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Summary and Analysis by Section

The Benjy Section

P. 12, Scene 8 (1928) Cry baby, Luster said.

P. 12, Scene 9 (1902) "Keep your hands in your pockets."

P. 13, Scene 10 (sometime later) Mr Patterson was chopping . . .

The barn that Benjy sees in Scene 8 (1928) carries his memory back to a continuation of the earlier scene, when he and Caddy are delivering a letter to Mrs. Patterson. This event then causes Benjy to correlate that time with another time, when he tried to deliver a letter by himself. The time of this event has to be in the spring, some months later, because by now Mr. Patterson has intercepted a letter, and the affair must come to an end. Benjy's reactions here are also important. He was doing fine with his task until he looked at Mrs. Patterson's eyes and saw hostility and fear in them. Then he became frightened and could not move. Had Mrs. Patterson not been so hostile and frightened, Benjy would not have become so rigid and frightened. The results of this event will be narrated later on inside the house (Scene 46).

P. 14, Scene 11 (1928) "They aint nothing . . ."

As Luster leads Benjy down to the branch, or stream, Faulkner is preparing us for the most signicant jump back in time in the entire section, the one that occurs by the branch. This long section in the present time gives us the rationale for Luster and Benjy's journey. In the Jason section (Section III), we learn that Jason maliciously burned two tickets Friday night rather than give them to Luster, who is now searching for his lost quarter so that he can attend the minstrel show. The show itself becomes a dominant motif in the present since Miss Quentin will later become involved with some of the show people. Important also is the fact that Benjy's age is finally stated, and that the golfers calling for their caddie reminds him of his sister, Caddy.


The Benjy Section: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30
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