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Fusion of Time and the Modern Man Einsteins Dreams by Alan Lightman discusses Einsteins various theories about time and how they effect the everyday world. His ideas range from the progression of time reverse to the end of time in totality. Like Lightman, William Faulkner s The Sound andthe Fury contains differing concepts of time expressed in various narrative perspectives. By calling attention to Faulkner's and Alan Lightman s interpretation of time through their narrative focus, one can highlight their points of contact in relation to it and underscore how a limited view of time will inevitably present an obstacle for the modern man. Benjy, whose section opens the book, lives outside of time. For him, the past is area as the present; it has no distinction.
Time does not exist for Benjy because he lives only in his senses, thus the present is his only reality (Hornback, Jr. 49). Being incapable of distinguishing between past events and present events, earlier events are as current this as anything actually happening in the present. In 1928 he stands at the gate, still expecting Caddy, who left home in 1910 (Faulkner 5). Because he is completely oblivious to time s significance, he is actually incapable of learning from his past and cannot make progress as an individual. As he begins his day watching the golfer s hitting on the field, events in the present trigger Benjy's mind to focus on events of the past, though they done have a role in altering in any way his current actions because to him they are one andthe same (Faulkner 3). Similarly, one world Alan Lightman provides as a possible scenario in his novel occurs on the twenty-fourth of April in 1905.
He proposes the existence of two times, mechanical and body with the first being unyielding and the second having the property of spontaneity (Lightman 23). If this were the case, then time would have no real significance in itself, due to the fact that the reality of time would constantly be uncertain. This second concept of time mostly relates to the Benjy section in that within his narration he almost totally disregards clock time. Lightman describes this philosophy as connecting time to rhythms of... moods and desires rather than viewing it mechanically (23).
Emotions trigger a past experience rather than the past having a lasting impact. For example, Benjy sees a barn which causes him to correlate that time with another experience, when he tries to deliver a letter with Caddy (Faulkner 12). This impedes his understanding of the significance of his life as a whole. Benjy s way of viewing the past cannot coexist with his environment, where the truths are not the same and the conventional approach to time influences the actions of men (Lightman 27). Since everything happens for him in the present, all time is equal and does not make allowance for change. In contrast, Quentin longs for the certainties of the past.
He cannot live in the present, which invalidates his ethical code. Quentin's mind, like his brothers, is largely inthe past as he makes his daily rounds in the present. But whereas places and sensations inthe present propels Benjy back into the past, Quentin's memories need no prompting. He begins his section by contemplating time, even breaking the hands off his watch in a futile attempt to escape time (Faulkner 80).
Alone among the present-day Compson's, Quentin still feels pride in his family's noble and glorious past, but he recognizes that today nothing remains of that past; it is mere shadow. Upon giving him the watch, Mr. Compson relates how he gives it to Quentin in order for him to forget [time] now and then for a moment and not aspire to conquer it (Faulkner 79). Mr. Compson tells that as time passes, Quentin will forget his horror. The world of June twentieth in 1905 in Einstein s Dreams characterizes time asking a local phenomenon (Lightman 153).
Distance separates clocks and allows them tick at different rates. In this situation, man views time with differing perspectives with agreement upon duration or its impact on human existence. This most closely resembles Quentin s experience in that his views are radically different from the others character s. For him time is the ultimate enemy. The past forces him to worry in his present life about how it will be negatively influence his future. In fact, his suicide seems be just that his escape from time.
To forget the past would be unacceptable to Quentin because it would render his horror meaningless, and so he escapes time in theory way he can, by drowning himself (Anderson 89). As this character feels such a vast separation evolving between himself and his past, he is overwhelmed by thoughts that h can no longer remain a part of his world because his life lacks meaning. Lightman affirms this notion of separation when he declares that if time s identity is contingent upon its location, a crucial temporal union would be lost (Lightman 154). Quentin gradually loses this unity as he comes to the realization that a dissociation with his former struggles would mean eternal isolation from his identity. He continues to ponder his fathers pronouncements on the subject of his obsession, recalling how his father feels that being time-bound is the human tragedy, suggesting that only when the clock stops does tiresome to life (Faulkner 105). But Quentin wants to stop the clock, not to bring time toile, but to escape futility.
In actuality, he wants to step into Benjy s situation of being out time s grasp. Quentin cannot leave the past because his problems and memories are such a significant part of his life. Section three is told by the third Compson brother, Jason, and is set on Good Friday. Unlike his brothers, Jason is much more focused on the present, offering fewer flashbacks than the preceding sections. Though he refers frequently to events in the past, Jasons main interests are in the present. Jason is yet another character whose narrow scope of the significance of time causes him affliction.
He equates it simply with an opportunity for financial gain and treats it as a commodity to be manipulated (Hornback, Jr. 51). The irony is that although Jason seeks to use time for his own purpose, by living only in the present without a past, time becomes the all-powerful ruler. Lightman touches upon this concept in Einstein s Dreams in the world of April 281905 where the central theme in the segment is that time is absolute (33). Similarly to Jason s interaction with time, here it is also an infinite ruler where people find its passing predictable. Faulkner allows his character to become angry at others for being late and hashim constantly seeking out what time it is. Jason is regularly measuring time, the same ways always counting his money (Faulkner 185).
This exemplifies Jason s attitude in that each moment governs all action. Through his inflexibility, he depicts how he is time servant by allowing it to control his emotions. Although Jason thinks that he can shuck office past, he, too, is in its grip. His advantage is that he knows the difference between pasta present in a way his brothers do not. For him time exists in a state of exquisite regularity as does Lightman s universe (34). But the past still colors Jasons priorities and views of the present.
He is punitive toward his niece Quentin, nasty to the world, and paranoid about business, because of his feelings about his siblings. At the end of his narrative, he makes it his mission to gain back the money stolen from him without regard for the cost to his health or safety (Faulkner 245). This clearly shows how unpleasant recollections drive his every action and motive. The memories may not dance before his eyes, but old feelings are still calling Jasons tune. For him, the notion that he can manipulate time forces him to have difficulties with his social interactions (Anderson 90). Thus he is left lacking personal relationships and a true sense of his self and his role inthe lives of others.
The novel The Sound and the Fury, as a whole, moves through time erratically and focuses on the moment and the present in which the past and the future meet. It emphasizes the role of history and of the past in molding the present. Modern man, in his attempts to progress intellectually, often forgets that time is not an object of manipulation. The past runs its course for a reason: to improve the future. To attempt to change this reality is not only impossible but self destructive as well. In religious belief, God is the ultimate creator of our world, and the chief controller of time.
Einstein realized the central importance of time to humans, and he proposed many theories that explored the passage and flow of it. In his creativity and wisdom, he discovered how volatile and mobile time really is, how it can seem to stop at times and then progress full steam ahead at others. In modern society, man faces the problem of ignoring the concept of time as a whole and only placing emphasis on a small characteristic of the larger truth. Faulkner stresses that such a confined view will lead ultimately to society s destruction and in order to escape that fate, man must analyze the entire picture. Lightman s multi-fold theories of time, although they are imagined and impossible in actuality, their essence and idea effect threaded s perception about time. The book Einstein s Dreams offers the chance for one to examine the different possibilities in order to move one step closer to understanding its progression in the real universe.
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Research essay sample on Concept Of Time Modern Man
