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The Sound and the Fury

William Faulkner

The opening words of Faulkner's masterpiece, THE SOUND AND THE FURY, are as follows:

"Through the fence, beneath the curling flower space, I could see them hitting. They were coming toward me where the flat was and I went along the fence....They took the flag out and they were hitting. Then they put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit. Then they went on, and I went along the fence."

Most adults 'get' this in its straightforward meaning after a couple of reads. To be clear, though, we are asked to identify with an "I" who is watching  two men play golf. A bit of a golf course (including the putting green for one hole and the tees [the "table"] for the start of another) is on the other side of the fence.

The description of this action is literal to a fault. One oddity may strike you -- the observer of the golfers doesn't mention the golf balls that the golfers "were hitting" No explicitness about WHAT they were hitting. They took a flag out and hit and put a flag back in. No mention between those two facts that a ball has entered a hole and been retrieved.

Another point you might be curious about on first reading: what is the space on the non-golf side of the fence. Where are we? Golf courses don't have to be separated from all their neighbors by fences.

Anyway: this was published more than 90 years ago now, so I don't think I'm spoiling anything when I tell you this. We are at home with the Compson family. We are in the 1920s and the Compsons of Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi have fallen on hard times. Years before this (in 1910) they sent their intellectually inclined son, Quentin, off to Harvard. The only way they could afford that was by selling a pasture to a company that turned it into a golf course.

Quentin's idiot brother, Benjy, stayed home. And that is the same Benjy, our "I," who is watching golf in the opening passage.

For more: read the book.
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