Faulkner's Use of Folklore

Faulkner’s Use of Folklore in The Sound and the Fury
Charles D. Peavy
The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 79, No. 313
Published by: University of Illinois Press

Summary:
According to this article, Faulkner used an extensive amount of folklore in the novel. Peavy is attempting to educate the reader on the symbols used throughout the story and their links to Southern regional and African American folk beliefs. By doing so, Peavy places more meaning behind recurring symbols in the novel such as the jimson weed which are not superficially apparent without outside knowledge.

I found this article particularly intriguing because it explained the deeper significance of Benjy’s obsession with flowers. Firstly, Peavy discusses the jimson weed. Peavy points out that the weed is extremely poisonous which made it surprising that Benjy is given the weed to play with. Peavy also suggests that since the weed is extremely “odoriferous (like the honeysuckle identified with Quentin) and is sometimes called stinkweed” it “is an ironic symbol of the loss of Caddy, “who smelled like trees.” In the Appellation region, the closed jimson weed bloom is a symbol of the male sex organ. Peavy notes that Faulkner was “doubtlessly aware of the phallic implications of the closed jimson flower clutched in the fist of the castrated Benjy.”

Another flower associated with Benjy is the narcissus which traditionally symbolizes egotism and conceit. In Benjy’s case, Peavy claims the flower, like Benjy himself, symbolizes the world’s selfishness and also its need for love. In reference to Mrs. Compson, Quentin, and Jason, the flower symbolizes a self-love that is also destructive. Benjy’s eyes are described as “cornflower blue” which symbolizes Benjy’s innocence since another common name for the cornflower is Innocence.