Through the fence, between the curling flower spaces, I could see them hitting. They were coming toward where the flag was and I went along the fence. Luster was hunting in the grass by the flower tree. They took the flag out, and they were hitting. Then they put the flag back and they went to the table, and he hit and the other hit. Then they went on, and I went along the fence. Luster came away from the flower tree and we went along the fence and they stopped and we stopped and I looked through the fence while Luster was hunting in the grass.

…

They were hitting little, across the pasture. I went back along the fence to where the flag was. It flapped on the bright grass and the trees….It was red, flapping on the pasture. Then there was a bird slanting and tilting on it. Luster threw. The flag flapped on the bright grass and the trees. I held to the fence. (April 7th, 1928)

Basic set up:

This is the beginning of William Faulkner's novel The Sound and the Fury. This first chapter, which has stumped loads of readers, is told through the perspective of Benjy, who is cognitively disabled. He's watching some golfers and hanging out with Luster, an African American boy who works for his family.

This passage directs our attention right off the bat on an outsider: a 33-year-old man, Benjy, who is cognitively disabled. By beginning the novel with Benjy and giving us his perspective first, Faulkner forces us to identify with him and see the world through his eyes. This isn't a perspective we're used to considering, but we have to rely on Benjy if we want to get anywhere in this novel.

Benjy is just one of a string of outsiders in Faulkner's works. In fact, Benjy's entire family—the Compsons, whose story the novel tells—are outsiders, each member in a different way. So even though we think Benjy's the only outsider, we find out that he's just one among many others.

This first passage—and the first chapter of the novel as a whole—really messes with our heads. That's because Faulkner doesn't explain things to us. He doesn't tell us, "This is a cognitively disabled character." He just throws us right into Benjy's point of view.

So we find ourselves lost. First off, what's all this hitting about? Who's hitting what? It takes us a while to figure out that Benjy's watching some men play golf. And who's this Luster? Is he a dog? And if he's not a dog, why is he "hunting" in the grass?

Faulkner doesn't make it easy for us. He forces us to make the effort to understand this strange perspective, and to make it our own. It may take a few re-readings of this first chapter to figure out what exactly is going on, but doing so will let you get to know a perspective you may not have thought much about before.