Brain Pain discussion

This discussion covers Part Four: April Eighth, 1928 (The Dilsey section)

Although this section is not narrated by one of the characters, it is often referred to as the “Dilsey section” because we get to see Dilsey outside of the Compson home and its attendant chaos. It is Easter Sunday, and while all hell is breaking loose amongst the Compson’s, Dilsey takes her family and Benjy to her church to celebrate the resurrection of the risen Christ. That morning, Jason is forced to confront the fact that Miss Quentin has not only run away from home, but she has discovered the cache of cash he’s has been embezzling from her for all these years. (To make an Easter Sunday comparison, the Apostles discovered an empty tomb and celebrated the resurrection of Jesus. Jason discovered an empty cash box and the reader can celebrate Miss Quentin’s deliverance from Jason’s tyranny.)

Faulkner chose to use a third-person narrator for this final section. Why might he have made this choice after using first person narration for the preceding chapters? How does this change your perception and understanding of the characters, their situation, and the dysfunction of the household?

This section appeared to be the most sane. I think 'stream of consciousness' naturally appears insane. This section allowed me to sit back in my chair, so to speak, relax, like a cool down. But other than introducing a more mundane tone, and of course a metafictional idea of resurrection, it seemed wrong to me. For one thing, maybe Faulkner wanted to leave the reader with a possibility that some recovery was possible, but it struck me as pure cynical authorial bitterness instead. After exposing the internally incomplete, exteriorly incompetent family for who they were, we are supposed to assume any of them could pull it together in the future? It was more of a dismal comparison of the actual act vs. the symbolic example; how much less of an actual resurrection was likely.