One thing I found interesting in regards to Quentin's mental state was that he repeated himself a lot and some parts of this section were even more confusing than Benjy's part. He is a bit all over the place with his thoughts further supporting his fragile mental state. Quentin appears to be a downer. He wants things in life to be a certain way especially in regards to his sister Caddy. He is extremely upset about the fact she is no longer "pure" because he wants her and everyone else to follow a certain moral code. When this moral code is broken by Caddy this upsets him deeply and adds to his already fragile mental state. His obsession with Caddy differs from Benjy's because Benjy seeks love and protection from Caddy whereas Quentin is obsessed with her in a protective older brother way. He is very protective of her and is willing to do anything in order to save her. This shows in this part of the chapter:
"...If we could have just done something so dreadful that they would have fled hell except us. I have committed incest I said Father it was I not Dalton Ames..."
He is willing to lie and say he committed incest to save Caddy. This shows where his responsibilities in his family stand because he feels responsible for saving his little sister. In this passage he is most concerned with Caddy as he is most of the time.
I don't think Quentin's protection of Caddy stems from brotherly love. I think he wishes to protect her for the same reasons he wants everything else to be preserved. If he can only save Caddy he can save everything else that he feels pressured to save. I agree that his style is long, ramping, and repetitive. The reasons for this is probably the same reason for his obsession with Caddy. Quentin's mind has tunnel vision and he has a hard time focusing on anything else. He also feels quilty if he forgo's his duty this is part of the reason he is so hyper focused on time.
ReplyDeleteYes yes. I also noticed that he repeated himself a lot and this shows that he gets obsessed with things. His chapter is written in a train of thought, and when he repeats himself it shows that he is obsessed with things and can't stop thinking about them. I think he takes too much responsibility for other people's problems like when he is willing to throw himself under the bus for Caddy.
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