Luster

Luster is Frony's son, and in The Sound and the Fury the teenager who takes care of Benjy Compson in 1928. While he clearly resents the demands of that job, and can be intentionally and inadvertently cruel to the helpless Benjy, he performs the task as well as he can. That much is clear. There are, however, several unanswerable questions associated with his character. The novel gives no indication who his father is, or what, if Frony is married, Luster's last name is. And Luster's next appearance, as the servant who accompanies Mr. Compson and Quentin on a hunting excursion in Absalom, Absalom!, is a chronological impossibility, since in the earlier novel Luster wasn't born until after Quentin committed suicide. (While treating time a-chronologically might be consistent with the ambiguities of Absalom, it would be much too ingenious to suggest that Faulkner deliberately introduces Luster into an impossible past; instead, he probably confused Luster with one of his uncles, Versh or T.P., both of whom had earlier taken care of Benjy and either one of whom might have been there in Absalom!) In his final appearance in the fictions Luster remains in the time and place and role that defined him in The Sound and the Fury. He has his own entry in "Appendix Compson," and it pays him a compliment: "A man, aged 14. Who was not only capable of the complete care and security of an idiot twice his age and three times his size, but could keep him entertained" (343). But despite the 1940s setting of the "Appendix," Luster's life as "a man" in his 20s and probably living with his mother and family in Memphis remains unacknowledged.