“Caddy and I ran. We ran up the kitchen steps, onto the porch, and Caddy knelt down in the dark and held me… “I wont.” she said. “I wont anymore, ever. Benjy. Benjy.” Then she was crying, and I cried, and we held each other. “Hush.” she said. “Hush. I wont anymore.” So I hushed and Caddy got up and we went into the kitchen and turned the light on and Caddy took the kitchen soap and washed her mouth at the sink, hard. Caddy smelled like trees.
I kept a telling you to stay away from there, Luster said. They sat up in the swing, quick. Quentin had her hands on her hair. He had a red tie.”
I choose this passage because represents Caddy as a symbol for Benjy for affection and for his importance in a world that seemed to never want him. Caddy is the biggest character in the book; Compson life centers around her. For Quentin she represent everything he feels pressure to protect and preserve. She is the reason he fight for the honor of strangers and for his obsession with sex. His obsession with her is a representation of everything else he obsesses over, everything else he cannot control.
You can also see Jason’s view of the world through his relationship with Caddy. He blames Caddy for everything, for disgracing the family, for losing him his future, for dropping Quentin into his lap. When in actuality Caddy sacrificed for the family, her daughter, and for Jason. Jason rationalizes his action (like his theft from Quentin) he views himself as much more than he is or as a result of an unfair lot in life.
To me if you know Caddy’s story you know the whole story. Some may ask why Caddy is not given a chapter to narrate. Its because thats not Caddy’s purpose. Just like how the point of reading The Sound and The Fury is not to hear a story. You know the whole story by then end of the Benjy chapter. There is no great plot twist or mystery to keep reading for. The Sound and The Fury is a work of literature that captures complex emotions and images that we all experience but can never put into words. And Caddy is the perfect representation of what literature is suppose to be. She serves a purpose not for the story but for the book and that is an important distinction. Words are meant to share and a great work The Sound and The Fury is meant to convey and relate the more abstract things that we often have trouble sharing.
