Quote 1
Benjy remarks several times throughout
his section that Caddy smells like trees or leaves. Caddy is Benjy’s
only mother figure and source of affection when he is young, and
she provides the cornerstone of comfort and order in Benjy’s mind.
Benjy has relied heavily on his sister, and her absence plunges
him into chaos. In his earliest memories of Caddy, Benjy pleasantly
associates her youthful innocence with the smell of the trees in
which they used to play. When Caddy becomes sexually active, Benjy
notices the change she has undergone. The troubling realization
corrupts his sense of order. Caddy knows Benjy is upset and begins
to avoid him. Benjy laments this new distance between himself and
his sister by saying that Caddy suddenly does not smell
like trees. Trees are a pleasant memory associated with the affection
and repose that Caddy has brought to Benjy’s life, and when that
order disappears, Benjy ceases to associate Caddy with that memory.
