Seminar Day 1

Today in AP Literature, we had our day one seminar on The Sound and the Fury.
We hit some interesting points regarding both Quentin's, Caddy, and Jason. In today's
discussion however, Quentin, Caddy's daughter, was our main discussion. We went into
detail debating and discussing on why Quentin was "The last." Most students agreed that
Quentin's behavior was due to the environment she grew up in. She was brought up in a family
that lead her to become the promiscuous girl who took after her mother's ways. Although
Jason and Mrs. Compson always complain about Quentin's unacceptable behavior, it's
because of this that Quentin has turned so rebellious. Quentin was an unwanted child.
She was made because of a bad relationship Caddy had. Her father is unknown and she
was left to stay with the Compson's without the care of her only parent, Caddy.
The family didn't appreciate Quentin. Although they may not have been aware of this,
they constantly compared her to Caddy. In the back of their head, Quentin was an exact
replication of Caddy. Even when Quentin runs away from home with all of "Jason's money,"
Mrs. Compson immediately thinks that she has either committed suicide like her uncle Quentin
or run off with some man, exactly like Caddy. "It's in the blood, like uncle, like niece. or mother."
(pg. 299) Jason also puts all the blame on Quentin. On page 304, he says "The bitch that cost
me a job, the one chance I ever had to get ahead, that killed my father and is shortening
my mother's life every day and made my name a laughing stock in the town." Even the sheriff whom
Jason ran to so that he may catch Quentin says "You drove that girl into running off, Jason."
(pg. 304)
There was a point which was brought up during our discussion that I thought was very interesting.
Even in previous discussions, we talked about how the female Quentin was a rebirth of the male
Quentin. If we look at this through a Freudian's lens, we can see that all the hate he had for sex
and the way he thought of it as life and death and holding his sexual desires back, was
reborn into the female Quentin who took all the chances she had to have relationships with me
and act as promiscuously as she could. Before this point was brought up, I honestly didn't
see how both Quentin's could relate at all. Unlike the rebirth of Edna we saw in The Awakening,
female Quentin and male Quentin didn't seem to have any similarities. One was almost a psychopath
having strange sexual desires and an obsession towards his sister while the other was a rebellious
little teenage girl. However, after this point was made, I could see why female Quentin could be
a rebirth of male Quentin.
Tomorrow is day 2 of our seminar. I think we made a lot of good insightful points this seminar.
A lot of them that we have already skimmed and touched upon before, but went over much more
thoroughly with contextual support. I hope that tomorrow will go as smoothly as it did today.