In first section of "The Sound and the Fury", Benjy acts as the moral reflector of the novel and helps the reader evaluate the other characters. Although Benjy is mentally handicapped, his primary attribute is that he is able to sense emotional changes in any of the character’s behavior. Benjy is unable to communicate his feelings to others around him, but he can feel the deviations in his companion’s emotions. Benjy has an acute sense of the situations that surround him although he cannot fully understand them. He simply knows when his companions are in trouble and can sense their uneasiness. Benjy knows when Caddy has been promiscuous, when his family members are sick, and is able to read peoples emotions and true feelings through their tone and body language. Because Benjy can only understand the characters on a very primitive standpoint, we are able to analyze the character’s actions at their most basic level. Through Benjy’s honest interpretation of the events that surround him, the reader is able to evaluate the other characters in a way that is unique to Faulkner’s novel.
Since Benjy thinks on such a simple level his interpretations of his companion’s actions are broken down to the most basic understanding. Although he cannot communicate and has a terrible mental handicap, Benjy can interpret the mood of the characters around him. When Mr. Patterson intercepts the letter intended for his wife, Benjy can sense the tension between the two characters by reading their body language, "Mrs. Patterson came across the garden, running. When I saw her eyes I began to cry. Mr. Patterson climbed the fence. He took the letter. Mrs. Patterson’s dress was caught on the fence. I saw her eyes again and I ran down the hill" (13-4). In another scene involving an argument between Caddy and Quentin, Benjy again is able to sense the tension between the two characters even though he cannot understand what they are fighting about, "I’ll run away. Caddy said. Yes you will. Quentin said. I’ll run away and never come back. Caddy said. I began to cry" (19). When Caddy comes home after losing her virginity Benjy again can sense the emotional turmoil, "We were in the hall. Caddy was still looking at me. Her hand was against her mouth and I saw her eyes and I cried. We went up the stairs. She stopped again, against the wall, looking at me and I cried and she went on and I came n, crying, and she shrank against the wall, looking at me" (69). Because Benjy cannot communicate through speech, the only way he can express himself if by crying. Whenever he senses a situation with any tension, as little as it may be, he begins to cry until the situation is corrected.
Aside from highlighting especially tense scenes in the novel, Benjy’s innocent interpretation of the characters helps the reader to see their true nature. When characters are alone with Benjy they know that he cannot fully understand what they are saying. During this time the reader is able to see what the characters true personality is like. Benjy is to an extent acting as an omnipresent observer. The only characters that seem to care for Benjy are Caddy and Dilsey. Most of the other characters in the novel abuse Benjy and mock his mental handicap. Jason is one of the coldest characters towards Benjy and blames the family troubles on Benjy. After Benjy is accused of raping the girl outside of the gate Jason says that, "Do you think I wanted anything like this to happen. This family is bad enough, God knows. I could have told you the entire time. I reckon you’ll send him to Jackson, now (52). Although Luster takes care of Benjy when he is older, Luster also treats Benjy with disrespect and always tries to make him cry. After Caddy has been gone, Luster knows that Benjy loves her more than anything and uses it against him, "Beller. You want something to beller about. All right, then. Caddy. Caddy. Beller now. Caddy" (55). By seeing how most of the characters treat Benjy the reader is able to see how compassionate the characters truly are. When they are with Benjy, they do not need to pretend to be anything they are not because they know that Benjy cannot understand the things around him. The uncaring characters treat Benjy with disrespect because they know he cannot protect himself. In contrast, we see the Caddy and Dilsey both constantly treat Benjy with the proper respect he deserves and protects him at every chance they get. Through Benjy’s eyes, the reader is able to see into how each character acts when they think no one else is watching them.
Without Benjy, "The Sound and the Fury" would not be able to analyze the characters on such a unique level. Since the other characters know that Benjy cannot fully understand the events that go on around him, they often let their guard down when interacting around him. We can then see the characters true personality traits and if they have any compassion for anyone but themselves. Benjy’s acute sense of emotional change helps us to determine when critical moments develop in the novel between the characters. Benjy’s innocence and simple perception of the characters and events in the novel help us to analyze the novel on its most basic levels. (904).
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 11, 2007
"Greasy Lake"
"Greasy Lake", by Thomas C. Boyle, reveals a moment of enlightened transformation in three young men as they experience a series of mistakes, consequences, and reformation. The three friends, who have considered themselves "bad characters", discover that being "bad" is not anything like they thought. After experiencing a night full of terrible mishaps, the teenagers realize that living a truly rebellious and dangerous lifestyle is not for them. Boyle’s coming of age story explores a turning point of the young men’s road to maturity. For the characters of this story, one mistake follows another, revealing potential and actual consequences that lead up to a final moment of self-recognition.
Similar to the murky lake they frequent, the main characters are so obsessed with their fake personas that they lose sight of their true personalities. The young men see themselves as bad characters, "We wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue…we drank gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunderbird, and Bali Hai. We were nineteen. We were bad"(1). Yet, they are not born in the slums, or even self-sustaining tough guys who live on their own rules. The main characters are suburban teenagers in rebellion against anything and everything in their path simply because it is cool. It was "a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad"(1). The narrator describes his friends as "two dangerous characters" although Digby attends Cornell by "allowing his father to pay his tuition", Jeff is thinking of quitting school to become a painter, and the narrator drives his mother’s station wagon. As the night progresses, the friends are horrified to experience what being "bad" is truly like.
Hoping to find some last minute excitement before returning home, the characters drive up to the local hangout known as Greasy Lake. After a series of unfortunate mistakes, the three boys find themselves in a fight with a real tough guy. In the midst of the climactic moment, the narrator loses his keys and their only way to escape the rough situation. The "bad greasy character" is able to manhandle all of the boys at once. The narrator explains that, "I was terrified. Blood was beating in my ears, my hands were shaking, my heart turning over like a dirtbike in the wrong gear"(11). Unsure of how to handle the situation, the narrator returns to the battle with a tire iron and takes the assailant down with a single blow. The immature boys are at a loss, "No one said anything. We just stared down at the guy…Rattled, I dropped it{tire iron} in the dirt, already envisioning the headlines, the pitted faces of the police inquisitors…"(14). Acting purely on adrenaline, the three friends move on to assault the man’s girlfriend. At this point, they have traveled far into the dark side and have truly become unscrupulous characters. The boys are finally living their dream of becoming "bad characters", but their dream has turned into a nightmare.
The series of mistakes the boys unknowingly commit set the stage for their eventual transformation and realization of their immaturity. The arrival of the second car stops them from crossing over into rape and scares them so badly that can only think to retreat deep into the woods. As the narrator encounters a dead body in the lake, the narrator reaches a point in which he loses all self-control. The narrator, "stumbled back, but the muck took hold of my feet—a sneaker snagged, balance lost—and suddenly I was pitching face forward into the buoyant black mass, throwing my hands out in desperation…"(21). The introduction of the dead body adds the extra push for the narrator to evaluate his current circumstances and realize that acting "bad" only gets him into trouble. After waiting hours in the reeds surrounding the scene of the crime, all three dazed boys emerge together. Physically and mentally exhausted, "They slouched across the lot, looking sheepish, and silently came up beside me to gape at the ravaged automobile. No one said a word" (33). When they think the night is over, two older girls approach their car as the boys are trying to collect themselves. The boys "looked at her like zombies, like war veterans, like deaf-and-dumb pencil peddlers"(40). The young men are given a second chance to fulfill the "real bad character" persona that they so desired before when the girls ask them if they want to party. Although Digby is the only character able to verbally denounce the temptation, the silence of the other two characters is enough to lead us to believe that the young men have undergone a serious transformation. The narrator "just looked at her. I thought I was going to cry"(44). All of the young men have changed from their experience and no longer desire the life of a "real bad character".
After the boys emerge from their hiding places around Greasy Lake, they return to society with a cleansed sense of maturity and understanding. The series of unfortunate events the young men encounter lead them to realize that being "bad" is not all that they hoped it would be. The night they experienced is their harsh initiation into the real world. The narrator understands that he could easily have been lying next to the dead biker on the lake. If he was not as lucky as he was that night, he would have been killed over his notion that being "bad" was the only way to be cool. The night’s events are permanently etched into their minds. For the rest of their lives, the defining moment at Greasy Lake helped the young men realize that acting "bad" did not fit their personality and was not worth the expense that it could cost them. (976)
Similar to the murky lake they frequent, the main characters are so obsessed with their fake personas that they lose sight of their true personalities. The young men see themselves as bad characters, "We wore torn-up leather jackets, slouched around with toothpicks in our mouths, sniffed glue…we drank gin and grape juice, Tango, Thunderbird, and Bali Hai. We were nineteen. We were bad"(1). Yet, they are not born in the slums, or even self-sustaining tough guys who live on their own rules. The main characters are suburban teenagers in rebellion against anything and everything in their path simply because it is cool. It was "a time when courtesy and winning ways went out of style, when it was good to be bad"(1). The narrator describes his friends as "two dangerous characters" although Digby attends Cornell by "allowing his father to pay his tuition", Jeff is thinking of quitting school to become a painter, and the narrator drives his mother’s station wagon. As the night progresses, the friends are horrified to experience what being "bad" is truly like.
Hoping to find some last minute excitement before returning home, the characters drive up to the local hangout known as Greasy Lake. After a series of unfortunate mistakes, the three boys find themselves in a fight with a real tough guy. In the midst of the climactic moment, the narrator loses his keys and their only way to escape the rough situation. The "bad greasy character" is able to manhandle all of the boys at once. The narrator explains that, "I was terrified. Blood was beating in my ears, my hands were shaking, my heart turning over like a dirtbike in the wrong gear"(11). Unsure of how to handle the situation, the narrator returns to the battle with a tire iron and takes the assailant down with a single blow. The immature boys are at a loss, "No one said anything. We just stared down at the guy…Rattled, I dropped it{tire iron} in the dirt, already envisioning the headlines, the pitted faces of the police inquisitors…"(14). Acting purely on adrenaline, the three friends move on to assault the man’s girlfriend. At this point, they have traveled far into the dark side and have truly become unscrupulous characters. The boys are finally living their dream of becoming "bad characters", but their dream has turned into a nightmare.
The series of mistakes the boys unknowingly commit set the stage for their eventual transformation and realization of their immaturity. The arrival of the second car stops them from crossing over into rape and scares them so badly that can only think to retreat deep into the woods. As the narrator encounters a dead body in the lake, the narrator reaches a point in which he loses all self-control. The narrator, "stumbled back, but the muck took hold of my feet—a sneaker snagged, balance lost—and suddenly I was pitching face forward into the buoyant black mass, throwing my hands out in desperation…"(21). The introduction of the dead body adds the extra push for the narrator to evaluate his current circumstances and realize that acting "bad" only gets him into trouble. After waiting hours in the reeds surrounding the scene of the crime, all three dazed boys emerge together. Physically and mentally exhausted, "They slouched across the lot, looking sheepish, and silently came up beside me to gape at the ravaged automobile. No one said a word" (33). When they think the night is over, two older girls approach their car as the boys are trying to collect themselves. The boys "looked at her like zombies, like war veterans, like deaf-and-dumb pencil peddlers"(40). The young men are given a second chance to fulfill the "real bad character" persona that they so desired before when the girls ask them if they want to party. Although Digby is the only character able to verbally denounce the temptation, the silence of the other two characters is enough to lead us to believe that the young men have undergone a serious transformation. The narrator "just looked at her. I thought I was going to cry"(44). All of the young men have changed from their experience and no longer desire the life of a "real bad character".
After the boys emerge from their hiding places around Greasy Lake, they return to society with a cleansed sense of maturity and understanding. The series of unfortunate events the young men encounter lead them to realize that being "bad" is not all that they hoped it would be. The night they experienced is their harsh initiation into the real world. The narrator understands that he could easily have been lying next to the dead biker on the lake. If he was not as lucky as he was that night, he would have been killed over his notion that being "bad" was the only way to be cool. The night’s events are permanently etched into their minds. For the rest of their lives, the defining moment at Greasy Lake helped the young men realize that acting "bad" did not fit their personality and was not worth the expense that it could cost them. (976)
Friday, October 5, 2007
"The Things They Carried"
In "The Things They Carried", Tim O’ Brien explores the physical and emotional burdens that weighed on soldiers during the Vietnam War. The "things" the troops carry are both literal and figurative. Their physical load of weapons, ammunition, rations, and other supplies underscore their emotional load of terror, love, grief, and their desire to return home. Each character in O’Brien’s short story carries a different load specific to their role in the unit. Similar to their physical items, each character carries a different emotional burden specific to their outlook on the terrible events that surround their lives.
Jimmy Cross, the unit’s officer, is charged with the most responsibility and appears to suffer emotional burdens more than any of his other men. Although Cross may not carry as much physical load as the other enlisted men in his unit, he is responsible for his men’s lives. When Cross witnesses Lavender’s death, he bears the grief of the other members of the unit and feels as if he is responsible for his demise. The other enlisted men, too dumbfounded to mourn, do not experience the grief that Cross does. In response to losing one of his men, Cross feels as if he must become the best officer he can be and devote his life to his men. He then makes a symbolic personal sacrifice by burning the letters from his beloved Martha. By giving up Martha, he loses the escape he once had from the war around him. Since he believes her presence will no longer distract him, he can become closer to his men and protect them better. He is no longer absently obsessed with her trivial matters that he sees as a destructive force to his concentration to his unit. Lavender’s death, although un-preventable, leads Cross to become a different person for the rest of his time in Vietnam. He will no longer allow he and his men to take the war lightheartedly. The unit will no do everything by the book and according to military procedure. Cross no longer is devoted to focusing on matters at home, but rather on devoting all of his efforts on getting his men safely through the conflict.
Some of the things the men carry are universal, such as the two-pound poncho, magazines of ammunition, a primary weapon, and fear. All of the men carry the weight of fear, reputations, and death along with their standard gear. Although every member of the unit experiences fear at some point, every one of the soldiers knows that exhibiting fear will only reveal vulnerability. After a particularly bad firefight, "They would touch their bodies, feeling shame, then quickly hiding it. They would force themselves to stand. As if in slow motion, frame by frame…Scary stuff, one might say. But then someone else would grin…" (65) Although the men are all scared they try to hide their fear from each other. They all "carried the emotional baggage of men who might die. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects that was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required prefect balance and perfect posture" (76). All of the men have to find a way to dehumanize the whole situation in order to cope with the events that surround them. In the short story, the men encounter a VC corpse by the side of the road. One of the men, Sanders, reaches down, cuts a finger from the body, and puts in his pocket. Sanders then tries to tell the other men that there is some moral to the scene before them yet he is unable to explain it. The other troops curse Sanders and yet it does not seem to bother any of them what they had just seen. In order to continue on fighting and not lose your sanity, the soldiers must dehumanize the events around them.
Tim O’ Brien’s short story explores the hardships the troops endured during the war. Even more encumbering than their physical loads were the emotional wounds they suffered each day. All of the men over there could handle the physical demands the war required from them, but many of they could not handle the emotional drain that the war took from them. Even if the troops could hide their emotional pain while in battle and in Vietnam, once they returned home they were changed forever. The emotional wounds many of the troops faced in the war could not be repaired. Through Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his men, we can see how the terrible events the men suffered though changed their lives forever. (787)
Jimmy Cross, the unit’s officer, is charged with the most responsibility and appears to suffer emotional burdens more than any of his other men. Although Cross may not carry as much physical load as the other enlisted men in his unit, he is responsible for his men’s lives. When Cross witnesses Lavender’s death, he bears the grief of the other members of the unit and feels as if he is responsible for his demise. The other enlisted men, too dumbfounded to mourn, do not experience the grief that Cross does. In response to losing one of his men, Cross feels as if he must become the best officer he can be and devote his life to his men. He then makes a symbolic personal sacrifice by burning the letters from his beloved Martha. By giving up Martha, he loses the escape he once had from the war around him. Since he believes her presence will no longer distract him, he can become closer to his men and protect them better. He is no longer absently obsessed with her trivial matters that he sees as a destructive force to his concentration to his unit. Lavender’s death, although un-preventable, leads Cross to become a different person for the rest of his time in Vietnam. He will no longer allow he and his men to take the war lightheartedly. The unit will no do everything by the book and according to military procedure. Cross no longer is devoted to focusing on matters at home, but rather on devoting all of his efforts on getting his men safely through the conflict.
Some of the things the men carry are universal, such as the two-pound poncho, magazines of ammunition, a primary weapon, and fear. All of the men carry the weight of fear, reputations, and death along with their standard gear. Although every member of the unit experiences fear at some point, every one of the soldiers knows that exhibiting fear will only reveal vulnerability. After a particularly bad firefight, "They would touch their bodies, feeling shame, then quickly hiding it. They would force themselves to stand. As if in slow motion, frame by frame…Scary stuff, one might say. But then someone else would grin…" (65) Although the men are all scared they try to hide their fear from each other. They all "carried the emotional baggage of men who might die. They carried shameful memories. They carried the common secret of cowardice barely restrained, the instinct to run or freeze or hide, and in many respects that was the heaviest burden of all, for it could never be put down, it required prefect balance and perfect posture" (76). All of the men have to find a way to dehumanize the whole situation in order to cope with the events that surround them. In the short story, the men encounter a VC corpse by the side of the road. One of the men, Sanders, reaches down, cuts a finger from the body, and puts in his pocket. Sanders then tries to tell the other men that there is some moral to the scene before them yet he is unable to explain it. The other troops curse Sanders and yet it does not seem to bother any of them what they had just seen. In order to continue on fighting and not lose your sanity, the soldiers must dehumanize the events around them.
Tim O’ Brien’s short story explores the hardships the troops endured during the war. Even more encumbering than their physical loads were the emotional wounds they suffered each day. All of the men over there could handle the physical demands the war required from them, but many of they could not handle the emotional drain that the war took from them. Even if the troops could hide their emotional pain while in battle and in Vietnam, once they returned home they were changed forever. The emotional wounds many of the troops faced in the war could not be repaired. Through Lieutenant Jimmy Cross and his men, we can see how the terrible events the men suffered though changed their lives forever. (787)
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