Motherhood Research Paper

The Importance of Motherhood
The mother 's heart is the child 's schoolroom. – Henry Ward Beecher In William Faulkner’s 1929 novel, The Sound and the Fury, literary modernism hits its high point. Characterized by many ideas, including individualism, modernism is illustrated throughout the novel with the Compson’s loss of family unity. The Compson’s are southern aristocrats who have African American servants, the Gibson family, that take care of Benjy. Going along with the modernist style of rejecting social norms, Dilsey Gibson is the only person depicted in the novel as sane, genuine, and free of judgment; This is ironic because African American’s living in the south during the 1920’s lived in very poor conditions and had to deal with much
hatred. However, amidst the conditions, Dilsey looks outward; she cares about her family, faith, and Benjy. In contrast, Caroline Compson looks inward; she is self-pitying, self-absorbed, and a hypochondriac. This inward persona leads to the complete destruction of the Compson family. Caused by Caroline, the dissociation is seen throughout the novel in the lives of Benjy, who was denounced by his mother early in his life; Quentin, who kills himself due to his over-obsession with the southern idea of chivalry and the lack of a mother; and Jason, who was unsuccessfully nurtured by Caroline, leading to his negative world view. . Benjy Compson is mentally retarded, and he is denounced by his mother at birth; she changes his name from Maury to Benjy.
“…His name’s Benjy now, Caddy Said. How come it is, Dilsey said…Benjamin came out of the bible, Caddy said. It’s a better name for him than Maury was. How come it is, Dilsey said. Mother says it is, Caddy said” (Faulkner 37). Benjy was previously named after Uncle Maury; however, Caroline thought that having a retarded boy named after him was a disgrace so Caroline changed his name. Caroline does not serve as a mother to Benjy; instead, she sees Benjy as God punishing her, exemplifying her notorious self-pitying. Whenever Benjy is around his mother he often cries, symbolizing her lack of love towards him. “She [mother] took my face in her hands and turned it to hers… She held my face to hers… Mother caught me in her arms and began to cry, and I cried” (41). This scene shows the lack of family unity, for Caroline Compson cannot tolerate Benjy; she has no respect for him. Cleanth Brooks said, “Caroline Compson is not so much an actively wicked and evil person as a cold weight of negativity which paralyzes the normal family relationships” (293). Her self-centeredness divides the family, for she completely rejects Benjy, making Caddy take care of him. Caddy is forced to live a certain life, while she wants another. Eventually, Caddy leaves even though Benjy does not want her to. His lack of a real mother even further intensifies the dissociation of the
Compson family. Benjy is not the only child who suffers from not having a true mother around; Quentin Compson is completely disillusioned, and he has no one to turn to. Quentin in a state of declining mental health says, “… if I’d just had a mother so I could say Mother Mother…” (109). By Quentin saying this, he is acknowledging the importance of a caring mother, and his lack of having one. Quentin needs his mother, for his father is a straight shooter and does not yield any sympathy. Quentin is so caught up in the southern portrayal of chivalry that he cannot come to terms with his sister’s independence and loss of virginity. He needs his mother to help him, to calm him, to put him at ease; however, she is not there. Quentin speaks of his mother’s womb as a dungeon. This symbolizes the negative vibe Quentin has always received from his mother. Philip M. Weinstein said, “No child escapes from this dungeon, and insofar as the dungeon is a womb, no child gets fully born. In place of nourishment she feeds her children repressive ideology, and they sicken on it” (434). Weinstein is saying that due to Caroline’s lack of care, her children are inadequately raised, leaving them with faulty concepts about reality. This is so clearly seen in Quentin, for his faulty concepts lead to his suicide. With this, the family is dissociated even further, and again, can be blamed on Caroline’s lack of motherly ways. After Quentin’s death, Jason was the only one respected by Caroline; however, her inability to nurture and Jason’s personality led to an even further dissociation of the family. Throughout the novel, the reader sees Jason as attached to his mother. She says, “You are my only hope…Every night I thank God for you…Thank God you are not a Compson, because all I have left now is you and Maury…” (126). Caroline has admitted that she wants nothing to do with Caddy nor does she want anything to do with a Compson. Caroline, the mother of the family, has divided the family completely. She has separated herself and Jason from everyone. However, Caroline does not even serve as a good mother to Jason. This is evident in his attitude towards women. Jason says,
I never promise a woman anything nor let her know what I’m going to give her. That’s the only way to manage them. Always keep them guessing. If you can’t think of any other way to surprise them, give them a bust in the jaw (122).
This attitude is one that no man should have. Jason treats everyone with little to no respect, and Caroline can be blamed for that. Jason grew up seeing Caroline disrespect Benjy, and provide less than adequate nurture to Quentin and Caddy. Jason sees his thoughts as acceptable, when in fact they are despicable. Kathleen Moore writes, “Jason 's fixation on his mother cripples him psychologically and establishes his hopelessly clouded and myopic view of human life” (Moore 1). Essentially, Moore is attributing Jason’s irreverence of human life to his mother. Jason is the only sane male child Caroline has; however, his sane personality has many questionable attributes, which can be traced back from his mother’s lack of nurture. As for the family, it is completely annihilated. The father dies, and Caddy is kicked out of the house. The Compson family disintegrates under the selfish Caroline, whereas the Gibson’s are able to maintain a close knit family under the selfless Dilsey.
During the Easter Church service Dilsey says to Frony, “Tell um de good Lawd don’t keer whether he bright er not. Don’t nobody but white trash keer dat” (Faulkner 181). Dilsey is shown to be the only person in the novel free of judgment, for she doesn’t even judge Jason. However, in this scene Dilsey stands up for what is right. She knows that God does not judge people on the basis of their skin. Her faith makes her a strong person. She takes Benjy as well as her family to church, showing her family unity. On the flip side, Dilsey saw the destruction of the Compson’s. She was there through everything; she said, “I seed de first en de last” (185). The Compson family has completely disintegrated, and Dilsey feels the pain. However, her family is the one left standing, for she did not place importance on petty things nor did she get caught up in worldliness. Her faith allowed her to escape the prison bars of time, unlike any of the Compson’s. As Philip Castille says, “Dilsey represents a moral norm in the decadent Compson world and her actions set a standard of humane behavior” (Castille 1). And Dilsey’s humane behavior allows for her family to
thrive. William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury illustrates the importance of motherhood. On one hand, Caroline Compson inadequately nurtures her children and her family disintegrates around her; and on the other hand, Dilsey Gibson is able to take care of her own family and Benjy. Henry Ward Beecher’s quote sums up a mother’s heart; however, for the Compson kids, they had no where to learn.

Works Cited
Faulkner, William. The Sound and the Fury: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. 2nd ed. New York City: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994. Print. Norton Critical Edition.
Brooks, Cleanth. Man, Time, and Eternity. 1963. The Sound and the Fury: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. By William Faulkner. Ed. David Minter. 2nd ed. New York City: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994. 289-97. Print. Norton Critical Edition.
Weinstein, Philip M. " 'If I Could Say Mother ': Construing the Unsayable about Faulknerian Maternity." 1992. The Sound and the Fury: An Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. By William Faulkner. Ed. David Minter. 2nd ed. New York City: W.W. Norton & Company, 1994. 430-42. Print. Norton Critical Edition.
Moore, Kathleen. "Jason Compson And The Mother Complex." Mississippi Quarterly 00053.4 (2000): 533-550. OmniFile Full Text Select (H.W. Wilson). Web. 19 May 2013.
Castille, Philip Dubuisso. "Dilsey 's Easter Conversion In Faulkner 's The Sound And The 000Fury." Studies In The Novel 24.4 (1992): 423. Academic Search Elite. Web. 19 May 0002013.