Faulkner and the Theme of Innocence

The Sound and the Fury has seemed difficult to many able readers, who apparently have not related it to the traditions out of which it was created. Faulkner writes from the point of view of a Christian feeling under the Southern experience. This is not to say that the reader, in order to understand and appreciate the book, must identify himself with a specific geographic region or with a particular religious faith; nor does it imply that Faulkner himself is naive or narrow in his point of view. In this novel (as in all authentic literary works of art), the author presents his materials not in the form of scientific statement but in the form of a metaphor, which conveys its own kind of truth. The values which the book emphasizes and clarifies are universal and require no special pleading.

The Sound and the Fury is an exploration of the idea of innocence, and this exploration is carried on largely through the dramatization of two traditional views of innocence which are in conflict with each other. According to one tradition (which may be designated generally as puritan) innocence is defined as “freedom from sin, guilt, or moral wrong in general; the state of being untainted with, or unacquainted with evil; moral purity” (N.ED.). In the opposing tradition (which may be designated generally as humanist), innocence is defined as “freedom from cunning or artifice; guilelessness, artlessness, simplicity; hence, want of knowledge or sense; ignorance; silliness”; and an in- nocent is defined as “a guileless, simple, or unsuspecting person; one devoid of cunning or artifice; hence, one wanting in ordinary knowledge and intelligence; a silly fellow; a half-wit, an idiot” (N.E.D.). In the puritan tradition, innocence is considered to be synonymous with purity and virtue; in the humanist tradition, innocence is viewed not as virtue but as a negative or neutral state, which must be lost before one can achieve knowledge. Although the two traditions are often diametrically opposed, they have one common denominator. Each insists that the opposite of innocence is knowledge. Beyond this point, however, they disagree. To the puritans, the opposite of innocence is the knowledge of evil; to the humanists, the opposite of innocence is ordinary knowledge and intelligence. The puritans emphasize the idea that knowledge of evil must be shunned; the humanists insist that the end of man is to know.