Submitted by napolinj@newsch... on Thu, 2014-06-05 17:26
When the Compson property was an ante bellum plantation it contained a square mile of land. By the time the Compson children are born at the end of the nineteenth century, most of that land has been sold, but during their childhood there is still a pasture beside the house. It is either a "twenty acre pasture" (35) or "forty acres" in area (174) - The Sound and the Fury is inconsistent on this point. Quentin and Caddy do consistently call it "Benjy's pasture," because going into it is apparently one of his main sources of pleasure as a child (174).
Submitted by napolinj@newsch... on Thu, 2014-06-05 16:10
The garden fence" between the Compson yard and the farm area has apparently had a hole in it for over a quarter of a century (4). When Luster takes Benjy through this hole to look for the lost quarter, Benjy remembers getting snagged in the same place and presumably on the same nail twenty-five years earlier, while going off the place with Caddy to deliver a message from Uncle Maury to Mrs. Patterson.
Submitted by napolinj@newsch... on Thu, 2014-06-05 15:17
The back of the Compson property contains many of the features of the original plantation, such as the remains of an orchard that Benjy refers to as the "thick trees" (46) and the aristocratic lawn swing, and parts of a working farm, such as the barn and pig pen. The ground immediately behind the house is described by the narrator as "bare," "as though from the soles of bare feet in generations" (266). Benjy seems to spend most of his time in - or confined to - this back area, especially along the fence that separates the property from the golf course.
