The Sound and the Fury: Appendix Summary & Analysis

Faulkner added this appendix years later, but intended it to be part of The Sound and the Fury. It is a lyrical history of Jefferson and the Compson family. The section begins with Ikkemotubbe, a Chickasaw chief who gave up the square of land that would later become Jefferson, Mississippi. Next is a description of Andrew Jackson, who sent all the Native Americans on the “Trail of Tears” to Oklahoma.

The list then continues with a brief listing of Compsons. Quentin MacLachan Compson, a Scottish soldier who fled to Daniel Boone’s Kentucky, and Charles Stuart Compson, a schoolteacher who was part of a plot to secede Mississippi from the Union and join it to Spain. He later fled the country.

Next came Jason Lycurgus Compson, who raced horses against Ikkemotubbe and so won the land that would become Jefferson from him. He then built the huge plantation that became the “Compson Domain.” One of his descendants, another Quentin MacLachan, became governor of Mississippi, and another, Jason Lycurgus II, became a Confederate general in the Civil War.

After the war the Compson land began to be “nibbled” away by other families and Northerners. The Compson plantation fell into disrepair and began to be mortgaged off. The appendix then moves to Jason III, the father in the novel, who sat all day with his decanter of whiskey and read Greek and Roman literature. He sold the majority of the Compson property to the golf club to pay for Caddy’s lavish wedding and Quentin’s Harvard tuition.

The land became known as the “Old Compson place” then, and Faulkner dispassionately explains what happened after the novel ends – after Mrs. Compson died, Jason IV sent Benjy to the State Asylum in Jackson and then sold the Compson house to someone who used it as a boardinghouse.

The list continues with the characters of the novel: Quentin III, who was obsessed with the concept of Compson honor as symbolized by his sister Caddy’s virginity, and who drowned himself in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He waited until the academic year was over to commit suicide because the family had sold Benjy’s pasture to pay for his tuition.

Next comes Candace (Caddy), who married Herbert Head and was divorced after a year, then married a man in California for five years, and then disappeared in Paris during World War II. She remained beautiful and youthful-looking, and was never seen again except for one instance – a librarian in Jefferson who had gone to school with Caddy saw a picture of her in a magazine, looking beautiful and elegant in a sportscar with a German staff general.

The librarian brought the picture to Jason, who now owned and lived in the supply store where he had worked for Earl. She showed him the picture, saying they had to “save” Caddy. At first Jason admitted it was indeed Caddy, but when he realized the librarian actually cared about Caddy’s welfare, he pretended that it wasn’t her in the picture.

The librarian next went all the way to Memphis, where she found Dilsey’s house. Frony met her at the door and brought her inside, where Dilsey sat beside a fire (even though it was summer), very old and mostly blind. The librarian repeated her plea to help save Caddy, but Dilsey only said she couldn’t see the picture, and handed the magazine back to the librarian. The librarian took the train back home, crying, but then realized that the reason Dilsey didn’t want to “save” Caddy was because there was nothing in Jefferson to save her for, and she was probably better off wherever she was now.

Next comes Jason, who remained a childless bachelor and feared only Dilsey among all other things. It was Jason who secretly made himself Benjy’s guardian and had him castrated after Benjy attacked the schoolgirl. After Mrs. Compson died in 1933, Jason sold the house and moved to into an office above the farm supply store, where on weekends his lady “friend from Memphis” would visit. Jason would say that in 1933 he “freed the Compsons from the niggers.”

Next is Benjamin, who was born as Maury, named after Uncle Maury who borrowed money from everyone – including Dilsey, once, saying she was “a born lady.” Mrs. Compson then renamed the child Benjamin after she discovered his disability. Benjy only loved three things in his life – his pasture, Caddy, and the sight of fire. Benjy perceived time in a strange way, and so remembered only Caddy’s loss, not Caddy herself, and when he was committed he remembered only the loss of firelight and his pasture.

The last Compson is Miss Quentin, Caddy’s daughter, who was “doomed to be unwed” from the moment she was born. She actually stole almost seven thousand – not three thousand – dollars from Jason, but Jason couldn’t admit this to anyone as the extra four thousand didn’t actually belong to him. This made Jason live in constant rage, as he couldn’t even pursue Miss Quentin in case she revealed his own thievery. Miss Quentin disappeared with the man in the red tie – who was already wanted for bigamy – and never reappeared in any glamorous snapshots.

Last Faulkner briefly describes the Gibson family: TP and Frony, who moved to Memphis, and Luster, who at only 14 was able to fully care for the mentally disabled Benjy. There is only one line about Dilsey: “They endured.”