The Sound and the Fury Lesson Plan

The first section of The Sound and the Fury is notoriously difficult to follow because of Benjy's disjointed narration. What is the effect of the density of this section? How do the time shifts advance the novel's themes? What is significant about the various objects that connect the present and the past for Benjy?

This question largely gives students time to vent about their difficulties with the structure. However, they should also be paying attention to the way that the novel collapses the present and the past. One informs and influences the other, revealing that the past drives the present and that the present can never escape the past. That idea is literal in Benjy's...