The subject-matter [of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury] is the death of a family and the corresponding decay of a society. More narrowly, the novel is about the various Compsons--parents and children, brothers and sisters--and how they are able or not able to love each other, and how the failure of love destroys them all. The central focus is the beautiful and doomed Candace Compson. We never see her full-face or hear her speak …
showed first 75 words of 2855 total

showed last 75 words of 2855 total
…and buried past that will not rise again. In the Appendix, one can learn what eventually happened to the Compsons. Jason will turn up a few times, a cotton-buyer now, who will take another heavy loss when he tries to outsmart Hem Snopes. Benjy lives on in the asylum at Jackson. Perhaps it is Caddy in the photograph, perhaps not. Dilsey, who lived long enough to see that too, will not tell us. These endured.