Great American Books

This is the official blog for the students of Monica Osborne's Great American Books course at Purdue University.

Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Faulkner: The Sound and the Fury


Like many of Faulkner's characters, Quentin Compson (male) is a complicated character. In a novel dominated by the memory as opposed to chronology, Quentin's section -- dated June 2, 1910, the day he drowned himself at the end of his first year at Harvard -- arguably emerges as the section most preoccupied with these themes. Why does Faulkner choose to have Quentin narrate his own section, even though he has been dead for nearly eighteen years? What do you make of his dual obsession with his sister's virginity and the loss of the family honor? Why does he attempt to make, in a crucial conversation with his father, a false confession of incest? Considering Quentin's own state of mind at the time, what do you think of Mr. Compson's response? And, finally, what are the reasons for Quentin's decision to drown himself?

Obviously you can't answer all of these questions in your response, so just pick some of them and try to comment critically and insightfully. Also be sure to read your peers' responses before posting your own -- try to say things that haven't already been said, and comment on what has been said.

Please post no later than Thursday, October 5, 4pm.

30 Comments:

  • At 6:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I have not completely read the second secion of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury but from what I can decifer of the book it seems to me that Quentin is completely disgusted with what his sister did to the family by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. He is also unhappy with his mother and her devout professions about Jason being the best child, the only one like her side of the family. He obviously does not forsee a better future, even with going to Harvard. Quentin might really be a family orientated person and it just tears him apart to see his mother and sister tear the family apart with their unthoughtful behaviors. With all of these realities crashing upon him it leads him to see no other better alternative than suicide.

     
  • At 6:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    After just finishing Jason's section and comparing it to Quentin, I am shocked on how both boys in the Compson family were. I can see that there is many issues with all of these children, especially the boys and how they view their sister Caddy. The way the obsess over the fact of her virginity is something that is very appalling to me. Virginity is something that is usually kept sacred and not talked about, but her own brothers obsess over the fact about it. I think that this whole situation of Caddy losing her viriginity and becoming pregnant is great deal into why Quentin decided to commit suicide. The whole day before he killed himself you can just sense the panic that was rushing through him as the minutes ticked away. I think Faulkner used Quentin to narrate his story although he was already dead because it gave a first hand experience on how he was feeling about himself as well as Caddy and why he did kill himself. All of the reasons he decided to kill himself I think lead back to his family like and more importantly his sisters pregnancy.

     
  • At 7:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think Laura brought up an interesting point about how it is shocking that everyone talks about Caddy and the loss of her virginity. I think one reason that Quentin is upset about Caddy's promiscuity is that he is jealous of the fact that he has not lost his virginity. In his section, he mentions that some of his fellow classmates have called Shreve Quentin's husband. He already seems to be insecure about his own sexual life and when others make fun of him about it, he seems to be even more upset, and I think this is a large contributing factor to his death.
    I also agree that Faulkner has Quentin narrate his section because it gives more first hand knowledge about Caddy. It also gives the reader a different perspective. Benjy's section was very incoherent, but Quentin's section clears up a lot of the information given in that section.

     
  • At 8:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I do agree with what Nicole had to say about Quentin being jealous that Caddy had lost her virginity before he did. I also think in some sick way that Quentin wishes he could have slept with his sister Caddy. This could explain why Quentin tells his father that he is the biological father of Caddy’s baby, Miss Quentin. Miss Quentin seems to be a strange name for a girl. It was almost like Caddy was honoring her brother or even provoking Quentin’s jealous. I think Quentin’s narrative is in the novel, even though it happened long before the other narratives, to show how Caddy affected each of the three brothers’ lives.

     
  • At 8:16 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    In reading Quentin's section, I actually felt like there was more than just jealousy towards Caddy. I believe that there was underlying sexual frustration between Caddy and Quentin. That frustration may be part of the reason as to why Quentin did the things that he did.
    For example, Quentin's suicide could be tied to Caddy in that her promiscuoity not only offended him, but led him in a jealous rage. While she clearly had no tie to his honorable belief in virginity and purity, Quentin was still seemingly jealous that she had lovers while he was left behind pining for her.
    Also, his attempt to falsely declare himself the father of Caddy's child seems to further indicate his love for Caddy, platonic and romantic. It would seem that Quentin is trying to uphold the family honor by assuming Caddy's guilt as his own, as well as giving him the opportunity to fantasize that he and Caddy did have romantic relations.

     
  • At 8:49 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I agree with Scott's viewpoint in that I believe that Faulkner chose to have Quentin narrate his own story to show the intricate bonds that family members have with each other and the trauma that can be caused when these bonds are broken. It seems that Quentin saw suicide as the only way out of his crumbling family situation. In getting this point across, Faulkner emphasizes the level of distress the family was really experiencing.

    I also agree with the idea that Kaitlin brought up, claiming that Quentin confessed to incest to uphold the family's honor. This confession is added to the other odd experiences of the family in Faulkner's attempt to show how deeply rooted the family dynamic is and how much of an effect it can have on one's life when its normal state is compromised.

     
  • At 8:57 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I agree with Witney that Quentin did in some way wanted to sleep with Caddy. In the description of Quentin, at the beginning of the book, it talks about how he wanted to be cast into hell so that he could guard his sister for her punishment. It is also interesting that Quentin killed himself shortly after Caddy got married. I feel that this shows that maybe he couldn’t handle the fact that she was with another man or perhaps because she was able to find happiness. Back to Quentin wanting to go to hell with his sister is very interesting, due to the fact that he committed suicide. In many religions when suicide is committed it is believed that the person will go directly to hell. So if that was his way of thinking he will get exactly what he wanted.

     
  • At 9:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I believe Quentin's dual obsession with his sister's virginity is due to her getting pregnant out of wedlock. Back then in the Southern States it was known for women and men to act like women and men and not out of control. I think what Quentin is going through has to do with everything that has happen to the family. The family went from being a pretty wealthy family to having to sell some of their wealth to have a decent living, If I'm not mistaken they were well known for being wealthy and then going into proverty put a bad on the family. So for Caddy to perform adultry it just made it worst for the family as well as adding more anger, frustration and depression to Quentin. I believe Quentin was trying to stress this dad the fact te Caddy did something bad but his dad did not care. Quentin even went out of his way to say that the child is his, but again the dad did not care. That just shows how much the dad cares for his kids and family if you ask me...

     
  • At 9:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Quentin had an extremely unhealthy fixation with his sister. His obsession about Caddy's virginity boils down to his other obsession, his family. I think that if Caddy hadnt gotten pregnant and ruined the family name that Quentin wouldnt have had such an fixation with it. Virginity is sacred, but when Caddy got pregnant, it became something that couldnt be ignored. I dont think Quentin lied about committing incest with Caddy for her sake. I think in his head, that if it didnt involve others outside the immediate family that the family name wouldnt be as ruined.

     
  • At 11:03 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I believe that the main reason for Faulkner to have Quentin narrate his own section even thought it was 18 years before in order to show all sides of Caddy. Her three brothers knew her and spent so much time with her that they can describe her the best. Since the whole novel is based around Caddy and is the story of her, it is only natural to have as many perspectives of her as possible. Like many have stated previously, they all have different views and memories of her. And even the same memories of her have their own twists on it. I believe that it was a very good idea to include Qentin's view even though it had to be 18 years before the others due to his suicide.

     
  • At 11:15 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I agree with Laura S. at least I dont hear of people talking about their virginities everyday...it's just something that people dont normally talk about. And since the book is all about Caddy, it would make since to relate Quentin's death to Caddy's pregnacy out of wedlock. But when I think of suicide and people getting pregnant out of wedlock it reminds me of abortion. I dont know if this has any connection with the book, but Quentin is obsessing with the pregnancy, and commits sucide. Reality today if a girl gets pregnant out of wedlock they have a choice to kill the baby. Just an idea...I dont know if it has anything to do with it or not.

     
  • At 12:23 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    It strikes me funny that a book written in stream of consciousness and how benjy's section is not chronological at all, how the next section is so focused on time and how it is driving Quentin mad.
    Along the lines of Caddy. He uses increadibly creapy, obsessive statements when it comes to her. for instance: on page 92 after he repeats dalton ames 3 times, he says why dont you bring him back to the house caddy? and goes on to talk about her doing things like the black women. It is like this intense jealosy. As if he wants her all to himself, and at the same time I think he knows its wrong and that is part of the reason he may kill himself. Also something I noticed was how he repeats things a lot. Almost like the ticking of a clock, he repeats dalton ames, harvard and other words. Its as if in his last day he is basically going insane, and who wouldn't knowing they were going to kill themselves later.
    As to why he chooses to drown himself, as I read I see a lot of instances where his thoughts are of Caddy by water, in water, wet, or just something to do with water. And Im not sure how exactly it relates but it seems fitting that if all of his demented thoughts towards his sister have to do with water that he would kill himself with the water that haunts him. Im not really sure if thats right, but thats what im getting so far.

     
  • At 1:14 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I agree with tamara a-j, the reason of Quentin's dual obsession with his sister's virginity is because of her pregnancy. Then, he was also obsessed with the loss of the family honor. At that time, his family came down to poverty and the name "noble family" only remained. He knew that his family was not noble people any more, like the youngest idiotic brother, the amorous sister and the drunken father...he was struggled between the image and the real as a noble family. In addition to that, he inherited the noble and dissipation lineage which is same as other family members. It means he can't avoid the fate of declining with his “noble family”.
    I think these conflict and despair are the reasons why he decided to commit suicide at last.

     
  • At 9:22 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I too find it interesting with Quentin's talk about going to Hell. I like the way Megan rationalized the fact that suicide is a direct trip to Hell. I find that Quentin despite is extreme fixation on his sister for the most party is the most sane. Sure he commites suicide, but only due to the fact that he has exsaperated all efforts to try and bring the family back to it's hay day. Quentin knows that Caddy has torn the family apart, with her having a child out of wedlock, however he feels he can fix that by saying it was his. Quentin trys to fix all the family problems and in the end he comes to realize that there is simply no way of doing that. As far as the reason why Quentin is narrating his own section, i feel is a way for the author (Faulkner) to allow his readers to see the pain and trouble Quentin went through in order to try and save this family.

     
  • At 11:10 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Throughout his section, Quentin is constantly recalling his father telling him that "men are just accumulations of...." What they are accumulations of varies, but is mostly concentrated on the idea that the actions of man and his family are what define him. Quentin sees how his family's actions will reflect him, and decides to kill himself. I agree that Quentin definitely has incestual desires for Caddy, and he tries to confess to this out of jealousy that Caddy isn't a virgin and (as sick as it is) that he wasn't the man who had sex with her.

    I think one reason that Faulkner has Quentin tell his own story is so you can compare the effect of the family's demise on Quentin and Benjy. Both are in love with Caddy, and are upset when she gets married. Quentin places all of the blame on himself, and even tries to accept the responsibility for Caddy's actions. Benjy, however, has no concept of consequence or blame, and only knows that he can no longer be with Caddy.

     
  • At 11:30 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I feel that Quentin is obsessed with his sister’s virginity and the loss of the family honor because it breaks away from the tradition of the South. In the South, men were expected to act as gentlemen and women were to act as ladies, pure and feminine. However, Caddy did not fit into this southern mold. She was very promiscuous and was pregnant out of wedlock. Quentin saw this as shameful. The only way he saw he could preserve the order of the South was to kill himself because it was the only honorable thing left.

     
  • At 11:32 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I agree with Yasuko. I believe Quentin's suicide was due to the decline of his family fortune, his fascination with caddy, and also with his feeling of not having a mother figure in his life. At one point in the story Quentin says If I'd just had a mother, so I could say Mother Mother".
    I believe Faulkner had Quentin narrate his own section because it is the only way for us to know what Quentin was thinking. You couldn't have someone else tell you what was going on inside Quentin’s head b/c nobody else would know.

     
  • At 12:06 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I do not think Quentin is as concerned about his family's honor as he makes it seem. It appears as though he is very self involved. If he was really worried abotu family honor, he would not try to convince his father that he had slept with Caddy and taken her Virginity. Since Quentin says that he can not rely on his mother, he seems to want to run off with his sister so that he has someone to count on. I think he may have even convinced himself that he is in love with his sister in some way. He seems to be very jealous of his sister's promiscuity. He is especially concerned with the number of lover's his sister has had. He most likely feels strange about this, since it is more acceptable for a man to sleep around than a woman. He is also worried the other boys think that he is a homosexual with his roommate. Maybe to some degree, he is worried that he might be.

     
  • At 12:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Throughout Quentin's part he keeps referring back to things that his father told him. He seems to really be relying on what his father has to say. In some ways this may be why he seems to be jeolous of Caddy and her loss of virginity. Maybe he feels like his father won't see him as a man until he has lost his virginity too. That also might be why he tells his father that Miss Quentin is his daughter. I also agree with others that have said that Quentin probably had underlying sexual desires for Caddy.

     
  • At 12:42 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    The anonymous above was from me. I forgot to put my name on it.

     
  • At 12:50 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think it was important for Quentin to narrate his own suicide. When someone committs suicide, no one can ever answer the question of why. The suicide victim may leave a note and friends and family usually know that the person was having a hard time and was depressed, but the only person who can really answer the question of why is the one who took their own life. Quentin's section is all about his last day, what he was feeling, what he was thinking, what he was avoiding feeling and thinking. If we could be inside the head of everyone who committs suicide on their last day, we could at least understand why they felt that they had no other option. It might give us closure. If Faulkner had just killed Quentin through another character, readers would be left trying to figure out why he took his own life. His problems weren't anything that he talked about until that last day when he wrote letters and spoke with his father. I think that anyone who takes their own life does it because they don't believe that they have any other choice. For some reason, they believe that they are beyond help and are a burden to everyone around them and want to relieve themselves and/or the people they care about from their pain. The only person who can ever come close to explaining someone's reasons for taking their own life is the one person you can never ask.

     
  • At 1:04 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Throughout the first section and part of Quentin's, Caddy plays the mother figure. Since their mother is incapable of following the traditional role, they look to Caddy, even as children. She assumes this role, which is probably what skews Quentin's view of her.
    He pictures her as a mother and by getting pregnant, she deviates from that preconception. This is probably why Quentin has trouble dealing with her loss of virginity. Because, what he thought was so pure and nurturing (a mother) became something sinful and wrong. By claiming fatherhood, he seems to try to reconnect her with her former purity by making the fault his own. This also serves as a way to patch the gaping crack that was created by her betrayal. However, when Caddy gets married, he seems to feel abandoned and betrayed by her. The person he loved so much left him, even as he tried to take the fall for her. So, realizing that his illusions were just such, he could not cope with the reality. Thus, his suicide.
    By using Quentin to voice his own side of the story, Faulkner allows us to see how the character takes the situation. Quentin’s thoughts and feelings are told through his own words and therefore, we (the reader) can see where he is coming from. That way, we may come to understand the choices he made. Also, by advancing time eighteen years, we don’t have the radical thoughts of the time. We have the meditated version, so to speak.

     
  • At 1:10 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think that there could be lots of reasons why Faulkner chose to put Quentin's section second even though it occured eighteen years earlier. Maybe to bring more sense to what happened in Benjy's narrative. We are able to find out what happened to Quentin and how come Caddy went away. By putting all this information in the second section it makes the novel more interesting. If we knew that Caddy got pregnant, left town, and Quentin killed himself in the first section, then maybe Benjy's section would be less interesting. I agree with Megan that it is important for Quentin to narrate his own section since he does commit suicide. It makes what he is going through more personal and it allows you to try and figure him out, even though it was still difficult for me know exactly what he was thinking.

    I also agree with everyone else that Quentin had an obsession with Caddy's virginity because he felt like she let the family down and he felt responsible. In someone weird way he was to protect her and keep her for himself. I don't know if his death was a direct result from Caddy's actions but it definitely had something to do with it.

     
  • At 1:11 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I agree with Laura S. in saying that all of the boys in the Compson family have issues. Quentin is no exception. He is obsessed with his sister's virginity and also jealous and I do not really know why. I think that Whitney brought up some very good points regarding Quentin and Caddy. (that Quentin told his father that Caddy's baby was his...and that they named the baby Quentin, a little weird if you ask me) I also agree with Megan when she said that Faulkner has Quentin narrate the section that he commits suicide to answer questions that we wouldn't necessarily have the answers to if we weren't 'in his head.'

     
  • At 1:41 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I think that Faulkner puts in Quentin's own section to show how Caddy effects the family. As far as the timing goes it didn't really even bother me because time plays such a strange role in the book that another strange time factor didn't really bother me.

    The dual obsession definitely play off of each other as her loss of virginity and acting like a hussy would most definitely take away some of the family's honor in a society that still has traditional Southern values. The father's response though kind of takes this idea down a few notches as we find out that only Quentin really holds these values.

    His suicide definitely can be attributed to his sister due to their extremely creepy relationship. I definitely agree with others who have previously stated that they had some kind of disgusting crush on each other and that is nothing short of strange. Therefore, her marriage would have taken him over the edge once it combined with that fact that he was still a virgin and she was the town bike.

     
  • At 2:21 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    To me, Faulkner has Quentin narrate his own section because it gives us one of the closest views of Caddy. Quentin seems to be as obsessed, possibly more-so, than Benjy when it comes to Caddy. If, indeed, this is a novel telling us about her, then Quentin's perspective might be one of the best we can get. I mean, he's so obsessed with her and with time he kills himself over his own inability to handle or control either one.

    Personally, family honor seems to have nothing to do with anything except Quentin justifying his messed up actions. Anyone who tries to defend his or her family honor doesn't get their ass kicked, claim incest, and on top of it all, kill himself.

    Quentin drowns himself for a couple of reasons. One, he feels that to die is the only way to escape the constraints time has on him. Also, he seems to feel as though he has failed in his life goal of keeping Caddy close to him. Quentin is the epitome of how this family has some dysfunctionality in it.

     
  • At 2:37 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I agree with most people that Quentin ultimately commits suicide because he is depressed that the Compton family is falling apart. His sister has violated the family name by becoming pregnant out of wedlock. In my opinion, Quentin and Caddy are close in age. They grew up together and it is naturall for an older brother to want to protect his sister and his family. Quentin may not be jealous of Caddy's boyfriends/husband...he may just want to protect her from hurt. When he realizes he has failed in doing this, among other reasons, he commits suicide.
    Also, I'm not sure that anyone has taken into account that Quentin has just spent a year away from home in the South. He has been in the Northeast, where society is very different. Quentin is at a rough adjustment time in life and the pressures of being a Harvard student, fitting in with his peers, and living away from home and family are also bearing down on him. This could also tie into the reasons that he ended his life that year.

     
  • At 3:02 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I liked what katie just said about some other underlying causes of Quentins suicide being the hard adjustment time that college is. He is creepily obsessed with Caddy and when she has her child, it is kind of like her life around the Compsons ending and she is starting her own life. Caddy was sort of the mother character that took care of the others through out the book and her virginity and having a child out of wedlock take these positive mother-like images and tear them apart. Quentin, going to Harvard, had the highest potential for bringing his life together and actually being successful.

     
  • At 11:36 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    I agree with what betsy and katie said about Quentin's suicide. I think that he did it in some ways to protect his sister and flee from the marred image of her persona. Like Betsy said, Caddy had been seen as some kind of idealized virgin-then to have her be involved in a sex scandal made everything fall apart. His suicide was a way to 1)draw people away from her marred image and 2)escape the misery that was and is his family.

     
  • At 10:39 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said…

    Just to help out here. Read the last five pages of Quentin's section very carefully. His suicide is actually the result of his father's attitudes, values that Quentin does not want to accept (they are cynical, and about the loss of value itself), but they are the thoughts that come back during his last day and push him to the edge. The final thought is the key: his father tells him that he will one day realize that all this won't mean as much, that even Quentin's own emotions will change. It is the fear that this is true, that he will forget how he feels as his heart breaks, that pushes him to freeze time where it is, where he still remembers and feels Caddy's presence.

     

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