The Appendix In Faulkner's The Sound And The Fury

The Appendix that Faulkner created for his book The Sound and the Fury caused a bit of a stir because some readers felt that what he wrote in the Appendix deviates in some places from The Sound and the Fury. This implication, though, implies that these readers believe they know the text better than the actual writer. In Jason’s section of the Appendix, there is no need for conflict. Jason being the only “sane” Compson is because, as implied by Faulkner in both his book and his Appendix, Jason is the one who ultimately ends the Compson line, and this ending, is seemingly beneficial. Because of this, everything that occurs in Jason’s section of the Appendix is plausible when considering he brings an end to the Compson line and is then able to …show more content…
There are certain events that effect that family line that are out of Jason’s control. For example, he did not have a part in his brother committing suicide, but Jason does have control over whether or not he himself has children, and at the beginning of the Appendix, readers are told that Jason is still a bachelor without children. According to the Appendix, Jason also decides that Bengy cannot have children either. Because Bengy managed to get out of the gate and scare a group of girls, Jason has him castrated. According to the Appendix, Jason is the one who makes this decision without the mother’s, Mrs. Compson’s, consent. “Who, following a fumbling abortive attempt by his idiot brother on a passing female child, had himself appointed the idiot’s guardian without letting their mother know and so was able to have the creature castrated before the mother even knew it was out of the house…” (Faulkner 213) The terms used to refer to Bengy in Jason’s section are interesting because no other sections seemed to rely on terms like “idiot,” “creature,” and “it.” These terms seem to suggest a bit of how the character being introduced feels about other characters is included in the Appendix despite the fact that the characters themselves are not writing them, but through the wording in other member’s Appendix entries, the fact that the end of the Compson line was necessary or …show more content…
This interaction runs the risk of them producing a child that would carry the name “Compson,” but because this woman always travels back to Memphis, there is the implication that they are not as serious with each other as they appear. This interaction seems to suggest this woman is having an affair with Jason, and this relationship can be explained through his relationships in the past which only includes a relationship with a prostitute. Readers are told that Jason and the Memphis woman are seen “on Sunday morning mounting the apartment stairs with paper bags from the grocer’s containing loaves and eggs and oranges and cans of soup, domestic, uxorious, connubial, until the late afternoon bus carried her back to Memphis” (Faulkner 213). The words “domestic,” “uxorious,” and “connubial” are most important to this section because they imply that Jason and this Memphis woman have a very marriage like relationship where Jason is very fond of the woman, but despite this, she still gets on a bus and leaves until the next weekend. Because the woman is possibly already married, any child she had would probably carry her husband’s name instead of Jason’s. Even if they are really together, Jason was taught to hate the Compson name through his mother always making comments about him being more like a Bascomb, so he may not even attach the