The Sound And The Fury And Modernism Analysis

Decent Essays
William Faulkner’s novel, The Sound and the Fury is a work of Modernism. The Sound and the Fury fits in perfectly with the modernistic movement, thematically and stylistically. Briefly, the modernist movement in literature is an era of loss and destruction in which results in characters making self-conscious break. Faulkner stylistically incorporates Modernism into The Sound and the Fury by using the character’s thoughts. Readers can probably suggest that Faulkner purposely fails to cohere around any single character or single principle to show that the characters lives in a fragmented way. Faulkner stylistically includes Modernism into the novel by creating a world of fragmentation in the novel. The characters of The Sound and the Fury are …show more content…
Faulkner chooses to use ways of the modernistic movement in his novel, stylistically by creating a fragmented world around the characters. Faulkner creates a series of strange characters revolving around a single reason which is living in a fragmented world. Readers can see how Mrs. Compson creates a fragmented world for her children, when she says, “‘[Quentin and Caddy] deliberately shut me out of their lives. It was always her and Quentin. They were always conspiring against me. Against you (Jason) too, though you were too young to realize it.’” (Faulkner 326). In this scene, Mrs. Compson talks to Jason about why Caddy leaves and Quentin kills himself. Mrs. Compson creates a fragmented world for her children at a young age by not being a good mother figure to them; she basically lets Dilsey raise her children. Jason dislikes Caddy and Miss Quentin because his mother shows hatred toward them which displays how this fragmented world affects one of her children. Readers can probably suggest that Faulkner adds fragmentation into the characters lives to display the modernistic movement, stylistically and show how the world around these characters, such as Mrs. Compson’s children creates a world of confusion for …show more content…
In Dilsey’s section, Jason loses his power and white privilege. Readers can possibly see Jason losing his power and white privilege, when Faulkner says, “The wire opened. ‘This is Jason Compson,’ he said[.] ‘Have a car ready, with a deputy, if you can’t go in ten minutes. I’ll be there—What?—Robbery. My house. I know who it—Robbery, I say’” (354). When Quentin steals Jason’s money, Jason loses his power. Readers can also see that Jason loses his white privilege, when Faulkner says, “‘Is you de one wants to go to Jefferson?’ He said. ‘Yes,’ Jason said. ‘What’ll you charge me?’ ‘Fo dollars.’ ‘Give you two.’ ‘Can’t go fer no less’n fo.’ The negro said, ‘You want me er not?’ ‘All right,’ Jason said, ‘Get in’” (391). When Jason needs help from an African-American, Jason also loses his white privilege. The readers can see that Jason doesn’t have any choice but to get help from the African-American. Revolving The Sound and the Fury around loss, Faulkner creates a literary work that shows modernistic concepts, thematically which shows readers that character’s problematic world generates a loss in the character’s lives, such as

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