In William Faulkner's novel, The Sound and the Fury, Caroline Compson focused directly upon appearances. Mrs. Compson never allowed herself to forget that her family wasn't as good as her husband's. Marrying into a higher class altered her perception of society. She searched for the acquisition of material objects in her life, always afraid of how others looked upon her family. Mrs. Compson cared more for appearances than for reality. Her obsession with sounds and …showed first 75 words of 819 total…

…showed last 75 words of 819 total…quality drove her children away. She could not accept her children for what they were. She eventually lost all of them: Quentin took his own life; Benjy was forever lost to a mental disability; Caddy disgraced herself sexually and disappeared; Jason became so bitter he could find no way of establishing a family of his own. If her children would have been able to reach out and talk to her, things may have ended differently.