The first chapter of the novel, Benjy's chapter, was very difficult to analyze. When I began reading I did not realize everything was happening as a present action, even if it was in the past. Knowing this I began to read more carefully and tried my best to differentiate between past and present. There is a ton of information about the characters and the Compson family as a whole that Faulkner hints at in this chapter.

I think Faulkner began with Benjy's chapter to get the reader off the mindset of time as a constant. He wanted the reader to understand that time is not a defining object in this book. The past and the present are all the same to Benji. He only understands change in physical features, not change in artificial things. For example he gets upset when Caddy is wearing a new perfume. He understood that something is different about her. Faulkner wants us to be able to read the book without getting caught up on the concept of time. Faulkner also put this chapter first because Benji has no bias towards the other characters. He sees things from the eyes of a child which means he is probably a pretty reliable judgement on character. Children tend to say exactly what they see and feel and this is the type of narration we are getting from Benji.

Benji may play a sort of a Christ role in the novel. He is innocent and pure compared to the rest of his family. Caddy especially recongnizes this innocence and purity. When Benji understood that something was wrong with Caddy after she was out with a boy, Caddy apologized for her sin and washed her mouth out with soap. She feels guilty and shameful for her sins around Benji. The other siblings have lost their purity too. Benji can feel this in all of the characters and it makes him upset.

Benji's chapter helps us understand that the Compson family is very dysfunctional. The mother only cares about image and cannot be bothered with her own children. She goes to the extent of changing Benj's name when they find out he is disabled and kicking Caddy out of the family just to save the family name. None of the Compson family treats Benji with compassion other than Caddy.

Benj's need for consistency and nostalgia for the past comes back to Benji's issue with time. He doesn't understand that time has passed and people have changed. He only understands Caddy is not with him anymore, but he doesn't understand why or where she went. Consistency with physical appearance is the only thing he understands. Without the consistency he gets scared or confused. His memories with Caddy are not things of the past, rather they happened and now they are not happening. This also relates to the family wanting consistency with status. They were once wealthy and affluent but the family name is slowly beginning to decline. The mother especially desperately fights for how it used to be. This is a symbol for the South after the Civil war. The Old South was full of aristocrats and traditional beliefs. New ideas and reforms came from the North but the South did not want to change its ways. Consistency and tradition is an important thing. The death of the Grandmother in the beginning of the novel parallels to the death of the Old South occurring during the novel.