Faulkner’s novel, The Sound and the Fury, is narrated through the three brothers of the Compson family: Benjy, Quentin and Jason. The narration that catches the most focus of the novel is Benjy’s. Benjy is described as a speechless idiot who the family treats as a tiresome burden in their everyday lives. When analyzing the character through a disability and autism lens, one can argue that Benjy displays symptoms on the autism spectrum. Although Faulkner wrote this novel in 1929 before the first autism diagnosis in 1943, it does not negate the possibility of Benjy being autistic. People with autism diagnoses are often not considered capable of complete thought, communication or comprehension because of their mental disabilities. Common signs of autism include: delayed speech and communication skills, reliance on routines, unusual reactions to smells, tastes, sights, sounds or touch, and excellent memory; however, most cases of autism are never the exact same and can vary from mild to severe. The Compson family believed Benjy lacked the abilities to think coherently, understand and comprehend what was happening around him. However, as readers we are able to see that Benjy in fact did understand the world around him, maybe even better than his brothers, Quentin and Jason, could. Benjy demonstrated through his narration in the novel that he was indeed capable of all these things, he interpreted and understood the world differently but just as richly as the people around him.
Throughout the novel there are many indicators that lead to the idea that Benjy Compson could be diagnosed on the autism spectrum. The initial symptom the reader first notices is that Benjy is a mute, his family often refers to him as a “speechless idiot” or “looney”. Unable to communicate with words, Benjy uses moans, cries and bellows to show when he is upset. He also knows simple terms and names like his sister’s, Caddy; however, he cannot distinguish the differences between different words that sound the same but have different meanings like “Caddy” and “caddie”. One sees this through his interchangeable spelling and use of the two words in his narration. His inability to communicate not only frustrates his family but it also frustrates and upsets him, “I opened the gate and they stopped, turning. I was trying to say, and I caught her, trying to say, and she screamed, and I was trying to say and trying arid the bright shapes began to stop and I tried to get out” (Faulkner 45). As Benjy tries harder to speak the more frustrated, blurry and distorted the world becomes around him. Another characteristic resembling a symptom of autism is his reliance on routines and order that creates structure and stability in Benjy’s life. This reliance is shown when Luster drives Benjy to the cemetery and takes a different route, “Luster hit Queenie again and swung her to the left at the monument. For an instant Ben sat in an utter hiatus. Then he bellowed. Bellow on bellow, his voice mounted, with scare interval for breath….. “Don’t you know any better than to take him to the left” (Faulkner 320). Patterns and routines are crucial to developing Benjy’s sense of order in the world. His outbursts are derived from the abrupt interruptions of his repetitive behavior. Benjy also demonstrates this fear of change when Caddy leaves the Compson home, “Miss Caddy done gone long ways away. Done got married and left you. You can’t do no good, holding to the gate and and crying” (Faulkner 51). Benjy becomes overwhelmed when his patterns and routines are disrupted and the only way he can communicate his discomfort is through cries and moans.
The last two symptoms Benjy exhibits relating to autism are his unusual reactions to senses, particularly his sense of smell, and his excellent memory. Through his narration one can see that Benjy relies heavily on his senses for structuring his thoughts and memories. Out of all his family members, Benjy receives the most affection and patience from his sister, Caddy. Benjy often associates his sister with the smell of trees or leaves multiple times throughout the novel, “She opened the gate and came in and stooped down. Caddy smelled like leaves” and “Caddy smelled like trees and when we were asleep” (Faulkner 6). Once Caddy eventually moves out of the family home, Benjy starts to disassociate her with the earth-like smell. Benjy is also noted substituting his sense of touch for smell seen here, “I could smell the cold” (Faulkner 6). The last symptom that corresponds with Benjy being on the autism spectrum is his memory. Not only does Benjy have an excellent memory, but his narration of the past is the most organized out of the three brothers. His ability to keep his memories straight also comes from his unusual responsiveness to his senses. Using his sense of touch, Benjy is able to go from one memory to another after catching his pants on a nail, “You snagged on that nail again. Can’t you never crawl through here without snagging on that nail” (Faulkner 3). Immediately after this incident, Benjy’s conscious jumps to a memory from the past with his sister unhooking his pants off the same nail, “Caddy uncaught me and we crawled through” (Faulkner 3). This ability to associate sensations with long-term memory is also demonstrated by Amanda Boggs, who is autistic, “My first memories involve sensations of all kinds. Colors. Sounds. Textures. Flavors. Smells. Shapes. Tones. These are short words, but the meaning of them is long, involved, and complex. Some things caught my attention, others did not, but all of them were absorbed into my mind” (Baggs). Benjy uses his recollections along with his senses to compensate for his lack of language and communication skills to form a comprehensive narrative.
In conclusion, Benjy Compson’s narration in The Sound and the Furycan be analyzed through an autistic and disability lens. Benjy’s lack of speech, reliance on routines and unusual sensory responsiveness all point to signs that he could be diagnosed as autistic. Benjy is a mentally disabled character in the Compson family who is treated as an infant at thirty-three years old. Although he is perceived as an idiot, Benjy is one of the few characters who can understand the world around him. Because Benjy interacts with the world in a different way, he is seen as unable to comprehend events going on around him. Baggs also relates to Benjy in this aspect, “the most important things about the way I perceive and interact with the world around me can only be expressed in terms that describe them as the absence of something important” (Baggs). Through Benjy’s narrative, readers can see that he is capable of understanding the world maybe even more than his “normal” brothers can.
Word Count:1130
Works Cited:
Baggs, Amanda. “Cultural Commentary: Up in the Clouds and Down in the Valley: My Richness and Yours.” Disability Studies Quarterly, The Ohio State University Libraries .
Faulkner , William. The Sound and the Fury. Vintage Books , 1984.
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