Benjy

     In the Sound and the Fury, Benjy is a character that causes the whole story to be a lot more confusing. Like I said in my last post, I am very intimidated by all the skipping around in time, and Benjy does a ton of that. The reason Benjy does it though, is because he is very emotionally connected to the past, and he feels like it is the present. He spends most of his time thinking about things that have already happened to him, and this shows us who he really is. He plays the role of a child in the Compson family. He is not thought of as an adult in their family, and it is because he doesn’t act like one.
     However, the minimal effort that the Compsons put into helping him be understood shows who they are as well. I can already tell through the way they deal with talking to him and just his presence in general that they are very self focused. His perspective shows us a view from the outside, because he is not really a part of the included family.
     Benjy holds on to the past because he knows what happens, and if one thing can stay consistent, it’s his memory. He longs for the past because live was better for him back then, and his life now is not enjoyable. This shows that as time has gone on, the  family has given him less of what he needs. He is growing older, but not mentally, and he longs for things to stay how they were earlier in his life. It shows that the family is moving too fast for him. He feels like he is the same as he always has been, but they are all changing. This shows that in the South, people and families follow a pattern, and the pattern isn’t easily changed when one family member isn’t able to keep up.
     I think that Benjy is a symbol for the part of all of us that longs for the past, and feels disconnected from the present. We all daydream and think about things that have already happened, and we sometimes do it uncontrollably. Benjy shows us what it would be like if that was all we could do. He is very human, but he isn’t able to interact like one.