Monday, April 20, 2015
This novel is and has been from the start about Caddy. The book begins with Benjy who hears Caddy's name at the gold course and begins to bellow and cry. Although Caddy is not a narrator and has no chapter, she is the focus of the book. All four narrator's are connected to Caddy in some way. For Benjy, Caddy was the only one who really loved and cared about him. For Quentin, it is almost as if he and Caddy are one. They are very close. For Jason, Caddy is his "downfall." She is the reason for his disgrace and his lot in life (so he tells himself.) And Dilsey, well Dilsey raised Caddy. She is the second mother of Caddy. The book centers around Caddy, her actions, her choices, and how she affects others. The book starts off very jumbled and slowly makes it way to the traditional narration style's in Dilsey's chapter. The chapters are arranged in the specific order to show the reader the whole story. Slowly, but surely, the truth is revealed to the reader. The four chapter's represent the old south, with Caddy representing the new south. The unbiased beginning of Benjy allows the readers to figure it out. Then we are thrown into Quentin and Jason's stream of consciousness.Quentin's obsession with the past and his final demise at his own hands shows the wrongness of the past and how you can not live stuck in the past. It represents how the old south must move forward. Jason, himself, is a representation of the old south. Then the book is finished by Dilsey who can show us the truth. The book is telling us that progress is inevitable and that the future lies in those few are strong enough to not fear progress, Caddy (and Quentin the girl.) Over all, despite the confusion and the endless list of questions, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Also, for those of you who didn't go to the holocaust thing tonight, you missed out on an excellent movie and some delicious, home-made, chicken-noodle soup.
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Nice break down of the chapter and tying it back to Caddy. The book really is all about Caddy & I feel like that idea may have been lost over the past few weeks as we talked about the rest of the book.
ReplyDeleteYou have some awesome observations here Tessa. Like Janell said you broke it down well and wrapped up the ideas you presented throughout the rest of your blog nicely.
ReplyDeleteI love your focus on Caddy in this blog. It really does help to tie everything back together since the whole novel truly is centering on Caddy and how she affects the other characters. Nice work!
ReplyDeleteOverall you wrapped this up pretty well! I agree with your focus on Caddy and how she is the center of this novel! This was very insightful and informative. Great job!
ReplyDeleteReally liked how you tied this back to Caddy. Really helped me understand the book as a whole after reading this.
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