June 2, 1910 (Quentin's Chapter)

Quentin’s chapter was even more confusing than Benjy’s when Quentin would remember things that happened in the past. The lack and unconventional use of grammar and punctuation (not having periods, commas, quotations, or apostrophes for words like we’ll; not capitalizing words and capitalizing others, extra spaces between words,) made this chapter very confusing. At times it was hard to determine who was speaking; what was just narration by Quentin; when one idea started and another ended; and if Quentin was mentally in the past or present during these flashbacks. All of this caused me to be disoriented to what was actually happening. It definitely forced me to go back a couple of pages and reread to realize what was going on. 

       However, this style of writing shows the turmoil that exists within Quentin. Quentin’s thoughts are jumbled together as he reflects on the past. This illustrates the disorder in his world that the he is desperately trying to escape. Quentin reflects the traditional Southern values of conduct and manner, where they took pride in the formal gentleman and the purity of ladies, but as Caddy, whom Quentin is very close to (maybe a little too close), challenges these views by being promiscuous, it causes the order Quentin wants to keep to fall into chaos. He is clearly troubled by these memories with Caddy or conversations about Caddy’s promiscuity with other people and shows an unhealthy obsession over it. Quentin is sensitive to Caddy’s behavior. The most extreme example of this is when he even tries to make a pact with Caddy that he would slit her throat and then his so that the family’s name might be preserved from Caddy getting pregnant out of wedlock. Even though Caddy agreed to it, since it was another way to challenge the southern values, Quentin could not bring himself to do it. So he instead wants to take full responsibility by saying he committed incest with her admit that it was some other guy who did this with Caddy’s consent that did this. For whatever reason, Quentin thinks incest is a less shameful act than premarital sex and it is better to have his family name be shamed from incest than the other. His obsession with Caddy can also be seen through his jealousy of her being with other men. However, Caddy also showed jealousy when Quentin was with Natalie.  So maybe they see something more between them than just family. 

       Quentin’s turmoil is deepened furthered by his father lack of concern for Caddy’s behavior. His father says more to Quentin that defend Caddy’s actions saying that virginity is an unnatural idea that men created and a meaningless thing to women. This completely goes against Quentin’s views and creates more disorder, which was rooted in Caddy’s promiscuity in the first place. All this chaos within Quentin drives him to commit suicide, for he feels that is the only solution to escape it all. Yet is peculiar that Quentin is obsessed with having his hair neat and teeth brushed before he does so, so that he can have a little more order in his life before he leaves.