Group+3

//Please put your comments, observations, and notes here. You may upload links and files. If you do not know how to do this, please see me.// SO this is our groups presentation - I hope it works! (LaChelsie) []



//Using the websites listed on the "assignments" page, explore aspects of or perspectives on Faulkner's life and the culture of the South. Look at the webpage in detail and then __write a brief summary__ of what you discover. If there are images on the website, analyze them-what kind of image is it (graph, photograph, etc.) and what does it reveal about the subject? What does it obscure? As you gather your thoughts and learn new information, begin to think in terms of digital storytelling. How can you relate what you have learned to each of your other class members (as well as a select outside audience) through digital media? I would like you to consider creating a short video on what you have learned. Remember to sign your work after you post it.//

//When you have finished the first chapter, briefly glance at the dates for each of the next three chapters. Benjy's chapter occurs on April Seventh, 1928, which is the Saturday before Easter day; Quentin's is June Second, 1910; Jason Compson narrates the third chapter on Good Friday—April Sixth, 1928; finally, the fourth chapter focuses on Dilsey on Easter Day, April Eighth, 1928. Consider Benjy's status as a member of the Compson household. Consider the date - April Seventh, 1928, the Saturday before Easter day—and Benjy's age—33, the age of Christ upon crucifixion.//


 * **What role does Benjy play in the Compson family? What does his unique perspective show us about the Compsons?**

Benjy sees something that the Compson's don't: the downfall of the family. He can sense things that are going to happen in the future, including Quentin's suicide and Caddy's promiscuity. Although Benjy has no grasp of time or emotion (minus his affection for Caddy), he processes visual, auditory, and olfactory details and develops an understanding that no one else in the Compson family grasps. //-Scott Trembly//

Benjy does seem to be the only one who senses the downfall of the family, however he is incapable of understanding it. The only way that he can react is by moaning and crying. He only sees this as chaos, and to him, chaos is bad. - Olivia Felber *

Benjy has a unfair role in the Compson family household. He is constantly viewed as the cause for all their troubles. I find it rather sad. How can you call someone with disability so many names, especially if they haven't done anything to you personally? He understands their frustrations, but it still doesn't justfy the way he is treated. -Julie Brooks

Julie, I believe this is a classic case of scapegoating. That doesn't make what happens to Benjy any easier to understand, but it is obviously what's going on. (Mrs. Atkins)


 * **What might Benjy's need for consistency, and his extremely strong nostalgia for the past say about the concept of family? About the South as a place?**

Benjy is dependent on the consistency of family and past memories because he can't quite rely on himself - everyone else takes care of him. When the rest of the family is in turmoil, Benjy feels it twofold because he can't develop his own opinions on what is happening. He retreats to his memories because his childhood was a more carefree and less stressful period for the entire Compson family. //-Scott Trembly// Also, his disability was more acceptable during his childhood when his siblings were young as well; now that he is a grown adult, the care he requires only puts more stress on the family, which Benjy gets the brunt of.

I feel as if Benjy perceives more than he is given credit for since he can sense the others’ feelings. His need for consistency is really his only defense mechanism against the rising turbulent emotions. The more his family goes into turmoil, the more Benjy retreats into his own mind. (Madison McKinney)


 * **Does Benjy fulfill a symbolic role in the novel?**

Although a living and breathing human, Benjy is not seen as such: he is a burden to the Compsons and therefore, represents all of their burdens. They mark him as a scapegoat to every problem and see his disability (which of course he has not consciously chosen for himself) as the summation of all of their own failings. He represents the incredible mess the Compson family is, and since he is nothing more than a blubbering man with "his thick mouth hung open, drooling a little", the rest of the Compson family portrays him as an inanimate object, a symbol to portray all that is wrong in their lives.

I think Benjy is a symbolic role. He gives the novel a child's point of view on the way he see's the things happening. Benjy is a burden, but then isn't that symbolic, too?-Cassarah Wallace

I think that Benjy is a symbol for all of the failures of the Compson family, especially the mens'. Olivia Felber

I agree that Benjy is a symbol. In fact, Faulkner kind of hits us over the head with the 33 years of age, and the reference to the Triduum (three holy days before Easter) that frame the story. But in other ways, Benjy is also a symbol. He is an “idiot” or to put it in contemporary terms “retarded.” What is that saying about aspects of Southern culture? I don’t really like going there since I am a southerner, but I do realize that at times our culture has seemed backward and ignorant. But isn’t that because those people are different and we find that lifestyle distasteful? In my own family, I have one brother who lives in the woods (really), and he hunts and fishes when he has the chance. One of his sons is just like him. He goes to work every day to earn a living in a manufacturing shop, but at night he comes home to his wife, child, horse, garden, and passes his free time fishing, shooting deer, or riding a four-wheeler. He’s happy. He’s content. I ask myself is that a choice or is it because he doesn’t know what’s “out there.” I’m the one in the family who went to college, who has traveled the world, and I’m happy and content in my life as well. Both of us a southerners, but we live vastly different lifestyles. Yet, I don’t think of my brother’s and nephew’s way of life as retarded, just different. Okay, I’m rambling now, but does any of this make sense to you in your own experience of being a southerner—and what about those of you who came here from other parts of the country??? --Mrs. Atkins

Olivia, I don't think Benjy is a symbol for ALL the failures of the Compson family. In the book, he is able to detect bad things like Quentin's suicide and Caddy's loss of virginity. Benjy himself has done nothing bad (I don't think?). All the men in the family share some part in bringing down the Compson's name. Although Benjy is mentally retarded, I don't think he should be accounted for all of the failures. -Denny

I am not blaming Benjy for the failures of the family, in fact I do not believe that he should be given responsibility at all. I am just saying that Faulkner is using him as a symbol for the family's failures. It even says in the book that that is how the members of the family see him. I do not believe that he is to blame, but some of the characters do, and it makes him symbolic. Olivia Felber

Denny, just because he isn't the true cause of the Compson family's turmoils doesn't mean they don't blame him for them - he can't do anything about it, and that's what they like - he won't fight back when they blame him for their own sucky lives because he can't even respond to them, no matter if he understands how they feel towards him or not. - Clarie Randall

PLEASE MOVE ALL DISCUSSIONS TO DISCUSSION PAGE, THANK YOU. - GROUP 3 Group 3