuckle all mixed up."

I guess I was going through an odd period in my life because those parts really meant the most to me when I first read the novel.

You weren't punning on the word "period" were you? I really don't like Mr. Compson. I can't help blaming him for the family problems. Others in other posts seem to feel that Mrs. Compson is more to blame for the children's personalities. True, she's no winner, but the father's warped view (nihilism, defeatism, alcohoism, paralisis) allows the tragic actions to develop.

And then later when Faulkner (partly) explains the honeysuckle. I guess it is Quentin that is later lying in bed saying that

"Honeysuckle is the saddest odour of all, I think. I remember lots of them. Wistaria was one." And he again uses the phrase "Getting the odour of honeysuckle all mixed up." Those were my favorite parts of the novel. When Faulkner would use a random phrase early on and mention it again later and give it relevance.

You know, it just happens that I'm on a business trip to northern Alabama, which is a couple of hours drive from Faulkner's Mississippi. It still April, like in the novel. I smell honeysuckle (or what I think is honeysuckle) all around me. The air just has an aroma, very pleasant. I smell the trees! Caddy? Are you there?

[Riesa]

The parents... I think Mrs C is one of the characters I like the least in books.

I really hated her, ugh, in April 8th where he's describing the sound of her voice as she repeats Dilsey's name over and over while Dilsey is painfully shuffling around lighting fires and generally seeing to the running of the house. How annoyingly well-written she is.

"I've been lying there for an hour, at least," Mrs. Compson said. "I thought maybe you were waiting for me to come down and start the fire."

What a martyr.