Benjy "Canine" Compson

Benjy “Canine” Compson

Interestingly enough, I was able to find an article that matched an interpretation I had of the character, Benjy. Upon reading Faulkner’s, The Sound and the Fury, I noticed that although Benjy was 33 years old, he was still treated as a child and at times like a dog. His moans and crying out perfectly matched the behavior of a dog when they want attention, food, or need to go outside. Benjy shares a lot of these same ideals in that he moans when he wants attention or hears his “masters” name Caddy. Through the article of Jacqui Griffiths titled, “Almost Human: Indeterminate Children and Dogs in Flush and The Sound and the Fury”, my interpretation of Benjy’s treatment as seemingly canine was strengthened.

Griffith’s article makes some shocking associations; however, many of her points are valid and in conjunction with my thoughts on Benjy and his mannerisms. The first section of the novel is narrated by Benjy and spends a lot of time talking of Benjy’s daily routine at the fence. Even after Caddy leaves home, Benjy still waits for her as he paces back and forth from one side of the fence to the other. Griffith states, “Benjy describes how the frightened but intrigued girls hurry past the house as he follows them along the fence, ‘trying to say’. The fence confines Benjy…”[1] It is evident from this passage that Benjy is similar to a dog in that he waits at the fence for his “master” and follows this type of plan everyday. However, Griffith does make some strange remarks like the fact that she feels, “Benjy is physically and figuratively castrated.”[2] Although this proves her thought that Benjy is a “hybridized representation of dog and child”, I didn’t feel that there was evidence to prove he had been “castrated” in the first place. While he is treated like a child and moans and cries out like a dog, he is still a male human. Furthermore, he may be confined from society and lives in a true “bubble”, he is simply over parented. The Compson’s do not want to release him into the world because they are too afraid of what others will think and in turn, their status may be comprised. All in all, I agree with Griffith’s association of Benjy as similar to a dog; however, I feel his mannerisms are similar to a canine, not his physical attributes or anything else. In this way, I feel Griffith took this theme too far and misunderstood Benjy as a character and what he represents.

 

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[1] “Almost Human: Indeterminate Children and Dogs in Flush and The Sound and the Fury,” JSTOR, ed. Jacqui Griffiths, 2002 170.

[2] “Almost Human: Indeterminate Children and Dogs in Flush and The Sound and the Fury,” JSTOR, ed. Jacqui Griffiths, 2002 170.