Identities that are handed to a person through society are dependent on the continuation of that society. In Faulkner’s, The Sound and the Fury, these identities have tragic consequences. The collapse of the Old Southern way of life fractures the identity of each member of the Compson family, possibly most severely in Quentin. The contrast of Quentin’s mental state with Benjy’s inability to see past the shapes in front of his eyes is interesting, because although Benjy is disabled, he has more mental freedom than Quentin. Benjy is not bogged down by abstract concepts, like the ways of thinking and viewing the world that were imposed on Quentin. Benjy’s lack of identity allows for mental freedom while Quentin’s identity is tied with order and control, as represented by the Old Southern moral code. Benjy lives within a more natural state, driven to do things by basic human instincts, which enables him to just observe change rather than try to control it. Quentin’s identity is spawned from artificial concepts that were created by the old south to prevent change and maintain their social hierarchy. So when things do change, he is mentally unprepared.
Quentin is obsessed with abstract concepts. His brain was molded at a very early age to think and act a certain way. When those rules no longer exist, his world is shattered because that way of life is all he knows. Quentin demonstrates at an early age his full submission into his society’s rules, tying his identity to them. Benjy recalls Quentin’s obedience to rules, when they went swimming as little kids and Caddy broke a societal rule. Benjy states, “Then she didn’t have anything but her bodice and drawers, and Quentin slapped her and she slipped and fell down into the water” (18). Even as a kid Quentin felt he needed to be the one to follow rules and even enforce them himself. So when his father and sister demonstrate they don’t follow those rules or take them seriously he takes it personally, because it confirms to Quentin that his identity is in jeopardy. When Cady becomes pregnant without marrying first, he is irate. He even offers to cover for her and tell everyone it is his child, as a last ditch effort to control the situation and maintain the moral code. He asks his father about this idea, and his father admits to him that the old rules and moral code don’t really matter. But because Quentin’s identity is so intertwined with following the rules and moral codes of the old south, he no longer knows his place in this new society, or if he even belongs in it at all. Little by little he feels he has less and less control, ultimately culminating in his suicide.
Benjy is unable to understand societal rules and so even though he is limited by his mental disability, he maintains a sort of freedom in his mind and in the end comes out on the other end better than any other member of the Compson family. His mind is left untouched and free of societal mental restraint, because of his disability. The other family member’s minds are dominated by strict societal rules and a moral code that is steeped in tradition and stagnation. The Compson family assumes that Benjy is the only one who is helpless and incapable. But every family member remains forever stuck in the past, ruled by abstract concepts that no longer matter. They are mentally paralyzed as well, unable to move on from the destruction of their society and its rules. They are mentally unstable, because they lack the ability to exist in a world without society dictating who they are. For example Caroline is constantly talking about the past. She is still stuck in the past claiming, “My people are every bit as well born as yours. Just because Maury’s health is bad (44).” Although this social hierarchy of the South no longer matters, she still speaks as if it does. This shows her inability to move forward.
As the old southern way of living falls apart, so do their identities and they all cope in different ways. Caroline basically gives up on her life, Quentin can’t cope at all and commits suicide, Jason tries to exist in the new society and becomes a corrupt person, while Caddy acts out and rebels against the old moral code, feeling she has nothing to lose anyway. Even Benjy isn’t immune to the effects of the collapse of their society. He absorbs all of the sadness in and around the home and periodically cries, because it overwhelms him. However Benjy possesses a mental freedom that the Compsons lack. The destruction of the Old south haunts the Compsons and in particular Quentin, through darkness and shadows. The darkness in which he ultimately succumbs to, and the same darkness and shadows Benjy fails to fully recognize. He can sense darkness and death, but he does not understand it. He states, “Then they all stopped and it was dark, and when I stopped to start again I could hear Mother, and feet walking fast away, and I could smell it”(34). He senses death by smell, but can not understand what it is, because he can only collect observations and is unable to piece them together.
