2022/04/20 by Lucy Cook
#Southern social codes #USA. #William Faulkner
paper · doi:10.5526/esj97
Many critics have investigated Southern social codes within William Faulkner’s The Sound and the Fury. However, often the focus is on either race, gender or class and this can lead to a situation in which much is missed. It is the interaction of all three of these social codes that lies at the core of this text and to concentrate solely on one without equal consideration for each is to oversimplify the text and the wider social issues of the South. With this in mind, this paper strives to investigate the interaction of the Southern social codes of race, gender and class within The Sound and the Fury and express how these codes are inextricably linked and dependent upon one another. Moreover, this paper explores how these interconnect to inform the text while reflecting, commenting upon and maintaining a complex and often tense relationship with the wider social milieu of the Southern states of the USA. This is investigated through the character of Quentin Compson who, in many ways, represents the clash of the ‘old’ and ‘new’ South, which in turn expresses the interaction of historical class, gender and racial codes and their move into the ‘new’ world of the changing South. As Myra Jehlen (1976, p. 43) states, ‘Faulkner…is driven to pierce…the myths which he is coming…to realize have distorted Southern reality’ and it is this desire to enlighten reality through literature which is considered within this paper. This reflection and questioning of Southern social codes marks why The Sound and the Fury has such endurance, whilst simultaneously highlighting the importance of the axis of race, class and gender within the text.