Diction

· “I ran into the box. But when I tried to climb onto it it jumped away and hit me on the back of the head and my throat made a sound. It made the sound again and I stopped trying to get up, and it made the sound again and I began to cry. But my throat kept making the sound while T.P. was pulling me. It kept on making it and I couldn’t tell if I was crying or not, and T.P. fell down on top of me, laughing, and it kept on making the sound and Quentin kicked T.P. and Caddy put her arms around me, and her shining veil, and I couldn’t smell the trees anymore and I began to cry” (Faulkner 40).

Here, Faulkner employs moderately simplistic diction because of it being the narration of Benjy. What word usage Faulkner does focus on are those related to sense. He used many verbs such as “climb”, “jumped”, and “fell”, first showing Benjy’s attention to simply actions and not the meaning of these actions. He also includes the “sound” of his throat, the “shining” veil, and the “smell” of the trees. These each are connected to sensory observations which shows Benjy’s simplistic track of mind and inability to grasp what is happening. His tone is switched between worried and neutral to show that he is in a confused state of mind.

· “Jason got in and started the engine and drove off. He went into second gear, the engine spluttering and gasping, and he raced the engine, jamming the throttle down and snapping the choke in and out savagely” (Faulkner 305).

In this passage Faulkner displays the angry and savage-like nature of the character Jason. He uses words such as “spluttering and gasping” to show the pain Jason inflicts on his car, similar to that in which he inflicts on those in his life. The gerunds used in the passage include “jamming” and “snapping” contributing to the tense and forced tone of the passage. The tone used when including Jason contrasts that of his siblings, such as Benjy’s simplicity and Quentin’s scholarly language, to further develop the characters differences.