Author Archives: Rayana Paris

Shreve’s Place

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Shreve is the kind of narrator I believe we all needed at this point of the story. He recounts the events of Miss Rosa, Thomas Sutpen, Henry, Judith, and Charles Bon- and Quentin’s involvement in the whole storyline- in much the same way I’ve been narrating it in my head. The entire timeline is a challenge to keep track of chronologically with each new piece of information either unfolded or put together through Quentin, his father’s, and Miss Rosa’s personal perspectives. A lot of events feel almost hard to comprehend in their own separate regard. Putting each piece together makes a bewildering story!

Shreve’s retelling reminds Quentin of his father’s style of storytelling and I think it’s in part of how unbiased he seems to be in his rehashing of events. Yes, his personal regards as to how incredulous the story is are felt through the narrative but ultimately he isn’t assigning roles to people the same way Miss Rosa had to Suptin (ogre/demon) or reimagining events as a moment in his own life like Quentin had with the reverie about Henry on the stairs as him and Addy. Shreve simply goes over these events as he’s heard them. Having such a removed place from the story gives us, the readers, a break from trying to figure out the facts of the history from the narrators influenced retellings.The way I imagined this story being put together is like reading a few reviews on a newly released movie, some saying the actor is terrible and some claiming it’s the actor’s best work. You won’t know the truth of the matter until you watch it for yourself but even then it cannot be considered “the truth of the matter” because it’s not only an opinion- your opinion as the viewer- but one that has been swayed one way or the other, if subconsciously. You go into the film with both perspectives and am made to pick a side- or come up with a new side that incorporates them. Shreve has taken everyone’s review, their side, and put them together forming his own view of the story (an amazed one).

As Faulkner manages to insert himself into his novels, here he’s given us a character to represent the outsider’s perspective including us (the readers) as the outsider. Faulkner nods to this when he says at the beginning of the chapter, where Shreve asks for clarification on his relation to Miss Rosa and Quentin recounts the questions people have asked, “[…] not Shreve’s first time, nobody’s first time in Cambridge since September: Tell about the South. […] Why do they live there. Why do they live at all.” Through Shreve and his questioning for clarifications (and Quentin’s more existential interpretation of these questions), we’re able to get a better understanding of the story that we wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. From all of the narrators we’ve had thus far, the story has yet to be called out plainly for what it is essentially- Southern gossip only being told because it would be against Southern manners for Quentin to tell Miss Rosa he has no interest in it as it has nothing to do with him. I don’t think it would be in any one narrator’s character to do so- except the non-American non-southern one.

Addie and New Hope

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I’d like to preface this by noting my page numbers are different in my version of the text but not far off from other versions- my apologies
I hadn’t thought much of the significance “New Hope” held until the class was brought to look at it as a motif in the story. I had only known “New Hope” as the town Addie was stone-cold set on not being buried at with Anse’s family but instead in Jefferson with her blood relatives. This fact alone brings so much meaning to New Hope as an idea. Looking at it figuratively, Addie didn’t want any new hope in her afterlife- or didn’t think there would be any there for her. I think she had spent whatever hopes she had while alive- if there were any, to begin with. She had settled on the fact that her life was as it was, her husband was who it was, her kids were as they were just like her father predicted she’d settle, “my father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time” (Faulkner 158). Her last request proved to be her last metaphoric middle-finger to it all, maybe more so to Anse for “violating her aloneness” and (as I read it) making her feel love, “My aloneness had been violated and then made whole again by the violation: time, Anse, love, what you will, outside the circle” (Faulkner 158). Addie even admitted to having this be her revenge on Anse for this life she had as a mother and wife.
Darl comments on how Addie is the rim of a spoke, the roads all connecting to her (73) as they pass the sign for New Hope’s church which holds “a tranquil assertion” (73) like Addie. Everyone is made aware of how easily they could simply stop at New Hope to bury her if they dared- that’s why the reactions are so minimal. Each family member seemed to try ignoring this blatant option, other than Cash who mentions how Addie will start to smell sooner or later. If he dared, I’m sure he would have added, “We should just bury her here” save for the love he held for Addie. All of the mishaps that happen on the journey past New Hope to Jefferson would have been avoided if they had resolved to ignore her wish but as a running theme in the story, the consequences in the afterlife far outweighed the practicality of ending the trip through New Hope. Of course, beyond New Hope held more than just practicalities for the Bundrens. This is how Addie is the rim, the connecting point for the side-quests the Bundrens went on.
Having the Bundrens pass the New Hope sign twice served as a bit of a Sisyphean moment. Just as they left, so they return- with the same selfish thoughts and driving forces as when Addie had been alive. Addie being called the rim of a spoke also lends itself to that idea of a Sisyphean cycle. Sisyphus had also cheated death twice, which is why he is sentenced to repeatedly roll the rock up the mountain. Now, as Addie had lived her life settling so are her children, especially Dewey Dell who mirrors Addie’s initial repulsion to children (or just not wanting any). The entire journey centering around Addie’s last act of revenge, having all roads of her family’s life tied to hers, makes me think of “New Hope” as “Addie”. They serve as the same revolving factor for the entire story. Without “New Hope” or “Addie” the story simply would not be the same. Just as the rim of the spoke holds each bar, Addie and New Hope holds each family line to the storyline.

Jason’s Section

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Jason comes off as a particularly coarse character in comparison to the other members of the Compson family, including the staff who may as well be considered family too. As many can and have pointed out Jason has a misogynist and racist frame of mind accompanied with a terribly selfish attitude. What struck me during his section is how concerned he seems to be about the very people he has a distaste for. Throughout Jason’s recount of things he notes time and time again the activities he feels women can’t do properly or should be doing instead. The first account of this is how he feels Quentin should be in the kitchen cooking instead of “gobbing paint on her face” (Faulkner 180). Later on, he states it’s “just like a woman” (Faulkner 190) when Caddy is late sending money as if he expects women to be incapable of handling business and money- and he treats them in such a fashion. He handles every Compson woman’s finances: the money Quentin receives from Caddy, the money Caddy attempts to give to see Quentin, and Mrs. Compson’s account and power of attorney. For a man that has so much disdain for women, he insists on being the center of their world. I’m aware of the time period The Sound and the Fury takes place in, this is a time (and a place) where men are expected to take charge of such things. Outside of the women’s financial business, Jason insists on inserting himself in the role of Quentin’s guide. I use that term very loosely as Jason only wants to beat Quentin into submission as opposed to letting Mrs. Compson and Dilsey handle her. He also takes it upon himself to be concerned about what his workers do or don’t do. When he points out that Quentin should be in the kitchen instead of them, he expresses the idea that they do nothing and are lazy. He repeats this sentiment when he goes hunting for Quentin and finds his tire has gone flat, “I just stood there for a while, thinking about that kitchen full of [n-word] and not one of them had time to lift a tire onto the rack and screw up a couple of bolts.” (Faulkner 242). Jason also pays his attention to the activities he believes the Jewish community is up to that in one way or another personally affects him (or so he believes). Jason’s section begins with the iconic line, “Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say.” setting the tone for the rest of the chapter. What he doesn’t realize is that line is a reflection of himself. He is inadvertently calling himself out. I’m not in favor of using a derogatory term but as Jason insists on using it so, he is acting in much the same annoying way he expects women and non-white people to act. As he has always been that way, self-serving, and misogynist/racist, he will always be.