The End of "The Sound and the Fury"

I have just finished the novel, and it has left me feeling very empty. It offers a stable enough resolution, a quiet one in which the reader is aware through Jason of the happy ending with seeing his unrest; however, it also ends with Benjy upset and unsatisfied with his own existence. Everything just seems to keep going at their residence with everything else going on outside of it that affects them. It seems as though no one is ever satisfied. Each one has their own identity which is exemplified in their sections. They all have their own lives, and affect each other unknowingly, and almost selfishly. I cannot tell if this is a wholly bad thing. Every one has their own problems, and their either too young or too immature to deal with their own as well as everyone’s beside them. The family is tied with painful love for a number of different things which all lead to their demise. This can be a love for money, for each other, for one’s self, or a search for love. Every one of their lives keeps going on and on as more unrest occurs within their family walls. Who can be the one to solve it? Does there have to be a savior in this family, or can they proceed to go on with their lives or not with selfishness? As a reader, it is depressing to witness a family’s solution being one not tangent to the norm of all good endings. A good ending is one in which all are happy, and the evil is eliminated. In this ending, the evil is all around them, and is not entirely eliminated, nor will it ever be. What is deemed right is thrown out the window, and leaves the reader thinking if everyone simply wastes their life with sitting around all day as events move around them, as it appears in this novel. Life is not planned out by any number of characters, but is taken as it comes; the only exception would be with Quentin when he obsesses with time and how it should be spent. This book leaves the reader confused with what life’s time should be spent doing. Is it constantly a waste, or should it be taken as it comes and large events should not be expected or prepared for, but taken as they come up? Everyone has their problems, some are worn on their sleeve such as Caddy, or Quentin, but by entering in all of the characters minds, we find that everyone has the problems they must deal with whether they be other’s or their own. I actually felt bad for Jason for not knowing what he did was wrong, or perhaps he did know, and that was why he was so emotionally invested. I actually felt bad for him even though he was making derogatory anti-feminist remarks. I ended up feeling bad for all people, whether they have problems that could easily be posted in a newspaper and evoke pain, or even just make them passionate. (511)