Quentin Chapter

Sean Here with yet another analysis and series of questions for the second chapter of the Sound and the Fury. This will be a shorter post as there is less I could analyze in this chapter as it was more confusing than the previous chapter that was analyzed. It was a jumbled formation of thoughts but as I learned this was not without any sort of purpose. Quentin potentially had a mental illness, maybe schizophrenia, and throughout the chapter we ourselves were experiencing the confusion and pain that Quentin was feeling as he was going through his life. The more important things about this chapter was his relationship to Caddy, The concept of time that pops up once more, the reason as to why the chapter was written through a dead characters pov, and the madness that I just discussed. Quentin had an interesting relationship with Caddy. He had romantic feelings for her that didn't really express themselves until much later in the chapter when he takes the bullet for Caddy and says that he was the one that had gotten her pregnant. He wanted to protect her from the shame that would come from knowing that this child would be born without a father due to Caddy's promiscuous habits. Quentin had romantic interests in Caddy but it was an odd incestuous relationship. I'm going to use an example from another popular series, A Song of Ice and Fire or as most people have come to know it as Game of Thrones. The two main twins of the series, Jamie and Cersei Lannister were Brother and sister and at around 12 they realized their emotions for one another, they fell in love and had children. It was in this that the two knew what they had wanted out of the incestuous relationship they had. They wanted true love in which they found in each other. In Quentin's case he wasn't exactly sure what he wanted from the relationship. He also hated it when people brought up their sexuality. There are two reasons for this, The first is my interepretation and the second is and actual reason. Quentin had feelings as I mentioned for Caddy. I believe that Quentin doesn't want to be reminded about this situation. The other reason is that he is a classic southern gentlemen and it was in southern traditions that men didn't commonly talk about these things because of  dishonor on a woman. 

Time has popped up in both the Benjy Chapter and the Quentin chapter. In the Benjy chapter it was brought up through the factor in the sense he kept shifting back and forth from the past to the present. In the Quentin chapter Quentin talks about time in the sense that Quentin hated to look at watches or clocks on the wall. I discussed with a friend what this possibly could mean and the one thing that came up was that he eventually commits suicide. Maybe he had been thinking about that for a while and didn't want to be reminded about the fact of how much time he had left and how fleeting time can be. There's a good quote to go with this as well "Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening the bank deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day.What would you do? Draw out every cent, of course!Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME.Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow.”You must live in the present on today’s deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today.To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade.To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby.To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper.To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train.To realize the value of ONE-SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident.Treasure every moment that you have! And treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time.Remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present!" Sorry that was a bit long but I kinda wanted to get that point across and felt that was the perfect quote and way to do it. 

The final point that I had wanted to discuss was the reason as to why this chapter was written through the point of view of a dead person. And in case you hadn't caught it Quentin killed himself by tying irons to his legs and throwing himself into the river, that is the reason he is dead The reason is simple. Faulkner wanted to give different points of view about the same thing to make sure you understood it in different ways. The best way to do this was through the point of view of all four of the siblings/ children because that's who this story is about.