The traditional South, it was something that Faulkner could not help but to put into his crazy and chaotic book. In The Sound and The Fury, William Faulkner involves the decline of the South through some tragic and humorous characters and events. From the chaos of Benjy’s mind to the obsessive mind of Quentin and even the money driven and arrogant mind of Jason, Faulkner shows us how the Compson family represents the decline of the South. Falkner, having lived through the early 1900’s and even through the 1920’s, shows how the male, female, and even entire family changed in the Age of Wonderful Nonsense.
This new age was very strange to those entering it and many people just went with the flow an excepted the change. The United States was changing in industry, in product consumption, and in technology, but the strangest change had to be the change of the people, especially women. Women, like Caddy, were now becoming more and more dangerous by pushing the boundaries of fashion, of the female role in society, and even the motherly figure in women. Caddy was becoming more and more promiscuous. She was seeing many men, and she even had a child out of wedlock, which was unheard of in those days.
Though Caddy was not the only example of the decline of the South, Benjy was as well. Benjy was by far the most random and chaotic thinker because of the fact that he was mentally challenged. Faulkner shows us the decline of the South through Benjy by showing us how the South is not as well-ordered as we thought it was. Even Quentin, who seemed to be a very well educated Harvard student, and who seemed to have everything going for him until it is discovered that he was obsessed with Caddy’s virginity and her not being very “ladylike”.
Author: Leona Watson