American Literature books summary 
p>He gets in his car and goes home. Gasoline gives him headaches, and he
thinks about having to bring some camphor with him when he goes back to the
store. He goes into his room and hides the money from Caddy in a strongbox
in his room. Mother tells him to take some aspirin, but he doesn't. He gets
back in his car and is almost to town when he passes a Ford driven by a man
with a red bow tie. He looks closer and sees Quentin inside. He chases the
Ford through the countryside, his headache growing by the second. Finally
he sees the Ford parked near a field and gets out to look for them; he is
sure they are hiding in the bushes somewhere having sex. The sun slants
directly into his eyes, and his headache is pounding so hard he can't think
straight. He reaches the place where he thinks they are, then hears a car
start up behind him and drive off, the horn honking. He returns to his own
car and sees that they have let the air out of one of his tires. He has to
walk to the nearest farm to borrow a pump to blow it back up.
He returns to town, stopping in a drugstore to get a shot for his headache
and the telegraph office; he has lost $200 on the stock market. Then he
goes back to the store. A telegram has arrived from his stockbroker,
advising him to sell. Instead he writes back to the broker, telling him he
will buy. The store closes, and he drives home to the sounds of the band
playing. At home, Quentin and Mother are fighting upstairs, and Luster asks
him for a quarter to go to the show. Jason replies that he has two tickets
already that he won't be using. Luster begs him for one, but he tells him
he will only sell it to him for a nickel. Luster replies that he has no
money, and Jason burns the tickets in the fireplace. Dilsey puts supper on
the table for him and tells him that Quentin and Mother won't be coming to
dinner.
Jason insists that they come unless they are actually sick. They come
down. At dinner, he offers Quentin an extra piece of meat and tells her and
Mother that he lent his car to a stranger who needed to chase around one of
his relatives who was running around with a town woman. Quentin looks
guilty. Finally she stands up and says that if she is bad, it is only
because Jason made her bad. She runs off and slams the door. Mother
comments that she got all of Caddy's bad traits and all of Quentin's too;
Jason takes this to mean that Mother thinks Quentin is the child of Caddy
and her brother's incestuous relationship. They finish dinner, and Mother
locks Quentin into her room for the night. Jason retires to his room for
the night, still ruminating on the "dam New York jew" that is taking all of
his money (263).
Analysis of April Sixth, 1928:
Jason's section appears more readable and more conventional; its style,
while still stream-of-consciousness, is more chronological in progression,
with very few jumps in time. It reads more like a monologue than a string
of loosely connected events, like Benjy's and Quentin's sections were.
Critics have claimed that the book progresses from chaos to order, from
timelessness to chronology, from pure sensation to logical order, and from
interiority to exteriority as it travels from Benjy's world of bright
shapes and confused time through Jason's rigorously ordered universe to the
third-person narrative of the fourth section. This third section represents
a shift into the public world from the anguished interiority of Benjy and
Quentin, and a shift into "normal" novelistic narrative as Jason recounts
the story of the events of the day.
The first sentence of each section reveals a lot about the tone and themes
of that particular part; this is especially true with Quentin's and Jason's
section. In Quentin's section, the first sentence draws the reader into his
obsession with being caught "in time" and includes two of the most common
symbols in the section: time and shadows. Jason's section begins "once a
bitch always a bitch, what I say," introducing both Jason's irrational
anger not only toward his sister and her daughter, but toward the world in
general, and also the rigorous logic that runs through this section (180).
Jason's world is dominated by logic. Once a bitch, always a bitch; like
mother, like daughter. Caddy was a whore, so is her daughter. He is furious
at Caddy for ruining his chances at getting a job, and the way she ruined
his chances was to bear an illegitimate daughter; therefore the way he will
get revenge on her and simultaneously recoup the money he lost is through
this same daughter. Caddy should have gotten him a job, but instead she had
Quentin; therefore it is his right to embezzle the money she sends to
Quentin in order to make up for the money he lost when he lost the job.
Jason's logic takes the form of literalism. Caddy is responsible for
getting him money, no matter where it comes from. She sends money each
month for Quentin's upkeep; he keeps Quentin clothed, housed and fed, so
the money should go to him. He himself claims that he "make[s] it a rule
never to keep a scrap of paper bearing a woman's hand," and yet he keeps
the money from the checks Caddy sends him; this act fits into his system of
logic because he cashes the checks, literally getting rid of her
handwriting while keeping the money. He allows his mother to literally burn
the checks she sends, but only after he has cashed them in secret. When
Caddy gives him 100 dollars to "see [Quentin] a minute" he grants her
request to the letter, holding the baby up to the carriage window as he
drives by, literally allowing Caddy only a minute's glimpse (203-205). When
Luster can't pay him a nickel for tickets to the show, he burns the tickets
rather than give then to him (255). All of these acts fit into a rigid and
literally defined logical order with which Jason structures his life.
Some readers see Jason's logic as a sign that he is more "sane" than the
rest of his family. He is not retarded like Benjy or irrationally
distraught like Quentin. He is able to live his life in a relatively normal
way, with a logical order to both his narrative and his daily activities.
However, Jason is just as blind, just as divorced from reality as his
brothers. Like them, he tries to control his life through a strictly
defined order, and when this is disrupted he collapses into irrationality.
Benjy's system of order is the routine of everyday life, disrupted on a
grand scale when Caddy leaves and on a small scale when Luster turns the
horses the wrong way or changes the arrangement of his "graveyard."
Quentin's system of order is the honor and purity he saw in himself and
Caddy when they were young, disrupted when Caddy loses her virginity and
leaves him. Jason's system of order is the rigidity of his logic, most of
which has to do with money, and with this he tries to control the world
around him. This system is disrupted when he loses his job opportunity
(Quentin gets a career boost in going to Harvard, so should Jason get a
career boost from Herbert Head), and again when Quentin refuses to come to
dinner, skips school, or runs away with his money. For each brother, the
systems he has established help to control everyday life, and the way they
do so is by controlling Caddy. As long as she is motherly to Benjy,
virginal to Quentin, and profftable to Jason, their worlds are in order.
But these controlling mechanisms are inflexible, breaking down entirely as
soon as Caddy or her daughter defies them.
Each brother remains irrationally connected with the past, particularly
with memories of Caddy. Benjy relives his memories of Caddy all the time,
making no distinction between the present and the past. Quentin goes
through the routines of life washed in a sea of memories of Caddy. And
Jason, for all he seems to have cut himself off from her entirely by
refusing to mention her name, is perhaps the closest of all to her. Not
only is he surrounded by reminders of her in the shape of her daughter and
her money, but he is also constantly reminded of her in his anger. It has
been eighteen years since she lost him his job opportunity, and yet he
remains as angry with her as he ever was. Certainly this is no way to
forget her, nor is it any more "sane" than his brothers.
Nor is Jason even a particularly good businessman, for all he obsesses
about money. In the course of this one day he loses $200 in the stock
market, for example; he has been warned that the market is in a state of
flux and yet he leaves town on a wild goose chase when he should be
watching the market and deliberately defies his broker's advice by buying
when he should sell. He is rude and spiteful to his boss, which is
certainly not the best way to succeed in business. He buys a car even
though he knows that gasoline gives him headaches. And perhaps the clearest
indication of his bad business sense is the fact that when Quentin steals
his savings in the fourth section, she steals $7000. This is the money that
he has been embezzling from Caddy and Quentin, and Caddy has been sending
him $200 a month for fifteen years. By this point he should have amassed
upwards of $30,000; where did it all go? Even though he thinks of little
else besides money, he is not capable of handling it properly.
Mrs. Compson spends much of the novel telling Jason that he is different
from Quentin and Benjy, that he is a Bascomb at heart. And yet, underneath
the sadism, money-grubbing and isolation, Jason is surprisingly similar to
his brothers. He is just as obsessed with Caddy as they are, and her
sexuality shatters his world just as much as theirs.
Summary of April Eighth, 1928:
The section opens with Dilsey standing on the stoop of her house in her
church clothes, then going back inside to change into her work clothes. It
is raining and gray outside. Dilsey goes into the kitchen and brings some
firewood with her; she can barely walk. She begins to make breakfast and
Mrs. Compson calls her from upstairs; she wants her to fill her hot water
bottle. Dilsey struggles up the stairs to get the hot water bottle, saying
that Luster has overslept after the night's reveries. She goes outside and
calls Luster; he appears from the cellar looking guilty and she tells him
to get some firewood and take care of Benjy. He brings in a huge armful of
firewood and leaves. A while later, Mrs. Compson calls her again, and she
goes out to the stairs. Mrs. Compson wants to know when Luster will be up
to take care of Benjy.
Dilsey begins to slowly climb the stairs again, while Mrs. Compson
inquires whether she had better go down and make breakfast herself. When
Dilsey is halfway up the stairs, Mrs. Compson reveals that Benjy is not
even awake yet, and Dilsey clambers back down. Luster emerges from the
cellar again. She makes him get another armful of wood and go up to tend
Benjy. The clock strikes five times, and Dilsey says "eight o'clock" (274).
Luster appears with Benjy, who is described as big and pale, with white-
blonde hair cut in a child's haircut and pale blue eyes. She sends Luster
up to see if Jason is awake yet; Luster reports that he is up and angry
already because one of the windows in his room is broken. He accuses Luster
of breaking it, but Luster swears he didn't.
Jason and Mrs. Compson come to the table for breakfast. Although Mrs.
Compson usually allows Quentin to sleep in on Sundays, Jason insists that
she come and eat with them now. Dilsey goes upstairs to wake her. Mrs.
Compson tells him that the black servants are all taking the afternoon off
to go to church; the family will have to have a cold lunch. Upstairs Dilsey
calls to Quentin, but receives no answer. Suddenly, Jason springs up and
mounts the stairs, shouting for Quentin. There is still no response and he
comes back down to snatch the key to her room from his mother. He fumbles
at the lock and then finally opens the door. The room is empty. Jason runs
to his own room and begins throwing things out of the closet. Mrs. Compson
looks around Quentin's note for a suicide note, convinced that history is
repeating itself. In his room, Jason finds that his strongbox has been
broken into. He runs to the phone and calls the sheriff, telling him that
he has been robbed, and that he expects the sheriff to get together a posse
of men to help him search for Quentin. He storms out.
Luster comments that he bets Jason beat Quentin and now he is going for the
doctor. Dilsey tells him to take Benjy outside. Luster tells her that he
and Benjy saw Quentin climb out her window and down the pear tree last
night. Dilsey goes back to her cabin and changes into her church clothes
again. She calls for Luster and finds him trying to play a saw like one of
the players did at the show last night. She tells him to get his cap and to
come with her; they meet up with Frony and head to church, Benjy in tow.
Dilsey carries herself with pride among the other blacks, and some of the
children dare each other to touch Benjy. They take their seats as the mass
starts.
The sermon will be delivered by a visiting preacher, Reverend Shegog. The
preachers process in, and Reverend Shegog is so slight and nondescript as
to attract no attention. But when he speaks, he holds their attention.
First he speaks without accent "like a white man," describing the
"recollection and the blood of the Lamb," then when this doesn't have much
of an effect, he modulates into black dialect and delivers the same sermon
again, describing the major events of Jesus' life and his resurrection.
When he finishes, Benjy is rapt with attention and Dilsey is quietly
weeping. As the leave the church, she states "I've seed de first en de last
. . . . I seed de beginning, en now I sees de endin" (297).
They return to the house. Dilsey goes up to Mrs. Compson's room and checks
on her; Mrs. Compson, still convinced that Quentin has killed herself, asks
Dilsey to pick up the Bible that has fallen off the bed. Dilsey goes back
downstairs and prepares lunch for the family, commenting that Jason will
not be joining them.
Meanwhile, Jason is in his car driving to the sheriff's. When he gets
there, nobody is prepared to leave as Jason requested. He enters the
station, and the sheriff tells him that he will not help him find Quentin,
because it was her own money she stole and because Jason drove her away.
Jason drives away toward Mottson, the town where the traveling show will be
next. He begins to get a headache and remembers that he has forgotten to
bring any camphor with him. By the time he gets to Mottson he cannot see
very well; he finds two Pullman cars that belong to the show and he enters
one. Inside is an old man, and he asks him where Quentin and her boyfriend
are. The man becomes angry and threatens him with a knife.
Jason hits him on the head and he slumps to the floor. He runs from the
car, and the old man comes out of the car with a hatchet in his hand. They
struggle, and Jason falls to the ground. Some show people haul him to his
feet and push him away. One of the men tells him that Quentin and her
boyfriend aren't there, that they have left town. Jason goes back to his
car and sits down, but he can't see to drive. He calls to some passing
boys, asking if they will drive him back to Jackson for two dollars; they
refuse. He sits a while longer in the car. A black man in overalls comes up
to him and says that he will drive him for four dollars, but Jason refuses,
then eventually acquiesces.
Back at the house, Luster takes Benjy out to his "graveyard," which
consists of two blue glass bottles with jimson weeds sticking out of them.
Luster hides one of the bottles behind his back, and Benjy starts to howl;
Luster puts it back. He takes Benjy by the golf course and they watch the
men playing. When one of them yells "caddie," Benjy begins to cry again.
Frustrated, Luster repeats Caddy's name over and over, making him cry even
louder. Dilsey calls them and they go to her cabin. Dilsey rocks Benjy and
strokes his hair, telling Luster to go get his favorite slipper. When he
begins to cry again, Dilsey asks Luster where T. P. is (T. P. is supposed
to take Benjy to the graveyard as he does every Sunday). Luster tells her
that he can drive the surrey instead of T. P., and she makes him promise to
be good. They put Benjy into the surrey and hand him a flower to hold, and
Luster climbs into the driver's seat.
Dilsey takes the switch away from him and tells him that the horse knows
the way. As soon as they are out of sight of the house, Luster stops the
horse and picks a switch from the bushes along the road, then climbs back
into the driver's seat, carrying himself like royalty. They approach the
square and pass Jason in his car by the side of the road. Luster, carried
away in his pride, turns the horse to the left of the statue in the square
instead of to the right, breaking the pattern that Benjy is used to. Benjy
begins to howl. As his voice gets louder and louder, Jason comes running
and turns the horse around. When the objects they pass begin to go in the
right direction again, Benjy hushes.
Analysis of April Eighth, 1928:
Readers commonly refer to this section of the novel as "Dilsey's section,"
although it is narrated in the third person. Dilsey plays a prominent role
in this section, and even if she does not narrate this section, she serves
a sort of moral lens through which to view the other characters in the
section and, in fact, in the novel as a whole. The section contrasts
Dilsey's slow, patient progress through the day with Jason's irrational
pursuit of Quentin and Mrs. Compson's self-centered flightiness. As we
watch Dilsey slowly climb up the stairs as Mrs. Compson watches to tend to
Benjy, only to discover halfway up that he isn't even awake yet, we begin
to sympathize with this wizened old woman. As we see her tenderly wiping
Benjy's mouth as he eats, we come to see her as the only truly good person
in the book. Even Caddy, the object of Benjy and Quentin's obsessions, was
not as selflessly kind or as reliable as Dilsey. Throughout the course of
the section, she is witness to any number of the Compson family's flaws,
yet she never judges them.
The only statement she makes that resembles a judgement is her concern that
Luster has inherited the "Compson devilment." Instead she stands calmly in
the midst of the chaos of the disintegrating household, patiently bearing
what she is dealt "like cows do in the rain" (272). Unlike any of the
Compson family, Dilsey is capable of extending outside herself and her own
needs. Each of the brothers is selfish in his own way; Benjy because he
cannot take care of himself and relies on her to, Quentin because he is too
wrapped up in his ideals, Jason because of his greed and anger. Mrs.
Compson is even worse, passive-aggressively manipulating the members of the
family as she lies in her sickbed. And Miss Quentin is too troubled and
lonely to sympathize with anyone else. Dilsey, however, in her kindness,
ungrudgingly takes care of each family member with tenderness and respect.
In her selflessness, Dilsey conforms to the Christian ideal of goodness in
self-sacrifice; therefore it is not surprising that the section takes place
on Easter Sunday. This section of the novel resounds with biblical
allusions and symbols and revolves around the sermon delivered by Reverend
Shegog at Dilsey's church. The sermon profoundly affects Dilsey, who leaves
the church in tears. Perhaps this is because the sermon seems to describe
perfectly the disintegrating Compson family. Benjamin is the youngest son
described as being "sold into Egypt" in the Appendix to the novel; here
Shegog lectures on the Israelites who "passed away in Egypt" (295).
Matthews notes that Jason is a "wealthy pauper" (11), fitting Shegog's
description: "wus a rich man: whar he now, O breddren? Wus a po man: whar
he now, O sistuhn?" (295). He has embezzled thousands of dollars from his
sister, yet he lives like a poor man. Even Mrs. Compson, Matthews claims,
is described in Shegog's sermon: "I hears de weepin en de lamentation of de
po mammy widout de salvation en de word of God" (296). Matthews even
suggests that Quentin is implied in the voice of one congregation member
that rises "like bubbles rising in water" (11).
Much has been made of the religious symbolism in this chapter. Aside from
Shegog's sermon there is Benjy's age: he is 33 years old, the age Christ
was when he died. Like Christ, or like a priest, he is celibate. And he
seems to be one of the only "pure" members of the family, incapable of
doing anything evil merely because of his handicaps. But he is not the only
Christlike member of the family. Quentin, the daughter of the woman whose
brother wanted to remember her as both virginal and motherly, has an
unknown father, just as Christ, the son of the Virgin Mary, had no earthly
father.
Like Christ, Quentin suffers a misunderstood and mistreated existence. But
most compelling is the fact of her disappearance on Easter Sunday. Just as
the disciples found Christ's tomb empty, the wrappings from his body
discarded on the floor, Jason opens Quentin's room to find it empty: "the
bed had not been disturbed. On the floor lay a soiled undergarment of cheap
silk a little too pink, from a half open bureau drawer dangled a silk
stocking" (282). If Quentin is a Christ figure, however, she seems to have
a very un-Christlike effect on her family. Whereas the pure and virginal
Christ's disappearance signaled the end of death and the beginning of new
life in heaven, the promiscuous Quentin's disappearance signals the
destruction of her family.
Other elements of the section seem more apocalyptic: there is Shegog's
name, for instance, which sounds much like the Gog and Magog mentioned in
the Book of Revelation. There is the story's preoccupation with the end of
the Compson family: Jason is the last of the Compsons, and he is childless,
his house literally rotting away. And finally there is Dilsey's comment
that she has seen the first and the last, the beginning and the end:
although the meaning of this statement is unclear, she seems to be
discussing the end of the Compson family as well as her life, and perhaps
the end of the world. Dilsey has borne witness to the alpha and the omega
of the Compson family.
Nevertheless, none of this religious symbolism is particularly well-
developed. It is impossible to tell who, if anyone, is the Christ figure in
this Easter story. It is impossible to know what will happen to Quentin, or
if the family will really dissolve as Dilsey seems to think it will. Nor is
it particularly clear why Reverend Shegog's sermon has such an effect on
Dilsey or what his actual message is; he has seen the recollection and the
blood of the Lamb, but why is this important? What should the congregation
do about it? What can they do in order to see this themselves?
The problem with this last section is that it doesn't satisfactorily bring
the story of the Compson family to a close. The reader is left with a
glimpse of the family's psychology and slow demise, but no real answers, no
redemption. We don't know what will happen to the family or its servants:
will Jason send Benjy to Jackson? Will Dilsey die? Will Quentin get away?
John Matthews has pointed out that the story doesn't really end but keeps
repeating itself.
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