Word: compsons
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...expectations were more specific. I always assumed that Harvard was a giant edifice made of red bricks and the bones of pilgrims, where my roommate would be named Quentin Compson and would leap off a bridge to his death shortly after meeting me. I was only half-right...
Jason is filled with the energy and ambition that Quentin lacks, but is equally self-destructive. He seems to be a different manifestation of the Compson family’s downfall—Jason’s satiric musings reveal his own frustrations and insecurities, but more importantly demonstrate that he is aware of how thoroughly dysfunctional his family is. The Compsons are trapped by their family’s history and heritage; Quentin commits suicide because, among other things, his sister Caddy has corrupted the family honor with her promiscuity. Humor is the vehicle that Jason uses to separate...
...appendix Faulkner writes that Jason “assumed the entire burden of the rotting family in the rotting house” before he “was able to free himself forever [from] the idiot brother and the house.” Faulkner reveals that Jason sells the Compson estate and puts his brother in an insane asylum—effectively dismantling his family’s history. Some might view this ending as tragic, but it is also triumphant. Towards the end of Jason’s entry in the appendix, Faulkner includes the exultations...
...Fury” has the reputation as one of the most formidable and tragic novels in the American canon. Surprisingly, appreciating Faulkner’s comedy has drastically changed my perception of the book. “The Sound and the Fury” concerns the disintegration of the Compson family, a declining aristocratic Southern clan living on a once-prosperous plantation. The first three sections are written from the point of view of the three Compson brothers: the mentally retarded Benjy, the suicidal Harvard student Quentin, and the cruel and domineering Jason. When I first tried to read...
...humor in “The Sound and the Fury” articulates the roles of the three Compson brothers in the family’s decline. The comedic power of the novel is most evident in the third section, narrated in the bitterly sardonic voice of Jason. The tone abruptly changes with the first sentence of the section when Jason announces, “Once a bitch always a bitch, what I say.” The fatalistic overtones of this decree permeate Jason’s narration as he mocks almost every character he meets. Faulkner uses Jason?...