You Are What You Remember

582 (word count excludes passage from JSTOR)

"Its regressive principle we see, first, in the presence of the three Compson brothers, who recall Faulkner’s own family configuration, and second, in the use of memory and repetition as formal principles. Faulkner possessed the three Compson brothers, as he later put it, almost before he put pen to paper. He took a central event and several germinating images from the death of the grandmother he and his brothers called Damuddy, after whose lingering illness and funeral they were sent from home so that it could be fumigated. For Faulkner, as for Gertrude Stein, memory is always repetition, being and living never repetition. The Sound and the Fury, he was fond of remarking, was a single story several times told. But memory was never for him simple repetition. He used the remembered as he used the actual: less to denominate lived events, relationships, and configurations, with their attendant attributes and emotions, than to objectify them and so be free to analyze and pay with them. To place the past under the aspect of the preset, the present under the aspect of the past, was to start from the regressive toward the innovative."

Faulkner, Childhood, and the Making of The Sound and the Fury
David Minter
American Literature, Vol. 51, No. 3 (Nov., 1979), pp. 376-393

Initially Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury is difficult to follow. The constant flashbacks and convoluted train of thought in Benjy’s section begins the novel in a less traditional way, to put it mildly. Yet, as I continued reading I came to appreciate this unique stream of consciousness style. Although initially confusing and seemingly unthoughtful, the way Faulkner wrote the novel is very true to one’s true thought process. Our pasts are interpreted and deemed important by our current selves, and our past dictates how we perceive our present. Faulkner beautifully illustrates a few meaningful events in three brothers' lives and uses their recollections to reveal other characters, their own characters, and aspects of the human perception of time.
Benjy's section is very difficult to follow. Faulkner's choice to begin the novel with Benjy puzzled me. As I finished Benjy's section though and continued to Quentin's, it occurred to me: are Benjy's seemingly mindless thoughts really so far from my own moment to moment thinking? Although it may be difficult to read Benjy's section due to its random breaks in thought and flashbacks of previous events, I soon realized my own brain does the same, if not even more frequently than Benjy's. A usual daydream can often lead to memories that occurred years and years ago, and continue further and further away from the present.
So what is the importance of memory? Why does Faulkner concentrate on certain events and the various characters reaction to these happenings? I believe that Faulkner is attempting to prove that who we are able to be today is a refection of what we have lived through, yet our past is inextricably connected to the way we perceive events occurring in our present. So, in my oppinion, Faulkner is trying to explain that our past dictates our future, and more specifically that certain events have more influence than others. Quentin's narrative is marked by events demonstrating Caddy's sexual promiscuity; his thoughts appear to be almost obsessive. Benjy remembers when Caddy smelled like trees and when she didn't. He is scarred and haunted by the changes in his beloved sister. Memory serves as a way to judge the present, yet the present also effects the way one interprets the past. For Benjy, I don't think he could quite grasp the meaning of Caddy's tears in the stairway. Yet he does know there is a change in her, from the incident with the boy in the forest to her departure from the household. I am not sure how Benjy's perception of the past changes as his present progresses, but it is clear he possesses an ability to connect certain events involving Caddy together, even if he is unable to interpret them.
Quentin, on the other hand, is not able to use his present to better perceive his past because he lives in his memories. His obsession with what has happened and what was disables him from growing as a character. This inability to move on and live in the "now" is what leads to his suicide.
The recurrent memories throughout the novel for both characters is not simply a repetition of what has happened, but a flashback that each time remembered offers a new meaning, a new fear, a new obsession. The importance of memory changes since one's present is constantly changing and becoming one's past. For Benjy and Quentin, each memory brings them back to their pasts, but also sheds new light on their current thoughts as well.