Ruth and Hagar's Plight

In Chapter 5, Toni Morrison centers the passage around the individual plights of Ruth and Hagar. Although their struggles with men they love both concern Milkman, they are troubled differently. In an Ironic twist, they both spend an extreme amount of time attempting to gain attention, love, and admiration from Milkman, but ultimately; their attempts only draw them away from the independent lifestyle that they are capable of living. In effect, their plights are to overcome the dependency they have on the men in their lives.

In Hagar's case, her brake-up with Milkman (viewed as her abandonment,) has left her feeling worthless. Through these feelings, she now dependent on Milkman's attention in order to fully function properly and independently of him. She is stuck on reliving their relationship and these thoughts consume any time for personal growth. For Ruth, her love is maternal. She plays the role of the over concerned mother who overcrowds their child in an attempt to protect him from harm. Although her concern for Milkman seems selfless, this role is the one she feels more comfortable in. Without this title, she would feel lost and worthless in her own life, yet this is covered within her outward desire to assist Milkman. Ironically, this level of comfort stifles personal development in any direction other than maternally.

To prove the need for feminine independence from men, Toni Morrison uses Hagar and Ruth as prime examples of weak women whose existence relies on their relationships with men. Although both women's relationships with Milkman come from different directions, neither woman can feel whole without their dependence on a man. Although this message is hidden within the story, this is simply another of Morrison's political statements about the world in which we live.

Process of Reflection

In William Faulkner's The Sound and The Fury, each character who has their own chapter reflects on the past in different manners. Although some of the moments that each character remembers may be the same, each character has a particular weakness that triggers their past to seep into their current thoughts.

For Benjy, whenever nature or trees are mentioned, he remembers how he loved Caddy's natural smell of the outdoors. This takes him back to remembering viewing her "dirty" bottom from the tree, a metaphor for her dirty morals. The unorganized manner of his passage filled with unrelated memories. For Quentin, representations of time are the triggers which remind him of his sister's marriage and promiscuity. The constant force of time is shown through long, complex sentences and the presence of clocks and watches. In contrast to his brothers complex narratives, Jason's passage is short, simple, and swift. The hardened man he has become is illustrated through his negative memories of the past in relation to what he believes is a disastrous future.

Although each narrative represents its character well, Caddy is ultimately the central memory that each brother has in common. Although she is represented differently and the process of reflection is different, Caddy is the cause of each brother's being.

Dirty Underwear

In The Sound and the Fury, one of the most pivotal and representative scenes is repeated many times. After playing in the stream with her brothers, Caddy attempts to listen in on an adult conversation occurring inside the house. She climbs the tall tree next to the window to make the spying easier. As her brothers look on from the base of the tree, they get a full view of Caddy's muddied underwear (a result of playing in the mud.) This is the first moment which foreshadows Caddy's promiscuity and the "dirtying" of the Compson name. In his chapter, Benjy recalls this moment many times, of course never realizing its significance and being completely unaware of Caddy's lost virginity. This is a physical realization of Caddy metaphorically being dirty in the eyes of her brothers. Also, she happens to be standing on a tree which is the trigger for how Benjy remembers this moment-by Caddy's smell. He always mentions how much she loves that she smells of trees-pure, natural, untouched trees.