Folklore in The Sound and the Fury

Peavy, Charles D. “Faulkner's Use of Folklore in The Sound and the Fury” The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 79, No. 313 (Jul. - Sep., 1966), pp. 437-447

 

In his article Peavy talks about the use of folklore by Faulkner in The Sound and the Fury and his focus is mainly on Benjy and plants. Benjy is usually depicted with some kind of “security blanket” in the novel and more often than not it is a flower of some sort. Peavy talks about the significance of these flowers in relation to folklore and superstitions. His comfort flower is usually a jimson weed, which conveys a sinister meaning to the reader.

 

“One of the most recurrent uses of folk belief in the book is the identification of Benjy with the jimson weed: on the fourth page of the novel Benjy is given a jimson weed to prevent his crying and he continues to play with jimson weeds throughout the book. The jimson weed . . . has a multiplicity of meanings in the folklore of the region. A coarse, ill-scented annual plant, the jimson weed is a member of the nightshade family and is, of course, quite poisonous. . . . Indeed that Benjy, an idiot, is allowed by his negro keepers to play with such a dangerous plant is surprising.”

 

Indeed the fact that Benjy is almost constantly holding his jimson weed is in fact symbolic of the poison that flows through the Compson family. Benjy himself, being simple and unassuming, seems unaffected by the jimson weed, much as he is unaffected by the bickering of the family. He bears the weight of the poison on the family as he bears the flower but he feels no worse for it. He is the focus of most of the family’s pain, with his constant need for attention and even events as drastic as his castration. The family all have their arguments dripping with venomous words which generally involve Benjy in some way. He carries their problems unknowingly and he carries the flower oblivious to its deadly secret.

 

In his article Peavy also points out the part of the novel when Benjy’s jimson bottle is empty. “The poisonous aspect of the plant is perhaps used symbolically by Faulkner: in the last chapter the bottle holding Benjy’s jimson weed flowers is an empty poison bottle.”

 

The symbol of the empty bottle of poison is a grim commentary on the Compson family. The fact that the family has been in a downward spiral throughout the book leads the reader to expect their downfall. The empty bottle could symbolize that there is just no poison left and that the family has simply dried out and gone. Over the years they have all taken their dose of the poison they produced until every last drop was gone and they were no more. In the end the Compson family is dying if not already dead; and the image we are left with is just the idiot, Benjy, serenely holding a flower. (504)