Sunday, October 26, 2008

The Sound and the Fury Article

I read the article "Meaningful Images in The Sound and the Fury" written by Eben Bass. It explains exactly what readers recognize; Faulkner's works are difficult reads because they are fragmented. The article focuses a lot on time which grabbed my interest because we have discussed this issue in class. Bass says, "The reader gets scarcely any sense of order from the idiot because "Benji's" time stopped at his three year mental age." He says in the second section Quentin "arrests time by committing suicide." Bass declares that the end of the story is understood more clearly because of the three different approaches that were presented. The aim of The Sound and the Fury Bass states, "is to show how the growth of certain images helps restore order, or time, to the novel."

Bass, Eden. Meaningful Images in The Sound and the Fury. Modern Language Notes. Dec. 1961. http://www.jstor.org/pss/3039942. 10-20-08


Eben Bass
Modern Language Notes, Vol. 76, No. 8 (Dec., 1961), pp. 728-731 (article consists of 4 pages)
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press

Sunday, October 5, 2008

Jim Cross's Severe Self- Punishment

I found Tim O’Brien’s short story “The Things They Carried” to be very sad. In the first two sentences readers learn that Lieutenant Jim Cross carries letters sent to him by a woman named Martha protected in plastic at the bottom of his rucksack. Right away it is obvious that Cross cares foe this woman. He wishes that they were love letters. After long days of battle he would unwrap the letters and read them for hours and imagine being with her. Cross is at war and in love. Because of his love for Martha he becomes distracted from his obligations as a leader. In the midst of battle Cross loses a soldier named Ted Lavender. Before and after Lavender’s death Cross consumed by thoughts of Martha. He feels no grief and because of this he becomes disgusted with himself. He decides that from now on he will not lose another man. He chooses to burn all photos of Martha for he is convinced that she does not love him back. I think that Cross feels defeated. He feels that he has failed his men and did not fulfill his duty. He is convinced that not thinking of Martha will help him straighten up and become a stronger Lieutenant. In my opinion I do not think that he should give up Martha entirely. Martha gave him hope and a drive to live. Martha was able to distract him from the evils of war and although he does lose focus from his obligations from time to time his daydreams are uplifting as opposed to thoughts of death and despair.

O’Brien tells the readers of all the different items that the soldiers’ carry throughout the story. Most everyone under Cross’s command has something of sentimental value with them; most distract them from the war. In Cross’s wallet he carried two pictures of Martha and would daydream and reminisce about the pictures he had. He also carried a pebble that she had sent him for good luck. “He loved her so much. On the march, through the hot days of early April, he carried the pebble in his mouth…He had difficulty keeping attention on the war” (13). After yelling out commands he would catch himself daydreaming of Martha. Before Lavender’s death Cross was thinking about what he should’ve done with Martha before he left for war instead of the battle situation at hand; the battle in which Ted Lavender had died. Cross blamed himself for Lavender’s death. “He loved Martha more than anything, more than his men, and now Ted Lavender was dead because he loved her so much and could not stop thinking about her”(11).

After Lavender’s death and many more daydreams about Martha, Cross burned all the letters Martha hade sent him and her two pictures. He was convinced that she did not love him. “He hated her”(89). He told himself, “no more fantasies” (92). Once all memorabilia of Martha was burned, Cross decided he would not tolerate laxity. He would now keep his men under strict order.

I think it was wrong that Cross burned the letters. Without the letters he would let mind run off and wonder about things such as, “Will the flashlight go dead? Do rats carry rabies? If you screamed, how far would the sound carry? Would your buddies hear it? Would they have the courage to drag you out?”(18). Like O’Brien said, in war, imagination is a killer. Cross no longer has joyful memories to look forward to but instead he will think about punishments of war. He blamed himself too heavily for Lavender’s death and because of this he felt too guilty to think of anything but his men. In the long run, I think Cross will lose all of his depth and become mentally, a prisoner of war.

(635 words)