The Sound And The Fury

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Time is but a concept that has the power to organize society, influence actions, and change inexorably. While infinite, it is not abundant, and the fact that, once it is gone, it cannot be regained, is unnerving. However, as time continues, people can become fixated on a period in an effort to reclaim lost time. William Faulkner explores the challenges when it comes to overcoming the past and looking forward to the future in The Sound and the Fury. He uses different perceptions of time to show how the Compson family is driven by the past and cannot see the future. The Compson family is stuck in a perpetual state of time, and as time progresses, they are left with their decaying values of the past.
Faulkner opens with a “tale told by an idiot” …show more content…

While time was absent to Benjy, time is essential to Quentin. His obsession with clocks stems from his father. As Quentin recalls, Mr.Compson said, “I give you the mausoleum of all hope and desire; it’s rather excruciating-ly apt that you will use it to gain the reducto absurdum of all human experiences which can fit your individual needs no better than it fitted his or his father’s. I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it” (Faulkner, 76). Instead of following the cynical words of his father, Quentin does the opposite and he tries to conquer time. To Quentin, time is always one step ahead of him; as new postbellum ideals come alive, Quentin must adjust in order to keep up with time. However, he struggles to adapt because of his father’s nihilism. Quentin fears moving forward and forgetting the past because he figures that, if he forgets the past, then his father is right, and all of the things he has done have been for nothing. Quentin wants deny that notion because he uses morals and values to define himself. If all things in the past mean nothing, then life is meaningless and values that were once upheld and values that are coming into place don’t matter in the …show more content…

As the quote implies, Jason who holds grudges which ultimately leads to him living in the past. Like his brothers, Jason takes a position on Caddy. He believes that Caddy cheated him out of a job at the bank because her marriage was broken off after it was revealed that Herbert was not the father of her baby. As justification, he steals the money that Caddy sends to Quentin and keeps it for himself. He does so without question because Mrs.Compson is convinced that Jason can do no wrong, for she considered him a Bascomb rather than a Compson: “...you are a Bascomb, despite your name” (Faulkner, 182). Despite being the only child to receive his mother’s love, he does not return the favor, and rather, he uses for his own selfish motives. Jason’s selfishness comes from his desire for justice since he feels like the world has wronged him, so he blames others for his present state. He blames his father for allowing Quentin to escape and go to Harvard because he feels like he deserves to be given the opportunity to start anew. Even after Mr.Compson’s death, Jason continues to speak ill of him: “I says, ‘I reckon he’s entitled to guess wrong now and then, like anybody else, even a Smith or a Jones.’ [Mother] begun to cry again. ‘To hear you speak bitterly your dead father,’ she said.” (Faulkner, 182). Jason blames his family for situations he can

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