Regarding Bengy's unique perspective, readers are capable of perceiving the world of the Compson's through an unfiltered lens. Each member of the family is incapable of recognizing personal faults, such as the mother's consistent habit of blaming Bengy as if he was a punishment from God. Bengy's simplistic reality reflects that of a child. Throughout the first portion of the book, we see no direct input from Bengy. Despite the story being told from his perspective, we see none of his thought. The only interaction between the reader and Bengy's world is not through Bengy himself, but his environment. To the Compson family, Bengy's role is no more than an innocent, simple child that needs to be taken care of.
Bengy disregards a solid timeline. His story is created on interrupted, inconsistent stories told from either when he was 33 or a child. Despite this temporal gap, the attitudes of his family and family servants remain largely unchanged. It can be assumed that Bengy's nostalgia of his past remains to create an immortal image of his family. His story is told through reminiscing about characters no longer in his life, primarily Caddy. We are introduced to this family as a whole via memories, yet in 1928 some of these characters are not with Bengy. During Bengy's story, it becomes evident that the south still maintained a strong hierarchical structure. The man of the family made all decisions, and a white family is still served by a black family.
Common to many novels, the fool plays a critical part to bringing information to readers, through sometimes subtle or explicit acts. For Bengy, he does this by revealing the unfiltered truth of his environment. The readers are able to discern the individuals of the story through own judgement, without the warped details.
This is a very well written response. I agree with everything you have pointed out. It would be interesting if you expanded on your thoughts as to why Benji is a symbolic character. More information is needed on what you can infer about the family's previous history.
ReplyDeleteExcellent blog! I agree with your statements about how Benjy's nostalgia for the past creates an immortal image of his family. That was a very interesting way of wording it! It is clear that he misses people from the past, and he realizes that parts of his family are missing. For example, sitting by the fence whining for Caddy. The fool usually does bring the critical information to the readers. In this case especially, we already know all the events that are to occur. In order to interpret this, it is up to the reader to be able to understand the hidden messages and the jumps from past and present.
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