Question Five: Faulkner's narrative expertise

Faulkner's manipulates a unique flow in his novel The Sound and the Fury by having different chapters be narratives of certain characters. This structure that Faulkner uses is strangely effective in developing not only the characters possessing the narrative, but the other characters in the novel as well. He does this by using similar motifs, such as the door for example, in more than just one chapter, but including perspectives from different characters in their own narratives. Additionally, while the speaker may change from chapter to chapter, the flow somehow stay constant. It is a difficult novel to endure because the sense of time is so blurred, but this is where Faulkner's brilliance really lies. Each narrative is so unique in its dealing with time that one cannot help but marvel at Faulkner's revolutionary style.

One character who was perfectly defined by his dealing with time was Benjy. Because of his disability, time was nothing to him. Things just happened. He would cut into his flashbacks with present occurrences and he would cut into his present life with flashbacks. There was just no end to it. However, somehow, in this midst of chaotic streaming, Faulkner was able to develop the character of Benjy, better than I could have ever imagined. Benjy's point of development may lie in his dealing... or non-dealing with time while Jason's development lies with his sense of entitlement or the underlying motif of money prevalent throughout his narrative. Each character possesses unique motifs or themes in his or her narrative, and I believe this uniqueness effectively develops Faulkner's primary characters.

Putting all literary devices and whatnot aside, what Faulkner does in his novel is brilliant, but a pretty obvious solution for sound development. A first-hand account of a battle will of course be more credible than that of a history books, although the history book will be preferred because it will lack the bias present in the first-hand account. On the contrary, a primary source is always exemplary in a novel because the only true way to know a character is by reading his/her views from a first-person perspective. Faulkner's use of different narratives for each of his primary characters is unique in the sense that most novels do not do this type of thing, but pretty obvious at the same time because of course a character will be better developed when you let them do it themselves, instead of the development coming from a narrator or other characters in the novel.

Faulkner's use of narrative structure enables the reader to understand events from that particular character's point of view, whether it be influenced by pre-conceived feelings or not. The characters in The Sound and the Fury are not only disfunctional but altogether corrupt; however, Faulkner's choice of having different narratives for the primary characters effectively develops the characters and makes it easier to relate to the characters for the reader.

Faulkner's Brilliance

After reading the beginning of Sound and the Fury, I am more than merely impressed at the way Faulkner enables the reader to feel like he/she is right there in the novel. Sure, most authors' goal is to use literary devices to put the reader right into the novel themselves, but Faulkner might achieve this goal better than any author I've read before.

Although the first chapter is hard to follow to say the least, I understand that it has to be this way. Faulkner really captures the thought process of a person with disability like Benjy better than I've read before. If I were to imagine how a person with Benjy's disability would write or think, it would be exactly how Faulkner conveys it.

I believe the key to Faulkner's brilliance lies in the message he sends in his review of Sound and the Fury. The fact that he is not trying to tell a story the whole time is extremely important in his efectiveness. Instead of worrying about following the story, or focusing on the plot, the reader is able to merely experience the text through Faulkner's style of conveying events. Benjy's actions and cutting flashbacks of the past perfectly portray what I had imagined it to be like for a person with a similar disability; having one's thoughts skewed/scrambled seemed extremely plausible. I'm excited to continue reading further chapters from the novel because if Faulkner can pull off Benjy with such greatness, there is no limit to what he can do with the other characters' narratives.

Blog #5- Willard and Marlow together forever

When comparing Conrad's novel and the film Apocolypse Now, I first noticed the similarities between the characters of each piece of work. The most obvious similarity between characters is with Conrad's Kurtz and Apocolypse's. Both are hunted diligently throughout their respective works and are basically set up to be idols. Although the Kurtzs in both gain their power unethically, they are both extremely well respected and the author and director emphasizes this extreme power.

Kurtz's power is extremely apparent in the film, where the hundreds of Americans, Vietnamese, and Cambodians seem to be hypnotized by Kurtz's strange philisophy which is much like Conrad's Kurtz. Basically, both Kurtz's realize the horror in their surroundings, whether it be the imperialism in Heart of Darkness or the raping of North Vietnam's countryside and the genocide of its people.

It is true that the two Kurtz's are extremely similar, and it is pretty obvious with how they possess the same name and almost the exact same roles, but I found the most interesting comparison to be between The Heart of Darkness's Marlow and Apocolypse Now's Willard. Both Marlow and Willard tell their stories, like a frame story, where Marlow's story is told by someone else on a ship and Willard's is through his voice in the background.

Additionally, both Willard and Marlow come to a realization in their journeys, even though each took them for different reasons. Marlow realizes that the civilization that is supposed to take place through Europe's imperialism of Africa really leads to more chaos and murder, while Willard, who already knows the horrow of Vietnam to a certain extent before his journey, comes to the realization that what his people are fighting for is hippocritical and unclear. Both Willard and Marlow come to terms with the view of each Kurtz and the ideals that they present to their followers. Willard and Marlow realize the hippocrisy of their people and that in many cases injustice is performed in order to achieve justice, which is a disturbing conundrum.

The parallels between these four characters in the two works really sutck out to me as a point of attack in this comparison. The similarities between the characters drove each of the works and sparked the comparison.

Blog #4- Short Stories Galore

In my opinion, the most complex short story that I read was Everything that Rises Must Converge. I felt that the relationship between the son and mother, and the mother's feelings of racism mixed together to form a pretty complex short story. It was hard for me to really interpret effectively the son's hatred toward his mother, and the mother's extreme hatred toward things that are different, like an opposite race. Also, with the way that the mother just dies of shock at the end of the novel, I felt that it really came out of nowhere. That was another point of the story that was tough to interpret for me because although she might have been a mean woman for so much of her life, she had finally seemed to see the light and then her life is taken from her. A deceptively simple aspect of the story for me was the black boy's mom's reaction to the mother in the story when the mother attempts to give the black boy a nickle. I understand that during this time period, black families had to constantly have their guards up, and in many ways, to receive money from a race that oppresses you would be quite humiliating. So, that part especially I could understand. The title of this story goes along with most of the works by the author, Flannery O'Connor in the sense that it conveys her religious beliefs. The title portray her belief that society as a whole has a sinful nature that at many times goes unnoticed completely. These sinful, or malignant acts will eventually catch up to society and this culmination or explosion really is shown through the title of O'Connor's short story and the ending of the story.

I viewed the website: http://www.enotes.com/everything-rises when looking for more information on O'Connor's feelings about the term/title Everything that Rises Must Converge.

Blog #3- Evil Iago

Before reading Othello, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what evil was. Sure... like Batman and the joker right? But I was mistakin'. Iago is the epitome of evil. Unlike the guy in the skittles commercial where everything he touches turns to skittles, it seems as though everything Iago got involved in was utterly destroyed.

Never before had I heard of a villain with such a defined chess set, where every person in the whole play was literally his pawn.

The one part of Iago's evilness that most impressed me was his rationalization to his inner self. Sure, he knew everything he was doing was evil, he referenced himself as the devil, but he would tell himself lies enough to almost make them seem true. That aspect of his persona was unlike any other villain that I had heard of before.

His being is so evil that he did all of this merely because he wasn't second in command. Out of his bitterness he murdered, both emotionally and literally, everyone in the play.

This term moral pyromaniac is so perfect for Iago that I wish I had thought of it myself. What some people might not understand is that this term would never be obtainable unless the possessor of it was that much smarter than everyone around him. Iago was the only character in the play that I knew what was going on. You had dumb ass Roderigo, who was an actual idiot, the lovestruck make-me-want-to-puke-my-brains-out Othello, and his beau, Desdemona, who was basically Othello's love slave throughout the whole play. Iago was the only character who understood how to manipulate these traits of the characters and set fire to everything.

Iago was the moral pyromaniac because he didn't even have morals to begin with. He knew he was evil, he knew he was the devil, but he kept telling himself what he wanted to hear until it sounded true. Iago showed at the end of the day, brains will always win over brawn, and that the idea of "good" is much more simple and easier to be manipulated than the cunning force of pure, hellish evil.

Blog Post #1- Quotes that I enjoy!

"Diligence is the mother of good luck."
- Benjamin Franklin


"When you win nothing hurts."
- Joe Namath













"Oh my god, a freshman!" -Larry Munson

Blog Post #2- A new sense of a happy ending

After reading Oedipus Rex, I realized that not all "happy endings" are necessarily happy. In Oedipus Rex, the end of the play consists of the queen committing suicide, Oedipus stabbing his eyes, exiling himself, and the people of Labdakos in general disbelief as of who the actual murderer of their former king was.

It seems as though most people after reading about such events as I just listed would take the pessimistic view that this ending was not only unhappy, but dead aweful. On the contrary, after discussions in class about Oedipus's fate, I realized that the ending to the play was quite the opposite of aweful.

Maybe the events weren't exactly what the reader would want to happen, but the fact is that they HAD to happen. You can't escape your fate, and that is what this play is trying to tell us. I felt bad for Oedipus at the end of the play, but this was because his fate was determined for him before he could even walk. However, I understand now that although it is his fate, he is still in control of it. Basically, he still possesses free-will within his fate.

With Oedipus in exile, the great plague in Labdakos would be lifted and the people would once again be able to live happily. Sure, some crazy stuff had to happen to make that possible, but that's a pretty happy ending to me.




"Oh my God, a freshman!" -Larry Munson