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The Sound and the Fury June Second, 1910 (Section 3)
As Quentin's flashback ends, he walks into a bakery in Cambridge. At the same time he enters, a little girl slips in with him. While the woman working at the bakery refuses to serve the girl because she is an Italian immigrant, Quentin insists that the woman wait on her, and he buys the girl a bun himself. The girl pays for her own loaf of bread, and the cashier reluctantly gives her an old loaf. Quentin and the girl leave together, and he buys her some ice cream. After they eat together, he tries to head back towards campus, but she silently follows him. He unsuccessfully tries to find her house. She cannot help him much, as she refuses to speak. Instead, he wanders around the immigrant sections of Boston, pointing in different directions, looking in her eyes to see if she recognizes any of the alleyways.
While she follows him around town, Quentin's thoughts drift back to home. He remembers lying in the barn with a girl named Natalie. She told the inexperienced, but curious Quentin that sex was like "dancing sitting down" June Second 1910, pg. 135. In the midst of their awkward making out, Caddy walks into the barn.
As Quentin's attention immediately turns to his sister, Natalie leaves, apparently angry with Quentin for his preoccupation with Caddy. After she leaves, Quentin tries to tell Caddy what the two of them were doing. She doesn't seem to care, but instead is very angry with him. The scene ends with them physically fighting in their muddy, rainy barn.
Topic Tracking: Obsession With Caddy 4
As Quentin's thoughts bring him back to the present time, a furious looking man storms up an alleyway, and the little girl finally speaks up, recognizing this man as her brother, Julio. He shakes a stick at Quentin, cursing at him, accusing him of stealing his sister while physically assaulting him. Boston police arrest both men. In the midst of being arrested, Quentin starts to laugh uncontrollably. It takes him several minutes to stop and by the time he calms himself, right before his eyes, he sees a big car, occupied by classmate Gerald, his mother, his roommate Shreve, another classmate, Spoade and two young women. Gerald, Shreve, and Spoade all follow the procession to the police station. While Shreve argues with the constable over the misunderstanding, Quentin remains quiet, appearing detached and amused about the whole situation. He manages to not get in trouble, and ends up having to pay a fine of six dollars to get himself out of this scrape.
Gerald, Shreve, and Spoade take him back to Mrs. Bland's car. Quentin is not even thinking about his brush with the law, but instead continues to obsess over his virgin status:
"I could not be a virgin, with so many of them walking along in the shadows and whispering with their soft girlvoices lingering in the shadowy places and the words coming out and perfume and eyes you could feel not see, but if it was that simple to do it wouldn't be anything and if it wasn't anything, what was I" June Second, 1910, pg. 147
Mrs. Bland interrupts his thoughts momentarily, but while she rattles on boringly, his mind again drifts back to memories of Caddy. He remembers an exchange they had concerning sex. As his sister talks about some of the men she had been intimate with, Quentin insists, "we did how can you not know it if you'll just wait and I'll tell you how it was it was a crime we did a terrible crime it cannot be hid you think it can but wait" June Second, pg. 148
Topic Tracking: Obsession with Caddy 5
While Caddy tries to comfort Quentin, who insists that he was the one boy who slept with her, she knew that he has never touched any female before in his life. Hysterical, Quentin draws out a knife with which to kill Caddy, and says that he will end his own life, too. He is crying so uncontrollably, however, that he can hardly steady the blade in his hand. He drops his knife on the ground, and in the barn's darkness cannot find it. They give up their attempt for the moment.
Caddy must leave to go meet her boyfriend, but Quentin chases her, fighting her, trying to keep her from him. He fails to restrain his sister, so he simply follows her to where she's meeting her boyfriend, Dalton Ames. She assures Quentin she will only be gone for a short while, and tells him to meet her later.
In Quentin's walk along the edge of the woods, the moment he smells honeysuckle, he breaks into a sprint to escape its suffocating scent. He makes it to the pasture, where he sees Caddy walking back towards the house. As they walk back together, Quentin asks Caddy if she loves Dalton Ames. She doesn't seem to want to have this conversation with her brother, but by now he is crying, and she must console him. In her own sadness, Caddy says, "don't cry I'm bad anyway you cant help it" June Second, pg. 158. Quentin answers, "theres a curse on us its not our fault is it our fault" June Second, pg. 158.
