When I first started reading The Sound and the Fury, by William Faulkner, I immediately became attracted to Faulkner’s writing style and techniques. Though the novel itself may be extremely confusing, the writing made me hooked and extremely interested in the novel. I loved how Faulkner is able to really humanize Benjy; through Faulkner’s writing, we are able to understand how an underdeveloped human thinks and feels. Also, the use of flashbacks in the novel is incredible. The flashbacks makes the reader think, question, and connect pieces of the story together. Without the flashbacks, I believe that The Sound and the Fury would not be as good of a novel as it is now.
Faulkner’s writing of Benjy is extremely fascinating and well written. The first part of the novel, April Seventh, is seen from Benjy’s eyes. The first paragraph itself is detailed through Benjy, and the reader immediately begins to become almost puzzled at the description of golf. “I could see them hitting. They were coming toward where the flag was and I went along the fence. Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower tree. They took the flag out, and they were hitting. Then they put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit…,” says Benjy, describing a game of golf. Benjy is not able to understand that it is a game of golf, and instead we, as readers, are supposed to comprehend what Benjy sees. Some other examples of Benjy’s inability to comprehend what he sees is around mirrors and shadows. Benjy constantly describes characters as being in mirrors and leaving mirrors, unable to understand that what he is seeing is a reflection. Faulkner portrays size through shadows that Benjy sees; Benjey sees that his shadow is “longer” than other characters, meaning that he is really taller. The descriptions that Benjy give the reader serve many purposes. I believe that we are to feel Benjy’s innocence and understand how Benjy is incapable of truly understanding his surroundings. Through Benjy’s childlike descriptions, Faulkner portrays Benjy as a true childlike man. Also, the descriptions that Benjy provide the readers with help capture emotions, emotions that most of us believe an underprivileged human being is incapable of feeling. Benjy’s descriptions also provide the reader with key flashbacks, after he associates what he sees with the past. Benjy’s flashbacks serve as extremely important pieces in the novel.
The flashbacks are beautiful pieces of Faulkner’s writing. Flashbacks in the novel serve many important purposes. One of the principal purposes, I believe of the flashbacks, is to pique the readers’ curiosity in the novel. Faulkner wets the readers’ appetites with flashbacks by providing them with new information that they desperately want to know more about and connect with the present. This serves as a way to hook the reader to the novel and eagerly read more until everything falls together and makes sense. Also, the flashbacks serve as important pieces to the entire story. Flashbacks provide the readers with evidence and missing pieces of the story as well as explanations for the future events. The flashbacks are pieces of a puzzle that the reader must place in the puzzle of the story to understand the novel. I enjoy the flashbacks because of the theories I create and the connections I establish after reading them. Faulkner’s writing is only enhanced by his use of flashbacks.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Monday, October 1, 2007
Shiloh
“Shiloh”, by Bobbie Ann Mason, is the depressing story of a marriage that was never meant to be. Mason uses symbolism and rising tension throughout the story to set up the differences between the Moffits and show why these differences make it impossible for Leroy and Norma Jean’s marriage to last. Though the story itself is rather depressing, I really do respect Mason’s talent for writing; instead of becoming angry with the author or her characters after reading the end of story, I realize that the story could not have ended in any other way, even though it is very disheartening.
The stage is set for the Moffit family’s end by Leroy’s accident. After his truck jackknifed, Leroy becomes confined to the house where he “makes things from craft kits” and does other things not commonly thought of as “manly” (6). Leroy builds structures with Popsicle sticks, does string art, and builds decorations for the house.
“What’s that thing?” Mabel says to Leroy in a loud voice, pointing to a tangle of yarn on a piece of canvas.
Leroy holds it up for Mabel to see. “It’s my needlepoint,” he explains. “This is a Star Trek pillow cover”
“That’s what a woman would do,” says Mabel…
“All the big football players on TV do it,” he says… (34)
This conversation between Leroy and his mother-in-law shows that Leroy, after his accident, has been gradually falling into the place of what we think of as a typical housewife. His new position is strange to both him and his wife. Leroy is not used to being confined to his house after traveling so much of the time on the road. Norma is also not used to this new constant company.
Just as Leroy’s position with his wife changed after the accident, Norma’s position within the Moffit relationship also changes. Mason provides the reader with the detail that it is Norma Jean who actually goes to work, at a drugstore. Interestingly, Leroy says, “since he has been home, he has felt unusually tender about his wife and guilty over his long absences” while he was gone as a trucker, but once Leroy is back at home, he is the one who has to suffer the long absences while his wife is gone at work. It becomes clear that Norma is the one who is really providing for them, while Leroy is busy noticing the changing town he has come back to, while he is busy decorating the house, while he is busy buying marijuana, while he is busy dreaming about the log cabin he wants to build. Leroy no longer seems the “man” of the relationship.
Mason also provides more signs that show the changing position of Norma, within the family structure, that show that the marriage is not working at all. The beginning of the story begins with Norma “working on her pectorals” (1). The fact that Norma is trying to become more muscular is interesting because this is not what a typical wife does, it is more what a man would work on improving. A wife would work on becoming more beautiful in a more womanly manner, not work on becoming more muscular. Instead of working on breast size, like other wives, she works on her “pectorals,” like men do. Norma Jean is being transformed into a man literally as well as metaphorically. As Norma is turning into a “man”, she treats Leroy as if he is a bother. “When she chops onions, she stares off into a corner, as if she can’t bear to look,” writes Mason, showing how Norma almost tries to lead a life that is separate from Leroy. Norma follows her own daily schedule that is free from Leroy, where she has her own systematic timetable. It is as if Norma is sickened by the image of the helpless, “womanlike” Leroy.
Though the role-reversal situation between Leroy and Norma is not uncommon among marriages today, Mason tells us why this particular marriage can not work when the roles are reversed.
“Your name means ‘the king,’” Norma Jean says to Leroy that evening. He is trying to get her to go to Shiloh, and she is reading a book about another century.
“Well, I reckon I ought to be right proud.”
“I guess so.”
“Am I still king around here?”
Norma Jean flexes her biceps and feels them for hardness. “I’m not fooling around with anybody, if that’s what you mean,” she says…
“What does your name mean?” (Leroy)
“It was Marilyn Monroe’s real name.”… (124)
This conversation symbolizes what the two believed their relationship would consist of when they first got married. Leroy believes he would be the king of the relationship, or the man who provides and rules. Leroy thought he would be strong and be able to support both of them, but instead he is a trucker who is away from his wife for long periods of time and he turns into a “housewife”. Norma, on the other hand, believed that through her marriage with Leroy she would become a pampered housewife who would live a life with many pleasures. Instead, she turns into the “king,” the provider of the relationship. The fact that each had their own expectations and ended up with completely different realities shows that the marriage was not meant to be.
Leroy and Norma’s baby Randy is an important symbol of the story; Randy shows that even if Leroy and Norma tried, they could not make their marriage last. Randy might have been a piece that Leroy and Norma could have centered their marriage and relationship on to make both last. But, Randy dies suddenly, with no reason other than sudden infant death syndrome. This is a symbol that the Moffit’s marriage has no reason or value. If Randy had lived, maybe there would still be a chance for Leroy and Norma’s marriage to survive, something to build a family around.
Another interesting symbol that is brought up throughout the story is the log cabin that Leroy wants to build. Leroy wants to build a log cabin for Norma, inspired by the miniature version he builds to kill time. Leroy constantly brings up the cabin, to show that he still loves Norma and that he can try and provide for both of them, but Norma always swats away Leroy’s log-cabin-house dream with ignorance. It becomes clear that Norma does not care about what Leroy wants for both of them; she does not believe in him. The log cabin, to Leroy, is a symbol for Leroy’s hope that his marriage can last, a chance to start new and try to strengthen their relationship.
The scene where Leroy and Norma travel to Shiloh is a fitting end to the story as well as the marriage. The couple decides to travel to visit the battlegrounds after Mable convinces Leroy that it will help mend his relationship with Norma. In fact, this suggestion has the opposite effect. It is interesting that the last scene in the novel is at a battleground, because Leroy and Norma finish their own battle of marriage and of role changing. The end of the battle consists of Norma wanting to leave Leroy, not being able to take her life and position with Leroy. Leroy puts up a feeble last attempt to keep the marriage from ending.
“I want to leave you.” (Norma)
…”No you don’t” (Leroy)
“Yes, I do.”
“I won’t let you.”
“You can’t stop me”
“Don’t do me that way.:
Leroy knows Norma Jean will have her own way. “Didn’t I promise to be home from now on?” he says.
“In some ways, a woman prefers a man who wanders,” says Norma Jean…(144)
And with that, the battle ends. The marriage is over. It is a good setting for the end of a marriage that was never meant to be; Leroy is defeated, just as the Confederates were at Shiloh years before. Leroy then realizes that “building a log house is the dumbest idea he could have had” (155). He realizes that hope for his marriage to continue and work is the dumbest idea he could have had. I sadly agree. (1,349)
1. Do you think Mable tried to end the marriage by advising Leroy to visit Shiloh?
2. Can you, or do you, sympathize with Nora?
3. Do you think anything could have made the relationship work?
4. Do Leroy and Nora Jean symbolize something on a larger scale?
5. What do you think happens after the visit to Shiloh?
The stage is set for the Moffit family’s end by Leroy’s accident. After his truck jackknifed, Leroy becomes confined to the house where he “makes things from craft kits” and does other things not commonly thought of as “manly” (6). Leroy builds structures with Popsicle sticks, does string art, and builds decorations for the house.
“What’s that thing?” Mabel says to Leroy in a loud voice, pointing to a tangle of yarn on a piece of canvas.
Leroy holds it up for Mabel to see. “It’s my needlepoint,” he explains. “This is a Star Trek pillow cover”
“That’s what a woman would do,” says Mabel…
“All the big football players on TV do it,” he says… (34)
This conversation between Leroy and his mother-in-law shows that Leroy, after his accident, has been gradually falling into the place of what we think of as a typical housewife. His new position is strange to both him and his wife. Leroy is not used to being confined to his house after traveling so much of the time on the road. Norma is also not used to this new constant company.
Just as Leroy’s position with his wife changed after the accident, Norma’s position within the Moffit relationship also changes. Mason provides the reader with the detail that it is Norma Jean who actually goes to work, at a drugstore. Interestingly, Leroy says, “since he has been home, he has felt unusually tender about his wife and guilty over his long absences” while he was gone as a trucker, but once Leroy is back at home, he is the one who has to suffer the long absences while his wife is gone at work. It becomes clear that Norma is the one who is really providing for them, while Leroy is busy noticing the changing town he has come back to, while he is busy decorating the house, while he is busy buying marijuana, while he is busy dreaming about the log cabin he wants to build. Leroy no longer seems the “man” of the relationship.
Mason also provides more signs that show the changing position of Norma, within the family structure, that show that the marriage is not working at all. The beginning of the story begins with Norma “working on her pectorals” (1). The fact that Norma is trying to become more muscular is interesting because this is not what a typical wife does, it is more what a man would work on improving. A wife would work on becoming more beautiful in a more womanly manner, not work on becoming more muscular. Instead of working on breast size, like other wives, she works on her “pectorals,” like men do. Norma Jean is being transformed into a man literally as well as metaphorically. As Norma is turning into a “man”, she treats Leroy as if he is a bother. “When she chops onions, she stares off into a corner, as if she can’t bear to look,” writes Mason, showing how Norma almost tries to lead a life that is separate from Leroy. Norma follows her own daily schedule that is free from Leroy, where she has her own systematic timetable. It is as if Norma is sickened by the image of the helpless, “womanlike” Leroy.
Though the role-reversal situation between Leroy and Norma is not uncommon among marriages today, Mason tells us why this particular marriage can not work when the roles are reversed.
“Your name means ‘the king,’” Norma Jean says to Leroy that evening. He is trying to get her to go to Shiloh, and she is reading a book about another century.
“Well, I reckon I ought to be right proud.”
“I guess so.”
“Am I still king around here?”
Norma Jean flexes her biceps and feels them for hardness. “I’m not fooling around with anybody, if that’s what you mean,” she says…
“What does your name mean?” (Leroy)
“It was Marilyn Monroe’s real name.”… (124)
This conversation symbolizes what the two believed their relationship would consist of when they first got married. Leroy believes he would be the king of the relationship, or the man who provides and rules. Leroy thought he would be strong and be able to support both of them, but instead he is a trucker who is away from his wife for long periods of time and he turns into a “housewife”. Norma, on the other hand, believed that through her marriage with Leroy she would become a pampered housewife who would live a life with many pleasures. Instead, she turns into the “king,” the provider of the relationship. The fact that each had their own expectations and ended up with completely different realities shows that the marriage was not meant to be.
Leroy and Norma’s baby Randy is an important symbol of the story; Randy shows that even if Leroy and Norma tried, they could not make their marriage last. Randy might have been a piece that Leroy and Norma could have centered their marriage and relationship on to make both last. But, Randy dies suddenly, with no reason other than sudden infant death syndrome. This is a symbol that the Moffit’s marriage has no reason or value. If Randy had lived, maybe there would still be a chance for Leroy and Norma’s marriage to survive, something to build a family around.
Another interesting symbol that is brought up throughout the story is the log cabin that Leroy wants to build. Leroy wants to build a log cabin for Norma, inspired by the miniature version he builds to kill time. Leroy constantly brings up the cabin, to show that he still loves Norma and that he can try and provide for both of them, but Norma always swats away Leroy’s log-cabin-house dream with ignorance. It becomes clear that Norma does not care about what Leroy wants for both of them; she does not believe in him. The log cabin, to Leroy, is a symbol for Leroy’s hope that his marriage can last, a chance to start new and try to strengthen their relationship.
The scene where Leroy and Norma travel to Shiloh is a fitting end to the story as well as the marriage. The couple decides to travel to visit the battlegrounds after Mable convinces Leroy that it will help mend his relationship with Norma. In fact, this suggestion has the opposite effect. It is interesting that the last scene in the novel is at a battleground, because Leroy and Norma finish their own battle of marriage and of role changing. The end of the battle consists of Norma wanting to leave Leroy, not being able to take her life and position with Leroy. Leroy puts up a feeble last attempt to keep the marriage from ending.
“I want to leave you.” (Norma)
…”No you don’t” (Leroy)
“Yes, I do.”
“I won’t let you.”
“You can’t stop me”
“Don’t do me that way.:
Leroy knows Norma Jean will have her own way. “Didn’t I promise to be home from now on?” he says.
“In some ways, a woman prefers a man who wanders,” says Norma Jean…(144)
And with that, the battle ends. The marriage is over. It is a good setting for the end of a marriage that was never meant to be; Leroy is defeated, just as the Confederates were at Shiloh years before. Leroy then realizes that “building a log house is the dumbest idea he could have had” (155). He realizes that hope for his marriage to continue and work is the dumbest idea he could have had. I sadly agree. (1,349)
1. Do you think Mable tried to end the marriage by advising Leroy to visit Shiloh?
2. Can you, or do you, sympathize with Nora?
3. Do you think anything could have made the relationship work?
4. Do Leroy and Nora Jean symbolize something on a larger scale?
5. What do you think happens after the visit to Shiloh?
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