The Narratorial Perspective of Benjy

The narratorial perspective of the first section of the story offers the reader an in-depth view into the life of the severely handicapped Benjy. The section is presented in a “stream of consciousness” style in which the reader is subjected to constant flashbacks, flashbacks within flashbacks, and flash-forwards. The reader is allowed very little help in determining what year, month, and day the events in which the flashbacks take place. Instead, the reader must use context clues (such as the presence or absence of certain characters) in a given section in order to determine the general timescale of the flashback. Additionally, Benjy “records” events accurately—or at least we have to assume that he does—but he fails to analyze them in any way, often leaving it to the reader to decipher from the text what is actually happening. For the first section of The Sound and the Fury, great responsibility is thrust upon to reader to determine what in the world in going on, mainly because of the odd and severely handicapped style of narration that Benjy provides.

Firstly, we will deal with Benji’s accurate recording of events, but inability to understand them. For example, when Quentin catches Benjy drunk in the barn with T.P., he forces Benjy to drink something. He says “It was hot on my chin and on my shirt”(11.1) and that then “It was hot inside me”(11.1) The reader should interpret that Quentin is making Benjy drink coffee—a hot beverage that was believed to ameliorate drunkenness—but Benjy nevers actually is aware that is it coffee or even of what is happening to him. This type of situation is typical to this section. William Faulkner is almost playing a game with the reader through Benjy, challenging the reader to interpret the events for him- or herself.

Nextly, we will deal with the crafty time changes that Faulkner throws in. We can hypothesize that the reasons the events are so out of order is because Benjy’s mental handicaps prevent him for staying mentally in the present. Since the story is “stream of consciousness” we can assume that Benjy is experiencing the flashbacks with us, as though he is standing dumbly in the present re-living past events as though they are occurring at the moment. Faulkner allows the readers some clues as to when each event is taking place when. The greatest key is the presence of one of Benjy’s caretakers: either T.P., Versh, or Luster. Sections with Versh occur when Benjy is a small child. Sections with T.P. occur when Benjy is teen-aged. Sections with Luster occur when Benjy is an adult and in the novel’s “present.”

Faulkner does a good job presenting the events of the novel from the viewpoint of someone with no concept or time or chronology and who is incapable of interpreting events in any meaningful way. Benjy, acts as a tape recorder: we’re a series of events to be recorded on a tape recorder with no commentary and no real video, it would be possible to determine from the recording what was happening, but not without in depth thought, extensive use of context clues, and a careful attention to the text.