Funny Names for Quentin the Sound and the Fury

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The Sound and the Fury Chapter 2

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Chapter 2

• OK, this section is narrated by Quentin – that's Quentin the boy, for those of you who were wondering.
• We're back in 1910 (about eighteen years before the section narrated by Benjy).
• Quentin's a student at Harvard, which means that his section is narrated in the Massachusetts. Cambridge, to be precise.
• Just in case you think you're in for a smooth ride now that Quentin's taken the steering wheel, though, we feel obliged to warn you: Quentin's cracking up.
• Hmm…the Compsons aren't so lucky, you say? Well, yes. That's one way of putting it.
• What does this mean for us right now?
• Quentin's section isn't quite as crazily disjointed as Benjy's.
• Then again, he might just be more chaotic of a narrator then Benjy. Bet you didn't think that was possible, huh? Think again.
• Quentin remembers lots of things, but they're not neatly divided into separate (and repeating) episodes like Benjy's memories were.
• But we're getting beyond ourselves.
• Here's the important point: Quentin has lots of memories and no real way to organize them.
• Case in point: on June 2, 1910, Quentin finds himself "in time again."
• Translation: he just woke up.
• He hears his watch clicking away the seconds and remembers when his father first handed him the watch.
• As his father said, the watch is a present that will hopefully allow him to forget time every now and then.
• What? We're not exactly sure what this means, either, but it seems to work for Quentin.
• Quentin thinks about how people don't usually think about the ways watches tick off time.
• As you can probably tell, Quentin spends a lot of time thinking. (Hey, that's why he's at Harvard, right?)
• Thinking about time leads Quentin to muse about St. Francis, who, as Quentin observes, never had a sister.
• In case we didn't mention it, Caddy is Quentin's sister, too. Don't worry, we'll hear more about that later. Lots and lots more.
• Quentin hears his roommate, Shreve, getting up.
• He rolls over, deciding to forget about time.
• As soon as he decides this, however, thinking about the time becomes like an itch he can't scratch. It's all he can think about.
• All of a sudden, a memory intrudes upon his thinking (or not thinking) about time:
• A girl runs out, smelling of roses. His mother and father have announced a wedding….
• Hmm…sisters and weddings. Any guesses who he might be thinking about now?
• Quentin remembers telling his father that he's committed incest.
• !!!!
• Faulkner sure doesn't pull his punches, huh?
• Shreve barges in on Quentin, reminding him that he's late for chapel.
• Quentin promises to get up soon, and Shreve leaves.
• Left alone, Quentin remembers the time that Shreve defended him in a fight (Quentin got really angry when someone talked smack about some girls).
• Watching out the window, Quentin sees Spoade pass by.
• Spoade's a campus legend: he's always late to everything, but he's always well-respected.
• The campus chimes sound off the hour.
• Quentin listens to the sound of the bells fading away into the air.
• He thinks again about incest. Of course, if you commit incest, you're probably going to hell.
• As Quentin figure, though, that wouldn't be so bad. At least he'd be alone with Caddy.
• Thinking about Caddy makes Quentin think about Dalton Ames.
• He repeats his name several times. We're beginning to think that Quentin's a bit fixated on the guy.
• He's not fixated on him in a creepy way – he'd just sort of like to kill him.
• That's reasonable, right?
• Quentin gets up and walks over to his dresser, where his watch is.
• He breaks the glass of the watch, then he twists off its hands.
• Noticing red smears on the glass, Quentin realizes that he's cut his finger.
• That seems a little backwards, doesn't it? We're betting that Quentin doesn't quite have it all together this morning.
• After all, who breaks their grandfather's watch?
• Quentin packs a suitcase with a change of clothes.
• He writes two letters: one to his father and one to Shreve.
• As he walks out the door, Quentin suddenly remembers the girl running again.
• We're suspecting that the girl is Caddy, as you've probably figured out.
• She's in a veil, and her dress flows as she runs.
• If you imagine one of those slow-motion scenes at the end of a romance movie, it's probably pretty close to Quentin's daydream. Insert cheesy music here.
• Shreve walks in, interrupting Quentin's thoughts.
• He quizzes Quentin about missing chapel, but Quentin mutters an excuse and leaves.
• He sets off to find Deacon – maybe he's at the train station?
• Deacon is an old black man who seems to do odd jobs for college boys.
• As he walks, Quentin thinks about forgetting time again.
• Passing a jewelry store with lots of clocks in the window, he pauses, then walks in.
• He asks the man at the counter if any of the clocks are right.
• The man says no, it's actually…
• Quentin shuts him up before the man can finish telling him the time.
• He just wanted to know if any of the clocks were right.
• The man looks at him strangely. Maybe this kid has been drinking?
• Quentin realizes that he can't hear the clicking of his own watch over all these other clocks. It's a comforting thought.
• Quentin walks to a hardware store, where he buys a pair of flatirons (weights). He wraps them up so that they look like a pair of shoes.
• A streetcar passes, and Quentin gets on.
• He sits beside a black man and starts thinking about race relations in the North.
• As he reflects, he thought when he first came up north that he was supposed to miss black people – but only once he got here did he realize that he actually did miss Dilsey and Roskus and the rest of his family.
• Quentin remembers passing an old black man on a mule. The man looked like an eternal, unchanging symbol of black people everywhere.
• Stereotypes, anyone?
• Thinking about black people everywhere leads Quentin to think about…all black people. Race is a HUGE issue for this book, in case we haven't mentioned it. Check out our analysis of race in the novel in "Themes."
• Quentin starts thinking about home, and then he remembers talking to Caddy about Benjy's name change.
• Caddy and Quentin think that Benjy "smells" all the things that he knows – but can he smell his new name? They're not sure.
• Quentin gets off the railcar and stares over a bridge at the water below.
• He watches his shadow in the water, wishing that he could find a way to drown his shadow.
• He remembers Dilsey saying that Benjy could smell when Damuddy died.
• As Quentin gazes out over the water, a classmate of his, Gerald Bland, pulls a punt out into the current.
• A punt, by the way, is a racing boat.
• Gerald's dressed pretty spiffily in a suit and a straw hat – just like the boaters in England.
• Gerald's a pretty boy.
• His mother takes very, very good care of him. In fact, when he rows, she drives along beside him in a car.
• Quentin knows that Gerald's mother likes Quentin – if only because he's from the South. She appreciates Spoade, too, because he's the coolest guy on campus.
• She can't stand Shreve.
• Why? Well, for one thing, his face looks like a pumpkin. For another, he's Canadian.
• Gasp.
• Watching the boat disappear, Quentin suddenly remembers asking Dalton Ames if he had a sister.
• Dalton says no. All women are "b****es."
• Well. Who wouldn't love the guy? Seriously.
• Quentin remembers the army-like khaki shirts that Dalton always wore.
• His memories shift, and suddenly he's thinking about Herbert.
• Herbert's another guy who's promised to be "like a big brother" to Quentin and Jason.
• Judging from Quentin's memories, he doesn't think too highly of this offer.
• The wedding invitation, announcing Candace's marriage to Mr. Sydney Herbert, flashes through Quentin's mind.
• Caddy got married at the end of April – about two months ago.
• Quentin remembers Herbert talking about the car he gave Caddy.
• Herbert seems like a bit of a jerk.
• Sorry, we just couldn't think of a nicer way to say that.
• Quentin remembers his mother obsessing over Herbert – apparently Herbert's promised to get Jason a job at the bank where he works.
• Quentin thinks about how the Compsons sold Benjy's pasture to pay for his tuition at Harvard.
• As Quentin thinks again about Herbert's oily compliments to his mother, he wants to confess again that he's committed incest.
• Quentin's thoughts start to fragment here – he jumps between different memories (Herbert and incest) rather erratically.
• It's almost like the memories are too much for him to bear all at once.
• Quentin thinks that "again" is the saddest word he's ever heard. It's sadder even than "was."
• Huh?
• Well, it's probably pretty complicated. At least, we're guessing that Faulkner's working in some heavy meditations on time here.
• "Was" and "again" are both ways to mark time, right? But what exactly is happening again?
• Honestly, we're not really sure yet. And Quentin's definitely not giving us any clues.
• Quentin remembers his mother yelling at his father – apparently, Mrs. Compson and Quentin both thought that Caddy should be watched.
• Father agrees that Caddy's probably up to something, but he refuses to spy on her. Quentin protests that he wasn't spying.
• Father and Quentin talk about the nature of women.
• As you've probably noticed, Quentin likes to have these philosophical conversations.
• OK, back to the present:
• Arriving at the station, Quentin sees Deacon.
• Deacon's dressed up like an officer at a parade.
• Deacon is something of an institution at Harvard.
• He greets Southern boys as they get off the train, acting like he's a black servant.
• Once the boys are completely dependent on him, his relationship with them changes.
• He's no longer subservient – in fact, even his accent starts to fade.
• He's both ridiculous and indispensable, a fact which Quentin recognizes.
• He's called Deacon because a rumor once suggested that Deacon came from a divinity school.
• Deacon himself was pretty pleased about this, so the name stuck.
• Quentin promises Deacon a present if he'll deliver a letter to Shreve tomorrow.
• Suddenly, looking into Deacon's slightly absurd face, Quentin sees the wise, sad eyes of Roskus.
• The moment passes – Deacon agrees to deliver the letter.
• Quentin walks back to campus, thinking about his childhood.
• In his room, Shreve greets him.
• Apparently, Gerald's mother has sent Quentin an invitation for a party.
• Shreve's glad that he's not invited.
• Quentin starts thinking about the costs of being a gentleman.
• All of a sudden, his mother's voice intrudes upon his thoughts.
• She's a pretty annoying woman, to be honest.
• As she says over and over (and over), everyone ignores her. No one pays her the respect she deserves.
• Only Jason resembles her family, the Bascombs.
• Boy, we can't wait to meet Jason.
• Also, she feels like God cursed her by giving her Benjy,
• Wow. She's a real winner.
• Quentin sees another car coming, and he boards it.
• It must be noon, he thinks. You can always feel noon.
• OK, we can't feel noon, we confess. But at least Quentin can.
• As the car drives, Quentin thinks about Gerald and his mother.
• Gerald's not just a pretty boy – he's a ladies' man, too.
• His mother does everything she can to promote Gerald's womanizing.
• Speaking of womanizing…Quentin thinks about Herbert.
• Quentin remembers his last conversation with Caddy: she asks him to take care of Benjy and Father.
• OK, back to Gerald.
• Dizzy yet? We told you that Quentin was as bad as Benjy.
• Gerald's mom tried twice to get Quentin a new roommate.
• Apparently, Shreve wasn't good enough for a southern boy.
• Luckily, Shreve and Quentin found out about her schemes in time to stop them.
• Quentin decides to beg out of her invitation for tonight.
• OK, back with Herbert:
• Herbert mentions to Quentin that he once thought Quentin was Caddy's lover, not her brother. He's all she ever talks about.
• Herbert keeps trying to push a cigar on Quentin. Disgusted, Quentin refuses.
• Herbert's a bit smarmy. He insists that he wants to be Quentin's brother. After all, he went to Harvard, too.
• Quentin points out that Herbert was kicked out of Harvard for cheating.
• That stops conversation for awhile.
• Herbert threatens Quentin in an attempt to get Quentin to keep quiet.
• Caddy comes in, and Herbert suddenly appears nice and smiley again.
• Back in the present day, Quentin starts walking down a shady road away from campus.
• As he walks, he thinks about how he urged Caddy not to marry Herbert: she's sick, so she can't marry him.
• Caddy says she has to – otherwise, Benjy will be sent to Jackson.
• (Jackson is where the mental institution is.)
• Quentin thinks about the time he broke his leg. It hurt a lot.
• Back to Caddy:
• Quentin asks Caddy if there have been many men for her.
• She's distracted. She says there have been too many, then asks him to look after Benjy again.
• Quentin remembers an earlier conversation he had with his father about virginity: Father says that women are never virgins.
• As he explains, purity is a negative state – you only know it once you've lost it.
• Quentin thinks again about a hell that would isolate him – alone with Caddy forever.
• Back in the present:
• Quentin watches three boys fishing for a big ol' trout.
• He sees the trout in the water, but no one has ever been able to outsmart it.
• The boys argue about how to catch the fish.
• Quentin asks if there are any factories in town with bells.
• Bells, you see, ring on the hour.
• What, you thought we were over this obsession with time? Nope.
• The boys give up on fishing and decide to go swimming.
• Quentin remembers how he tried to convince Caddy not to marry Herbert.
• Desperately, he recounts all the bad things Herbert has done: he's a drunk and a cheat. He was kicked out of Harvard and Coventry.
• Caddy insists that she has no other options.
• OK, we should mention that the past and the present get pretty confusing here. Quentin's watching the boys walk away, but he's thinking about Caddy.
• We'll stick with his thoughts – they're more interesting.
• Quentin tells Caddy that he wants to run away with her and Benjy.
• She scoffs – there's no money. Besides that, their father is drinking himself to death.
• Present-day Quentin walks into a grocery store. No one seems to be inside.
• Oh, wait – there's a dirty little girl in the corner.
• She stares at him silently.
• Quentin greets her, calling her "sister."
• Hmm…what's with all these sisters?
• The shop owner comes out. Quentin orders two rolls.
• When he's done, he points to the little girl. She wants something, too.
• The shop lady's suspicious. How'd the little girl get in?
• Quentin lies, saying the girl came in with him.
• He orders some bread for the girl.
• Quentin leaves with the little girl. The shop lady warns him again about sneaky foreigners.
• They're sneaky. You shouldn't trust them.
• Quentin tries to figure out where the little girl lives, but she apparently doesn't speak – at least, not to him.
• She sure stares, though.
• Quentin asks if she'd like ice cream.
• She doesn't say anything, but she follows him to the ice cream store, staring at him.
• Quentin remembers asking Caddy if she's seen the doctor.
• Present day Quentin walks all through the town, trying to ask the little girl where she lives.
• The little girl doesn't say anything.
• This is starting to get pretty predictable, huh?
• At the end of town, Quentin gives the girl a coin and runs away from her.
• A true gentleman, right? Well, not exactly…
• He remembers yelling at Caddy for kissing someone. He slaps her.
• Present-day Quentin climbs a wall and runs into the little girl again.
• Guess there's no getting away from sisters.
• Speaking of sisters: Quentin remembers fighting with Caddy about another girl, Natalie.
• He refuses to kiss Natalie – she's dirty.
• Present day Quentin tries to get the little girl to tell him where she lives. No luck.
• He decides to walk down by the river with her.
• Back in the past:
• Quentin and Natalie are sitting in a barn. They're "dancing sitting down" – whatever that means.
• We'll leave that to your imagination.
• Suddenly, Caddy's watching them through the barn door.
• Quentin chases Natalie off, calling her a "cowface."
• He can get nasty when he wants to.
• After Natalie runs away, Quentin jumps up and down in hog poo.
• He runs up to Caddy, announcing what he's done.
• She declares that she doesn't care what he does.
• Furious, Quentin runs up to her and smears hog dung all over her.
• He's going to make her care about what he does.
• Present-day Quentin realizes that he's run into the boys who were fishing before.
• They're swimming now, and they're angry that he brought a little girl with him.
• All of a sudden, a group of men run up to them.
• The little girl finally talks. She points at one of the men, saying, "There's Julio."
• Julio charges at Quentin, trying to beat him up.
• Apparently, he thinks Quentin is trying to run off with his sister.
• The sheriff is right behind him. He arrests Quentin.
• Quentin can't get a word in edgewise.
• Julio accuses Quentin of stealing his sister.
• Quentin finds this so incredibly farcical that he sits down and laughs.
• He can't seem to stop laughing, even after the sheriff begins to think that he's hysterical.
• As the group walk back to town, a car with Gerald, his mother, Spoade, Shreve, and two girls drives up.
• Mrs. Bland (Gerald's mother) demands to know what's happening.
• Of course, when they all hear that Quentin's been arrested, Shreve is the only one who immediately gets out of the car.
• The girls, especially, look at Quentin in horror.
• Shreve joins them as the walk to the jail, where the sheriff books Quentin.
• Quentin hasn't said anything about helping the little girl. We're not really sure why, but we're guessing that his silence is important.
• Spoade insists that Quentin's arrest is a mistake.
• The sheriff, calculating a bit, charges Quentin six dollars for Julio's trouble.
• In those times, six bucks is a decent amount of cash.
• Shreve's outraged – but Quentin pays the money, and they all leave.
• In the car, Quentin seems to be a bit out of it.
• In reality, his mind is fluttering between the past and the present.
• He's remembering a conversation he had with Caddy about sex.
• "Have you ever done that?" he asks Caddy.
• He remembers insisting that he's committed incest. His father doesn't believe him.
• Quentin tries to insist that he's committing incest with Caddy.
• He remembers a summer night when Caddy runs off with a man.
• Quentin finds Caddy down in the branch (that's a stream, remember?).
• She's lying down with her legs in the water.
• Quentin asks her over and over if she loves the man.
• Caddy doesn't say anything, but she puts Quentin's hand over her heart, where he feels her blood throbbing.
• Quentin asks if she remembers the time that she sat in the branch and got her drawers muddy.
• Remember how we told you that this was an important scene in Benjy's section? Here's why:
• Quentin suddenly pulls out a knife and threatens to push it into Caddy's throat.
• Who would've guessed he was such a killer?
• Well, actually, he's not. He can't quite push the knife in.
• Caddy looks at him, pitying him.
• She asks him if he's ever had sex. He insists he has, but they both know he's lying.
• They both get up and start walking back to the house.
• Quentin smells the honeysuckle, a scent which overpowers his senses.
• As they walk, Caddy sees her lover. She runs up to him, and Quentin sees their bodies blur together.
• Caddy tells him to go back to the house, but Quentin says he's going for a walk.
• He comes back, and Caddy's alone.
• As they walk, Quentin pushes her to find out how she feels about her lover.
• A bit obsessed, you say? Well, yes. He is.
• He threatens to kill Caddy a few times. We're not too worried, though – we've seen this play out before.
• They're both crying. Caddy insists that she's bad.
• Quentin remembers meeting her lover a few days later. He offers the man a challenge, which the man accepts.
• The next day, Quentin asks T.P. to saddle a horse. He's going to fight for his sister.
• On second thought, he decides to walk.
• Meeting Caddy's lover on the road, Quentin declares that the man has until sundown to leave the town.
• He's a real cowboy, isn't he?
• The guy doesn't seem to notice. He keep smoking and looking at the river.
• Angry, Quentin yells at him again. Does the man have a sister?
• The man answers that he doesn't. They're all "b****es," anyway.
• That does it. Quentin starts swinging at the man.
• Unfortunately, the guy's actually pretty strong. He catches both of Quentin's hands and then throws away Quentin's gun.
• Oops. That didn't go so well.
• All of a sudden, everything goes black.
• When Quentin wakes up, he asks if he's been hit.
• The guy says he has. He offers to help Quentin home, but Quentin angrily refuses.
• Later, Quentin realizes that he wasn't hit, at all. He just fainted.
• Quentin asks Caddy if she loves the man. Caddy places Quentin's hand at her throat and tells him to say the guy's name.
• When Quentin says "Dalton Ames," he can feel Caddy's blood surge.
• OK, back in the present:
• Apparently, Quentin got himself into a huge fight.
• Gerald was telling bawdy tales about the women that he'd had sex with, and Quentin went crazy. He hit Gerald.
• Unfortunately, Gerald's been training as a boxer.
• As Shreve recounts, Quentin got kicked around for awhile.
• Spoade asks Quentin why he hit Gerald.
• Quentin doesn't respond, but Shreve said that Quentin jumped up in the middle of a story, shouting, "Have you ever had a sister?"
• Now Quentin's clothes are all bloody.
• He hasn't gotten better at fighting over the years.
• He leaves Spoade and Shreve, saying that he'll walk back to campus.
• Shreve seems worried, but they leave him, anyway.
• Quentin waits until he hears the car pull away, then he starts walking down the road.
• As he walks, Quentin muses about the quality of light in the North.
• All of a sudden, the light appears to brighten, becoming morning light.
• Really, though, it's just the lights of a streetcar. Quentin's being poetic.
• In the car, Quentin thinks about honeysuckle, which has, he thinks, a sad scent.
• We're not sure how a scent can be sad, but there it is, folks.
• The car drives by the river again.
• Quentin's thoughts are running wild.
• The night smells like honeysuckle, and the scent gets mixed up in all his thoughts, until it seems to symbolize the chaos of his existence.
• Quentin can smell the curves of the river – and smelling, he becomes like Benjy.
• Benjy has to smell the things he knows, remember?
• Quentin gets off the car at the post office.
• The chimes strike a quarter to…something.
• Quentin enters his dorm room.
• It's dark. Shreve left him a letter telling him that the Blands are having another get-together.
• Quentin notices his bloody clothes again.
• Thinking half-completed thoughts, he begins to clean the blood off with gasoline.
• Hmm…apparently that's a trick that Martha Stewart missed. Or maybe gasoline just smells good to him.
• Quentin stuffs the bloody clothes into his bag and puts on the clean set.
• His thoughts roam over the time after the wedding – after Caddy leaves.
• Quentin remembers that Caddy always wanted to be king or general when they were little – never the princess or the queen.
• It's dark out.
• Quentin remembers running up to his bedroom at home in the dark.
• His thoughts are getting pretty fragmented, running over various moments of his past.
• He brushes his teeth, thinking about home and the dark and Caddy.
• The clock begins to strike three-quarters past the hour.
• Quentin remembers earnestly assuring his father that he's committed incest.
• Father says that Quentin's earnestness is what convinces him that Quentin must be lying – even though he knows how much Quentin would like to believe that Caddy hasn't had sex with other men.
• Father asks if he ever tried to make Caddy sleep with him.
• Quentin says he was afraid – afraid she might have said yes.
• Understanding Quentin's despair, Father says that the worst tragedy humankind knows is the realization that all human action is temporary.
• In other words, even saving Caddy through incest won't last forever.
• The clock bell (in the present day) stops tolling.
• Quentin carries his watch into Shreve's room and puts it in Shreve's desk.
• He places his letter to Shreve in his pocket, thinking that he'll have to stop at the post office.
• He forgets to brush his hair, but luckily Shreve has a brush.

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