In beginning The Sound and the Fury from Benjy’s perspective, Faulkner challenges his readers’ instinctual perceptions both of the story’s physical setting, but also regarding the atmosphere of the characters’ personal interactions. With this approach Faulkner prevents readers from projecting narrative conventions upon the story while also highlighting the subjectivism of experience, a valuable notion to keep in mind while engaging with such a socially stratified society. Indeed, if we are to gain anything from Benjy’s section, we must submit to his way of relating to his world. After all, Benjy’s way of understanding his surroundings is marked by an extremely unique hierarchy of senses. For example, most people deem their sense of sight as primary to their understanding of reality. For Benjy, neither reality nor sight are clear or trustworthy.
Benjy doesn’t associate so much with distinct images as he does with the relative brightness of an object, or the shadows they cast. He describes how shapes fall and spin, and start and stop moving (arbitrarily, as it would seem to Benjy). And yet, he is not at a total cognitive loss: “When I was still, they were still. When I moved, they glinted and sparkled” (41). Here, Benjy recognizes the dependent factors intrinsic to the glittering phenomenon that occurs when he changes his physical position in relation to the box of stars. Moreover, whether or not he reserves obedience for those he trusts, he does have a basic understanding of the concept: “Caddy turned around and said ‘Hush’ So I hushed” (19).
Benjy’s gravitation towards Caddy may be explained by her effort to accommodate his unique perspective. While most of the other characters mock or patronize him, Caddy truly attempts to construct a system of communication between them, even though verbally it remains one-sided. At the branch, on a day that it is frozen over, Benjy perceives Caddy to be breaking off a piece of the water. To his knowledge, perhaps, water is simply a clear substance. Caddy explains the difference: “Ice. That means how cold it is” (13). She also touches the piece of ice to Benjy’s face, so that he may feel, too, the difference.
Most of the other characters either mock or dismiss Benjy’s experience. His own mother, for example, denies his limited capacity to connect facts and make logical deductions. When Benjy becomes fixated on waiting by the gate after Caddy marries and moves away, T.P. explains to Benjy’s mother that “[he] think if he down to the gate, Miss Caddy come back” (51). His mother’s narrow-mindedness results in her denial of the situation altogether: “Nonsense,” she responds (51). She is right, it is non-sensical to believe that Caddy will come through the gate just because she has come through the gate in the past. But her denial of his experience is counter-productive and limiting to her own understanding.
