As brother Jason Compson begins his narration in the third section, “April Sixth, 1928,” of The Sound and the Fury, the anger and resentment ooze off the page. By now we have heard from Benjy and from Quentin, and it is Jason’s turn to comment on the family’s ruination. What was once a great and prosperous family has been reduced to circumstances befitting an episode of Dateline with that deep-voiced reporter Keith Morrison. Their terminally ill mother cannot control her son who has been reduced to working as a store clerk, her elderly black cook and housekeeper who makes pitiful attempts at her former stature in the household, nor her now-divorced daughter whose own daughter now lives with them— that is, if I understand what is going on. Though, having Caddy to name her daughter Quentin – obviously after her brother – has thrown me off in places, when someone named Quentin is referred to as “she.” Wait, I thought Quentin was a man . . . Oh, that’s a different person named Quentin . . .
Categories: Literature, Mississippi, Reading, The Deep South
