Quentin's Chapter

When I found out that the next narrator of the Sound and the Fury, Quentin, was not mentally disabled, I was actually pretty relieved. Except once I finally started the chapter, I realized that although Quentin's perspective was more direct and clear than Benjy's,  it was still confusing. The writing that was italicized was easier to understand. But, like Benjy, Quentin often switches time periods triggered by smell and memories. However, unlike Benjy, Quentin doesn't split up his memories and changes in time period distinctively. For example in Benjy's chapter, I could honestly highlight and distinguish the different time periods with a highlighter and they had specific dates.  But in Quentin's chapter, his memories were all strung together and didn't have a clear time period. Quentin's sense of I is very muddled. His entire sense of self is based of him trying to reel back Caddy into his idea of the Southern chivalry. Quentin seem's to be so obsessed with Southern honor, that the fact that Caddy is sleeping around is so horrible to him. His entire sense of self is based around his connection to Southern Chivalry. He is willing to tell his father that Caddy's child is out of incest, than for Jason to find out that Caddy's baby was out of sex before marriage This all relate's to Quentin's obsession with time.


It all starts with his grandfather's watch and the beginning of the chapter. He's always looking at it and it seems to haunt him. Then he breaks it, then feels compelled to fix it. He also refuses to know the actual time of day, especially when he goes into the clock store and won't let the man tell him the time. Quentin's obsession with time roots all the way back to when his father told him, that things lose their importance with long period's of time. As I stated above, the Old South plays such a major role in Quentin's life, that it affects every single aspect of his thinking. Quentin can't handle the fact that men talk about women like trash, for example, when he punches that one man in the face for talking awfully about women, and he asks him the question, You ever had a sister? Quentin's sense of time relates to his strong position on treatment of women. The Old South holds up a southern lady as a women of purity, innocence and something to be honored. This is why Quentin see's all women as somebody's sister and not an object to be stepped on and kicked to the dirt. This is the reason that Quentin has such a problem with Caddy's excessive sleeping around. He wants her to respect herself as a southern lady and as his sister. Quentin is stuck in the past. Not based on personal experience like Benjy, but stuck in Southern values.


This reflects Quentin's obsession with time and his Father's saying. Quentin is so obsessed with the honor of the Old South that he represents it in the novel. The South was changing. just like Caddy, and women had freedom and were escaping this strict code of honor. So, when Quentin, kills himself, it is pretty much symbolizing the transition between the death of the Old South and the new modern values moving in to the South.