Sunday, October 18, 2009
Quentins section
Throughout the section you see Quentin struggling with the idea of Caddy losing her virginity which obviously causes him great distress. However, when he recalls a time when he was talking with his father about the ideas of virginity and purity, his father told him those ideas were completely nonsensical and unnatural. I found this interesting because throughout the book Quentin often refers to his father in such high esteem and takes to heart what he says. But in this one instance their viewpoints are so different which made me wonder why Quentin holds on so tightly to the idea of a Southern Gentleman when his father doesn't even hold these same values. Also, i was confused about the part with the young italian girl. This story continued pretty uninterrupted for several pages, one of the longest memories in the section, therefore I'm assuming their interaction holds some symbolic value, I'm just not sure what it is.
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First off this is nicole... my account is having issues right now so i'm just using Emma's to post my comment...
ReplyDeleteSo in regards to the Italian girl I think her significance is to show the unspoken jealousy between Caddy and Quentin. While Quentin is clearly really mad at Caddy for tainting the Compton name with her impurity, I feel like another aspect of his rage is his jealousy. Not only does he continually bring up this false idea that he is the father of Caddy's child, he also picks fights with the men in her life. Quentin is clearly jealousy of Caddy in a way that an ex lover would be jealous. The Italian girl serves to show that this jealous is two sided. Not only is Quentin jealous of Caddy but Caddy is jealous of Quentin as well. When Caddy sees the girl she calls her dirty and disapproves. Since Quentin is still a virgin, he is clearly capable of being a lot more jealous of Caddy then she is of him but this shows that the jealousy is double sided. There is clearly a lot of sexual tension and anger in their relationship.