Stylistic Approach to The Sound and the Fury：The Discourse of Idiotic Narrator

余春燕

I. Introduction

Narrrator is one who tells the story. In the traditions of Western literature， there are three viewpoints about narrator： 1） the narrator is the author， or the speaker of the author; 2） the narrator is beyond all the characters， situated in the all-knowing position， just like the omniscient God; 3） the narrator is one or more characters in the works. In Faulkners The Sound and the Fury， four different “narrators” take its turn to present their vision of events to the readers. One of them is Benjy， an idiot， who is mentally subnormal and cognitively flawed， so his discourse may result in the irreliability of narration. Booth calls this kind of narrator “unreliable narrator”. As one of the greatest experimentalists， William Faulkner makes the idiotic narrator the most successful example in the 20th century. Here， I take the passages from the beginning of the novel （P 203） as a sample to analyse the discourse of Benjy.

II. Stylistic Approach to The Sound and the Fury

After reading the passages， we may have the instant impression that Benjy shows us a scene of playing the golf in an extremely deviant way. Benjy does not use a single golfing term to describe the game he is watching and substitutes “comme core” terms for technical ones （eg table for tee）. Hence we are forced to “reinterpret” his description in order to understand them. In the whole text， the deviation from the norm appears in many aspects. In the following， I will examine the deviation in the discourse of Benjy in a detailed way.

First， we know that the novel is narrated by “I” through the voice of Benjy， that is to say， it makes use of the first-person narration. But we find that in the extract the I-narrration abounds in stretches of third-person narration （“they” “Luster said”）. This kind of mixed narration indicates that Benjy has his own way of thinking， a confused kind of thinking， and because of intelligent problem he cant exactly understand the others words， what he can do is just to repeat them with direct speech. So the multi-narrative perspectives become the distinct feature of Faulkners writing.

Second， scrambled chronology is another deviation. For Benjy， he has a shadowy sense of time and cant distinguish the past， the present and the future. When he hears someone call “caddie”， Benjy is groaning， because he mistakes “caddie” for his sister “Caddy” who had gone. He just organizes his thoughts based on what he sees before his eyes and what he thinks for the time being. Benjy， like a mirror or a camera， truly records everything in front of him. For him， the time is always now， or the present. Such a deviation indicates that the character （Benjy） has a faulty or limited view of things.

Third， lexical deviation takes on its simplity and repetition which is quite evident in the text. In Benjys 186 words， 80.5 percent of the words are monosyllabic， the remaining 19.5 percent being disyllabic. The frequency of lexical repetition can be seen quite often. Ten words account for the thirty-four noun occurrences in the text： fence（eight）， flag（five）， grass（four）， Luster（four）， tree（four）， flower （three）， pasture （three）， bird（one）， space（one）， table（one）. With the possible exception of spaces， all thirty-four nouns that Benjy uses are concrete. And there are only four adjectives， curling， little， bright， and red， all of which are primarily visual. It seems that Benjys world is an extremely simple， restricted， concrete one， dominated by the sense of sight.

Fourth， the simplity and repetition observed in the lexis is reinforced by those in syntax. The average sentence is only ten words long， and of the eighteen sentences which Benjy uses ten are simple， seven are compound and only two are complex. The overall simplity is very apparent. The childlike Benjy shows a tendency common in the writing of young children to string sequences of paratactic and coordinated main clauses together. Besides， many clauses and phrases are also repeated： I went along the fence（three time）， Luster was hunting in the grass（twice）， where the flag was（twice）， I held to the fence（twice）， the flower tree（twice）， the bright grass（twice）. Benjys syntax shows positive deviance from the sentence patterning of English.

Fifth， wrong grammar is used to show the deviation from the normal situation， which signifies the distinctive characteristics of idiotic Benjy. From the text， we can see that Benjy uses transitive verbs freely as if they were intransitives， as in “he hit and the other hit.” We know from our general knowledge that hit is a transitive verb， but Benjy uses it as an intransitive verb without objects. He appears to perceive no purpose in the golfers actions. Another centrally transitive verb， threw， is similarly treated， and hunting is also used intransitively. The abnormality expresses that Benjy is an idiot with no rational thinking， so he does not know what they hit and what they are hunting for.

III. Conclusion

From the above analysis， it can be concluded that in The Sound and the Fury， William Faulkner describes and illustrates the simple and limited personality of Benjy by adopting multiple points of view and scrambled chronology. Accordingly， the diction of the narrative text is uniquely chosen to reveal the personality and the social status of the character.The simplity and repeatition of syntax and lexis in the novel also echoes the multi-narrative perspectives. Besides， the technique of deviation is used to serve the theme of the novel. The different deviations listed above are employed to depict Benjys simple and restricted view of world， and this kind of narration is quite fit for the mind style of idiotic narrator.

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