Sound and Fury

The Sound and the Fury by Wild Bill

I acquired a limited edition of fifty classic books in exchange for an original watercolour I did when I was sent to Cyprus by the Department of Defence to record artistically the activities of Canada's Peace Keeping Troops.

The following is my critique of the American masterpiece by William Faulkner:

The stream of consciousness style of writing used by James Joyce in "Ulysses", is in many ways the same technique used by William Faulkner in his novel,"The Sound and the Fury". Faulkner's method of shifting time by using italics, adds to the confusion of the reader, but is more realistic in capturing the switches of thought experienced when one's moods change with the perceptions of the present. Unfortunately, he does not remain in the same time frame as he allows the action to flashback and forth, altering not only the mood, but calling up the action of many past memories to intrude on the present.

His method of telling his story in four parts, from four different points of view, provides us with insights into the family which could never have been experienced if he he had taken a straight forward approach to presenting the lives of the Compton family.

You get the feeling you are a member of this complex group, and you are sharing intimate details of each in his or her turn to tell the events which altered their lives. He adds to the confusion when he had Caddy's child, a girl, named Quentin, after her brother who committed suicide because of an admitted incestuous relationship with his sister. Like all families, this is one which has an abundant number of skeletons in its closet.

His use of the blacks in the novel convinces me the family felt the blacks had an easier go in life because they were cared for throughout their lives by the whites who treated them like material goods.