The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner Essay -- Slavery The Sound

The Sound and the Fury by William FaulknerOne of the main realities of human existence is the constant, unceasing qualifying of term. The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner explores this reality of time in many new and unexpected slipway as he tells the tragic tail of the Compson family. The Compsons are an old grey aristocratic family to whom time has not been kind. Years of degeneration mainly stemming from slavery have brought them to the brink of destruction. Most of the story focuses on the Compson children who are undergoing the lather of the social and moral decay. Each of the four children perceives time in a much different way but by far the strangest and near bizarre attitude toward time that is given in the text is held by one of the three male children, Quentin. He is totally consumed with his past and at times can think of nothing else. He also becomes firm to stop time itselfa futile effort that will in the end force him to take his own life. Quentins obse ssion with the past and with the passage of time is a central theme of not only the Quentin piecealisation but of the entire book, and it is the key to understanding what Faulkner is trying to say to the highest degree the decay of Southern culture and traditions.To fully understand the motif of time in the Quentin section it is first necessary to compare it with the different ship canal in which Faulkner uses time in the other three sections. The first section is narrated by the mentally retarded brother, Benjy, who has abs...