During the 1920s, authors all over the world were experimenting with different prose styles in order to adapt from the more conventional style that had dominated the 1800s. Out of these efforts grew the Modernists, which refers to writers and artists who started being experimental with their respected art forms. Many authors began experimenting with different ways to tell a story. One very famous and extremely innovative form of storytelling was using a stream of consciousness to write a story. The stream of consciousness seeks to replicate thought by mimicking freely flowing thoughts in prose. Many European authors became famous for this prose style, specifically Virginia Woolf and James Joyce. However, in America, one author stands supreme for his use of stream of consciousness.

In 1929, southern author William Faulkner published his novel The Sound and the Fury. This novel has become a top tier example of the using a stream of consciousness to write while also digging deep into the mentality of the southern people.

The Sound and the Fury focuses on the Compson family. They are a once rich southern family that has been reduced to living in the shadow of their former image by living in run down southern style mansions. A majority of the novel is divided between the narrations of three different characters; however, the fourth and last section takes on a third person narrative, focusing on the main servant of the family. The first three narrators of the novel are the three Compson sons: Benjy, Quentin and Jason. Faulkner demonstrates the use of stream of consciousness heavily in these first three sections by letting the reader experience the thought process of the three characters.

In the novel, Benjy is the severely mentally handicapped son of the Compson family. Benjy, with the assistance of their maid’s young son, wanders around the Compson property. Benjy’s thoughts, which provide insight into the family’s history, are jumbled and run together; however, by doing this Faulkner provides the reader with a narrator who is able to think about the Compson family without judgement. Benjy as the narrator gives the reader the opportunity experience an unbiased view of the family, something that the other two narrators are not capable of.

The second section of the novel focusses on Quentin, the most intelligent of the Compson sons. Quentin’s portion of the novel occurs on the day of his suicide, which is inspired by his sister, Caddy, who had gotten pregnant with a man other than her husband. In his narration, which is muddled by his depressed mind set, is extremely unreliable. The same can be said about his brother’s narration in the third section of the novel, as Jason demonstrates anger at his family for both their incompetency as well as their defiantness.

While the novel is a wonderful example of a truly unique prose style, the novel is also enlightening the mentality of southerners. One of the main problems that the Compson family deals with is their inability to adapt in changing times as well as the inability to let go of the past. Not all of the family’s existence is extremely bleak, most, if not all, of the members of the family are able to let go of the nobility that they once had. By demonstrating the family in this light, Faulkner is able to exemplify the southern mentality towards dignity that the south had faced.

Many literary scholars have recognized the Compson family as a metaphor for southern pride, specifically, pride of the once almost elegant south that had proceeded the civil war. The Compson’s, like the south at the time, live in a world that is not as good as the one that preceded it. This makes them wish for the more dignified days of the past, therefore, eliminating any chance of growth or future change.