The Sound and the Fury Chapter 1 (April Seventh, 1928) 

Faulkner may as well have started this chapter with Chinese, for it would not have made a significant change to the overall initial comprehension of the chapter. First reading this chapter and trying to firmly grasp it is like trying to whisk egg batter with a shoelace (not that I've tried it, just for the purpose of an analogy); one can't get far without realizing how futile it is and how wise it would be to use that time to analyze another aspect of the chapter rather than the plot (one aspect that is bound to create less of a migraine too).

First things first, let's begin with what we, the readers, can explicitly comprehend from chapter 1: Benjy is one of the four Compton family children, he is mentally handicapped, his name was changed from Maury (the family name), and of course, he is the person whose perspective we are experiencing the novel from thus far. It is no "accident" that Faulkner incorporated these details into chapter 1; as twenty-first century English students, we know that what the author is saying is far more of importance than what the characters are saying, although it is nonetheless beneficial to know what the characters are saying because one needs context to interpret author's tone from. 

What we can infer from this chapter is that Benjy is as naive and unimpeachable (woah, big word? Google is your friend, my friend) as a character can be. This can be supported in Faulkner's representation of him; he is handicapped mentally, and tends to have the train of thought that a juvenile child does. Parallel to this, children generally are associated as pure and innocent beings whose minds are not corrupted or blemished (yet). Additionally, Benjy is depicted as one with "special senses." For instance, Benjy seems to have been very sensitive to Caddy's scent of trees, remember? This supports that he is like the character of a fool in Shakespearean literature, for what the "fool" says is the truth. The notable part of this representation of Benjy is that we, the readers, can place our credibility in Benjy as he narrates the accounts of the chapter; he cannot soil what is being told, but merely relay them as they unfold, for he is not soiled himself. 

His symbolic role in the novel is to be the messenger of truth, which is not always pretty. One truth we get is Benjy's name change which portrays the antiquated Southern societal flaw of placing status over righteous human dignity. As we are taught now, a person's state of being, handicapped or not, does not dictate their merit regardless. The exposure we get about Benjy's unjust treatment and inferior sentiment from other characters is Faulkner indirectly talking to us as to how the South was like in the nineteenth century. And just like that, the chapter is starting to sound more like English, and less like Chinese (Thank you, AP Lit).

-LbugL

At the SOUND of a name like William Faulkner, high school english students may let out a groan under their breath and immediately disregard him FURIously under the file "Boring AP Literature authors who ruin my brain power when I could be using it to play Trivia Crack" in their brain. Hmmm, maybe that's why it's called The Sound and The Fury, right? Well... maybe not, but good try.

Diving deeper into the life of Faulkner and what he was like as a person just like any other Average Joe (even though an Average Joe probably doesn't have a Literature Nobel Prize under his name) can create a sense of familiarity and allow the high school student to perhaps see Faulkner in the eye as they try to get inside his mind and decipher his writings, particularly The Sound and The Fury.

Learning more about Faulkner, the student can find that he was a Nobel-Prize-winning novelist of the American South. Also, he was brought up by an old southern family in Oxford, Mississippi and throughout his life, his endeavors led him to dabble in the Canadian and British Royal Air  Force during World War I, booking keeping in New York City, writing scripts for Hollywood, as well as embarking on some excursions to Europe and Asia. So, his college resume probably would have looked as golden as the Golden Fleece. But, most of his brain power behind his short stories and novels was generated on a farm in his hometown, Oxford. After all, he is most commonly know for being a writer, not an ex-soldier turned bookkeeper turned Hollywood writer turned writer turned tomb-rester. 

However, the detail that he was from the South is especially important to take note of here (although most know that taking notes is something not akin to high schoolers), as it is one of the factors that influences his writing style. According to an article on nobelprize.org that gives a biography on William Faulkner, "Faulkner has invented a host of characters typical of the historical growth and subsequent decadence of the South." In other words, he was quite familiar with Southern culture and nature and this seeps through in his the imaginary Yoknapatawpha Country (in The Sound and The Fury) and it's residents, i.e. the characters. The incorporation of the South is also surfaced in one theme of the degeneration of the South and rising prominence of the newcomers, the Snopeses. 

As the high school student gets ready to go take on the big shoes of reading and comprehending a complicated writer such as William Faulkner, it is of upmost importance to keep in mind his Southern upbringing and influence of his writing. That will probably help take out the FURY one gets in deciphering the intricate complexity of Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury. 

-LbugL