June Second, 1910 (Quentin)

Who Quentin Is

Quentin is expected bring good light to his family's name.  He should be on his way to becoming the nest Compson patriarch.  He is a mother's second chance at the "dream child", as Benjy is his mother's "punishment" and Caddy gives up the symbol of her worth.  Yet, he is in his own words, "Not a gentlemen".  He dislikes the traditional family values, and his education is bought by the loss of both his brother's beloved Pasture and family wealth.  He is overly concerned with time and shadow, as many sentences of his chapter, including the first incorporate both of these elements.  This is seen in the phrase, "trampling my shadow's bones into the concrete and then I was hearing the watch".  He is seen to belief that "purity is a negative state and therefore contrary to nature", and he seems to have little love for the symbol of pure innocence, Benjy.  Yet, at the same time he is so concerned about honor and virtue, and is at a loss when Caddy losses her virtue signaling doom.  Caddy's actions provide the context in which we are told that "there is a curse on [the Compsons]", and they bring Quentin to tell his father that he, and not Dalton Ames, is the father to Quentin.  Moreover, her decisions lead to his loss of life.  The hopeful leader is crippled, conflicted, and consumed.

Quentin is haunted.  He cannot escape the memory of Benjy's realization that Caddy has changed, or time and shadow, nor his sister's loss of virtue.  He strives to break the clock and would take the blame for Caddy if he could.  He cannot, and gives everything up.

Quentin Speech

Quentin's confusion and loss are seen in his narration style.  He minds change location and he sometimes speaks as if he is not himself.  He does not clearly differentiate phrases that he says as opposed to those he hears.  He is a mess of thoughts and words, many of which are not his own.  He does not hold a strong sense of himself, and changes the common applications of a first person narrator.  His narration is additionally confounding because he includes so many phrases, both that are his and others, and he thinks in fragments.  He tells stories in segments and sees the world in a particular tinted light, which complicates a reader's life as they are used to following one complete strand.  Faulkner even chooses to stop with normal capitalization rules to illustrate Quentin's misplacements. This shows how convoluted he is in himself. He has varying ideals he struggles to hold to, as both an enemy and an upholder of tradition.  He is confused and lost in who he should be and what he finds to be important.  He is challenged by his perceived morals, which drive him both to "help" a poor girl leading to his arrest and to fighting for what he sees to be a valiant cause.  He is eventually driven to simply give up.  The complications he faces from his homeland, family, mentality and environment form a current of confusion and clarity he cannot sort through, though he tries.  He is lost in time and shadow, and his streaming narration style expresses this.  His narration's instability and brokenness shows his unstable and broken body, mind and spirit.  He loses his will when he sees that Caddy has lost herself.  He loses his health when he is bloodied in a fight to uphold what he sees as good.  What he doesn't realize is that many of his actions too similar to those of the man who leaves him dressed in blood.  He loses is mind in a attempt to hold to what he sees as necessary and right in a changing surrounding.  He sees all of his losses, particularly that of family honor, as overwhelming, which mirrors his narration.  His observations of compacting pressure finalize into his end.