The Role Of Caddy In The Sound And The Fury

“The Sound and the Fury” is a narrative about the lives of the Compson family, with an emphasis on the four Compson children, Benjy, Quentin, Jason, and Caddy. Benjy, Jason, and Quentin all have sections in this book where they give a first-person account about the situations going on around them, but Caddy is left out. She is sort of a lost persona in the book because she does not have a personal chapter. Despite being left out, Caddy remains a significant character throughout the entire narrative. In all three of her brothers’ sections, Caddy is their central obsession. Benjy is captivated by her because she helps him make sense of the world around him and Benjy’s love for Caddy is one of the few things that remain stable for him. Benjy’s …show more content…
She took over the role of being his mother because his self-absorbed mother was too preoccupied with her health to care properly for any of her children. She saw him as a curse on the family because of his retardation, so Caddy had no choice but to take up the motherly role and take care of her brother. This is why Caddy is Benjy’s only source of comfort, so when she becomes more independent and promiscuous during her older years, it upsets Benjy. An example of this is when Benjy realizes that Caddy is no longer innocent, he says, “... Caddy put her arms around me, and her shining veil, and I couldn’t smell trees anymore and I began to cry” (Faulkner). Benjy comprehends the world around him through his senses, which is why he associates Caddy’s innocence with a natural smell, the smell of trees, but when she starts wearing perfume, it agitates Benjy because he comes to the realization that her innocence is gone. In contrast, Caddy sees her own loss of innocence as a symbol of her fierce independence and developing sexuality, and because she was always caring for Benjy, she saw him as a hindrance to her “new” way of life. Obviously, Caddy loved her brother, but all throughout Benjy’s section it is clear that she resented the position she was in. She was forced into the position of a mother at a very young age because none of the Compsons showed Benjy any kind of affection. She struggled …show more content…
They are all obsessed with her life and try to form her into the person they want her to be. Benjy, although inadvertent, pushes her to be the mother that he never had, Quentin wanted her to be perfect, pure, and honorable, and Jason sees her less as a sister and more as a way to get a better job. From her brothers’ perspectives, Caddy failed in their expectations of her. None of them realized that they were the problem, they were the ones forcing her to be something she was not. In the end, Caddy violently rebelled against all of her brothers’ wishes and became the person she wanted to be, a free-spirited, independent