Rhetorical Strategies

• Simile
• Parallelism
• Metonymy
• Rhetorical Question
• Allusion• Juxtaposition
• Personification
• Oxymoron
• Formal Diction contrasted with informal

Faulkner develops his style through The Sound and the Fury by using many contrasting rhetorical strategies. The primary contrast occurs under Quentin’s point of view in chapter four, in which Faulkner uses Quentin to convey very formal diction, which is then contrasted to the other children Quentin grew up with in memories of the past living as a family. Another juxtaposed mind is that of Benjamin. At the start of the novel, Benjamin is shown to be mentally impaired, however as the others around him talk, his thoughts are shown to be sophisticated despite his apparent mental illness.
Faulkner further develops this stylistic trait of comparison of extremes when in chapter four he draws the connection between Quentin and a “Harvard boy”. While both row, the contrasting upbringings are clear from the simile which relates Quentin to Christ, in that he went through hardships, while the ‘Harvard boy” was a privileged child. This comparison further supports the oxymoronic comparisons of the book which emphasize a difference.