On Closure and Stability

While the last section of The Sound and the Fury does not close the novel definitely -- many ends are left open and possibility for the future still remains -- one aspect of the section does help give the novel a base and some form of closure. This device is, of course, the use of a third-person narrative. By leaving behind the stream-of-consciousness method used in the first three sections, William Faulkner creates a foundation which offers the reader a small portion of -- if one can say this in regard to the Compson family. -- stability. Abandoning the chaos and disorder of the minds of the Compson men, the reader is finally able to see the Compson family in a third-person panorama. By disengaging the reader with the characters, Faulkner allows the reader to look back over the novel as a whole and put together -- within his/her own mind -- the entire tragedy of the Compson family. The reader sees each event in chronological order, piecing together the story bit by bit and finally is able to see the entire arch of the novel. In this way, the last sections offers closure -- closure that the novel would indeed lack were the story to end with yet more twisted memories. (212)