How does Quentin's relationship compare with Benjy's?

Quentin and Benjy are both tragic characters who have flaws that are very apparent to the outside world but invisible to the characters. Other than that sad realization, they are quite different. Benjy has issues understanding the world because he was born with a disability that keeps him from being normal, while Quentin is just an emotional wreck but has the mental compasity to understand time. Thus, when Quentin becomes fixated on time and certin events, its by choice not because he has no other thought process like Benjy.

What is the source of tension between Quentin and "time"?

Quentin's tension with time is that he hates time because with every passing moment something happens that complicates him life even further. He hates the idea of change, especially when it comes to his sister's innocence, which is why he lies and fixates on specific things. Quentin hates that time moves him forward into issues and problems he can't always fix and moments when people don't feel bad for him, so he feels tension with it.


What conclusion can you now draw?

Time has lots of meaning through this book, but the part that I think is most intriguing is that one of hte themes of this book its the Compson's decline or the fact that they are slowly falling apart. Time, to the family, represents the slow movement of their decline and that's a painful process to watch. Like a cancer patient who takes many grueling years to die with failing treatments, the Compsons's feel the pain of their mistakes for a long period of time which is maybe why each kid has such issues with time. I personally thing Quentin lost the will to fight time and that's why he ultimately killed himself.

Why does Quentin kill himself?

As I said before, I think he lost his fight against time and he lost the will to try anymore. Although a bright young man, the pain in his life was too much for him to handle and too great for time to heal. After all, time is a wonderful healing tool but there are some things, like heartbreak (over Caddy's innocence for Quentin), that remains an open wound until the gap can be filled. In Quentin's case, the void was never filled and to him, nothing could lessen the pain of living with it, so he choose to end it.

What do we "learn" about family from Benjy and Quentin?

We learn that the kids of the Compson family are ultimately never changed from the people and events that occurred during their upbringing. Maybe in that sense, Faulkner is making a suggestion about the world in which childhood is a defining factor that shapes the character of people as adults. Then again, childhood is not something people can always control. Benjy and Quentin didn't ask to have an alcoholic father or ill mother, they were just dealt the wrong cards in life and its troubling to think that they were predestined to be who they were due to their parents. So, I guess I haven't made up my mind on this yet.