To this day, philosophers chew on an age-old question: “What is the meaning of life?” In The Sound and the Fury, William Faulkner portrays the fruitless result of this basic human pursuit. Based in the early 20th century American South, the novel follows the members of the Compson family and delves into each of the Compson’s deeply-rooted psychological problems. Faulkner uses each of the book’s narrators to spearhead the issue of meaninglessness of daily troubles. Each of the four unique perspectives represent a different approach to dealing with life’s “noise”. Additionally, the novel shows the effects of each of these unique approaches in regards to finding meaning in life. In each of the four sections of the novel, various birds appear in
…show more content…
The birds appear often and flee quickly, much like the pace of his thoughts in his narration. The first appearance of a bird is a sparrow. Quentin experiences the sparrow watching him “with one eye, then flick! And it would be the other one, his throat pumping faster than any pulse. The hour began to strike. The sparrow quit swapping eyes” (79). In this excerpt, the appearance of the sparrow represents Quentin’s life problems coming to an end. The last strike of the clock represents Quentin’s life coming to an end. The bird stills in the solemn moment of the clock’s strike. Quentin experiences a very intimate connection with this sparrow, as he does with every problem in his life. He over-thinks and replays each moment of his life as if that could fix his broken situation. The sparrows appear many other times in Quentin’s section. He hears “the bird whistled again, invisible, a sound meaningless and profound, inflectionless, ceasing as though cut off with the blow of a knife, and again, and that sense of water swift and peaceful above secret places, felt, not seen not heard” (136). In this moment, the bird’s whistle in contrast with the flow of the water is representative of the theme in the story: the peaceful moments in life are drowned out by the meaningless noise of humanity’s trivial problems. Quentin’s satisfaction in life is overpowered out by his problems, and …show more content…
The narrator observes only one species of birds in this section. The chapter begins with a intricate and harsh description of “a pair of jaybirds came up from nowhere, whirled up on the blast like gaudy scraps of cloth or paper and lodged in the mulberries, where they swung in raucous tilt and recover, screaming into the wind” (226). They are observed as aggressive and hostile, yet Dilsey does not pay them any attention. She focuses on her duties and her purpose. Even later, she is silent when Luster observes the jaybirds whirling over the house, shouting “‘Git on back to hell, whar you belong to. Tain’t Monday yit’” (269). Jaybirds were acknowledged to be a species sent by the Devil from hell, and they are supposed to reside in hell until Monday. Yet in the novel, these birds appear on April Eighth, which is Easter Sunday. This represents hell on earth in Dilsey’s chapter, which is fitting considering her situation. As the center of the Compson family, she is involved in each of the family member’s problems, and bears the burden of caring for the wellbeing of the broken family. In an similar way to the elaborate description of the jaybirds in the beginning of the chapter, the narrator shows Dilsey’s difficulties in exquisite detail in order to highlight the misfortune in the family. However, even when Dilsey is constantly surrounded by hate and anger, she perseveres. In contrast to
The birds appear often and flee quickly, much like the pace of his thoughts in his narration. The first appearance of a bird is a sparrow. Quentin experiences the sparrow watching him “with one eye, then flick! And it would be the other one, his throat pumping faster than any pulse. The hour began to strike. The sparrow quit swapping eyes” (79). In this excerpt, the appearance of the sparrow represents Quentin’s life problems coming to an end. The last strike of the clock represents Quentin’s life coming to an end. The bird stills in the solemn moment of the clock’s strike. Quentin experiences a very intimate connection with this sparrow, as he does with every problem in his life. He over-thinks and replays each moment of his life as if that could fix his broken situation. The sparrows appear many other times in Quentin’s section. He hears “the bird whistled again, invisible, a sound meaningless and profound, inflectionless, ceasing as though cut off with the blow of a knife, and again, and that sense of water swift and peaceful above secret places, felt, not seen not heard” (136). In this moment, the bird’s whistle in contrast with the flow of the water is representative of the theme in the story: the peaceful moments in life are drowned out by the meaningless noise of humanity’s trivial problems. Quentin’s satisfaction in life is overpowered out by his problems, and …show more content…
The narrator observes only one species of birds in this section. The chapter begins with a intricate and harsh description of “a pair of jaybirds came up from nowhere, whirled up on the blast like gaudy scraps of cloth or paper and lodged in the mulberries, where they swung in raucous tilt and recover, screaming into the wind” (226). They are observed as aggressive and hostile, yet Dilsey does not pay them any attention. She focuses on her duties and her purpose. Even later, she is silent when Luster observes the jaybirds whirling over the house, shouting “‘Git on back to hell, whar you belong to. Tain’t Monday yit’” (269). Jaybirds were acknowledged to be a species sent by the Devil from hell, and they are supposed to reside in hell until Monday. Yet in the novel, these birds appear on April Eighth, which is Easter Sunday. This represents hell on earth in Dilsey’s chapter, which is fitting considering her situation. As the center of the Compson family, she is involved in each of the family member’s problems, and bears the burden of caring for the wellbeing of the broken family. In an similar way to the elaborate description of the jaybirds in the beginning of the chapter, the narrator shows Dilsey’s difficulties in exquisite detail in order to highlight the misfortune in the family. However, even when Dilsey is constantly surrounded by hate and anger, she perseveres. In contrast to