Independent Reading Blog Post

The Sound and the Fury/William Faulkner/Southern Gothic

The story begins with a narrative from Benjy, the mentally challenged son of a previously wealthy family, the Compsons, who live in the Southern United States. The book takes place as the 1920's are winding down, and is a precursor of the Great Depression. Benjy has many siblings, including his sister Caddy, who is a rebellious youth; his brothers Quentin and Jason. Caddy's rebellious behavior causes her to become pregnant before she is married, and then she tries to become married to save her honor, but fails. Quentin tries to help her through her problems, but is also unable. He then goes to Harvard, where the second section of the book takes place--narrated by him. Jason, the only child who Mrs. Compson loves, also has a section of the book. He is grown in this section and has to search for Miss Quentin, Caddy's daughter. The family owns a family of African-American slaves. The mother of this family is named Dilsey, and she narrates the final section of the book, where she takes the family to her church.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wants to experience something unique, but for the everyday person, I would not recommend it. The book is extremely confusing in that the first to sections are basically incomparable. Faulkner uses "stream of consciousness" in which he gives many thoughts to the reader in quick succession, but that is not the worst of it. In these sections, sometimes Faulkner does not use punctuation at all, making it nearly impossible to decipher what the meaning of much of the story is.

http://11rflam.glogster.com/The-Sound-and-the-Fury/

Blog Post #3

The Jena 6 case in Jena Louisiana seems like a racist miscarriage of justice. This incident does seem to be somewhat isolated, while also being over-the-top. This is one of the only really serious racially-based criminal trials that has occurred in the United States in the past few years. This could not happen anywhere or anytime because people are more tolerant and less ignorant, or at least I thought they were until I heard about this. Race has changed from a huge issue to a smaller one that I thought people were becoming more educated about, but after hearing about this case, I do not believe our country has gotten over racial issues. I could not imagine a school that segregated In Pennsylvania where we live, but I could imagine it in the deep South. Some aspects of our school are somewhat segregated, but nothing to the level of the Jena High School. There is no tree or something that one race has claimed for themselves that others cannot use. Our school is definitely more racially accepting.

Many injustices occurred during and after the trial as well. First of all, the African-American students were charged felonies while the white students were just suspended from school for a few days and no charges were pressed. Over 3,000 people gathered in Jena to protest the Jena 6 hearings. At first the case did not receive widespread attention, but quickly became known throughout the nation. Some of the Jena 6 were actually convicted and charged with time in juvenile prisons. Many people are calling for President Obama to correct the wrongs of this situation. Civil rights groups such as the NAACP have been raising funds to provide the Jena 6 with attorneys.