Sound And The Fury Benjy

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The Sound and the Fury ends with Luster and Benjy's unfortunate journey to the cemetery to visit Mr. Compson and Quentin's tombs, a trip that Benjy makes every Sunday. The chaos that ensues in this scene proves to be an interesting analysis for the conclusion of the novel. It demonstrates to the reader that the Compson family is truly unable to escape its patterns of thought and behavior. This important theme of the novel is shown throughout the novel, through Quentin’s obsession with time and the guilt he feels over Caddy’s situation, Mr. Compson’s nihilistic attitude that leads to his alcoholism and eventual death, and Mrs. Compson’s constant referral to herself as a victim, but this final scene of the book fully brings it to an interesting …show more content…

As the carriage approaches the Confederate soldier monument on the courthouse square, Luster attempts to show off in front of a “group of negroes,” and decides to change the route that Benjy is accustomed to, which proves to be utterly disastrous (Faulkner 319). Luster only alters the route slightly, and instead of turning right at the Confederate soldier monument, he turns left. However this small variation from routine causes Benjy’s world to plunge into complete chaos. He begins to bellow in a voice that has “more than astonishment in it, it was horror; shock; agony eyeless, tongueless; just sound” (320). Benjy is rendered utterly incapable of any type of existence when something in his world is altered; even something as insignificant as the way he is driven to the cemetery. However, this incident demonstrates that while obsessions with pattern have negatively impacted the family, Benjy needs a sense of pattern and order to function, albeit on a lower level, in his everyday life. At least for this one member of the Compson family, everything remaining the same is the way to ensure that he is functioning to the highest ability possible for his particular mental capacity and societal

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