The Bible as in The Sound and the Fury

After reading the first three sections, I had not noticed much in the form of religion. After reading Mary Fletcher’s article, Edenic Images in “The Sound and the Fury,” I began to feel the religious undertone of the novel. The Compson family seemed not to practice religion at all. Mother preached that each family should be a good Christian but she did not follow her own advice. Father seemed to be a cynic of man. Dilsey, who is not truly a Compson by blood, seemed to be the only true believer in religion. The Compson family is void of both faith and spirituality, yet Faulkner references the bible many a time.

The article main focus is that of the ancient pear tree in the Compson yard; the tree that both Caddy and her daughter climb. Caddy climbs the tree in order to better understand what is going on in the house (Damuddy’s funeral). Although seemingly just another image of the rebellious Caddy the article points to the recurrence of the pear tree throughout the novel. Quentin also climbs the tree in order to escape the madhouse she has been living in and rob both Jason of his money and the Compson family of continuity. In Caddy’s case the tree serves as an allusion to the tree of knowledge as well as a foreshadowing of her “moral fall and consequent alienation.” (p.141, Fletcher) She refuses to obey her father’s command to stay out of the pear tree to instead gain an insight on Damuddy’s funeral.  The tree is a very important point of reference but the Compson grounds offer many allusions as well.

The river that flows through the property brings to mind images of Eden. The children often play in the river. Through Benjy’s eyes, it is at the river we are first introduced to the characters’ characteristics and relationships. The Compson grounds as seen by Benjy are a luscious garden similar to a reader’s image of Eden. Benjy himself serves as a biblical allusion both his name and his innocence reference the bible. Benjy is the only character that does not ever leave his garden or his innocent image of the world. He spends almost all of his time outside whereas Mother stays inside and Jason stays in town. The other children all decide to leave. Benjamin is the only child who stays innocent but that is only because he is “mindless.” The article states he is “Faulkner’s human equivalent of innocence.”(p.142, Fletcher) In Faulkner’s eyes no “normal” human being that has the power to think can be innocent; the power of knowledge is what the tree offers in the bible. Benjy can never have that knowledge.

By reading Fletcher’s article I began to spot the hidden religious analogies throughout the novel before beginning section four. This was very beneficial to me as a reader. An omnipresent narrator relays the fourth section. It is in the fourth section we witness the spirituality of Dilsey juxtaposed with the religion of mother. Mother keeps a bible by her bed but it seems as if even God cannot move her. In class we discussed whether religion could have saved the Compson family and especially Caddy from tragedy. I think that the better question is whether or not the Compson family would be capable of “faith” and if that could have helped their family. Why does Faulkner reference both religion the Compsons’ lack of religion so often? What statement is he trying to make to the readers about faith? (595)