This book doesn't have the easy "My name is Benjy and my 3 siblings and I are the protagonists of the story." exposition. (Yes, I dramatized a little).
It seems like the rising action starts at the first word of the novel. With this being the case, the location and major characters were hard to figure out...
Honestly, I am still not completely sure about the location of the story because I cannot find any reference or just missed where the place was named... therefore, according to the internet the story was taken place in an imaginary city in Mississippi. Jefferson, Mississippi to be exact, which is in the wonderful Yoknapatawpha County (also made up). Tonight, I'll be reading it again... hopefully I'll be lucky and at least find something small. Happily, the setting (as in time) is easily revealed in the chapter title "April Seventh 1928."
Unfortunately... throughout the chapter it frequently and unexpectedly goes into the past; when the narrator is a child.
The narrator in the first part is a 33-year old man named Benjy, short for Benjamin. In the flashbacks, it is revealed that he is the youngest of four siblings, Quentin, Caddy (short for Candace), Jason and Benjy himself. These four siblings are all a part of the Compson family. The Compson family is a high class, wealthy family.
From the memories, it seems like Candace is a caring, elder sister who also strives for what she wants.
As for Jason, his way of talking is sharp and mean, even to his own mother. Quentin is a complicated character in my view... he sometimes cam be gentle and shy, but also can be a fighter.
The story starts with Benjy and Luster, a black teenager. Luster was watching over Benjy while looking for his lost quarter that he was going to use to go to a minstrel show that night. While searching for the quarter, there were many events that triggered Benjy's memories. Through this, a lot of the Compson's family past has been revealed. Soon enough, the memories turn into the main story and the real-time action is unimportant. The date of this part never changes when the flashbacks happen, so it is like everything is happening on April Seventh 1928 (in Benjy's mind, of course).
So this is a basic summary of the setting, major characters and my opinions of the exposition...
Hopefully by the next post, I'll be a little more in tune with the book...
