Tick Tick Tick…
Quentin destroys the watch he had received as a gift from his father in the beginning in the chapter. The glass and hands are removed while keeping the mechanics in tact. The watch is “alive” but useless to everyone. He takes the watch to the repair shop, but has no interest in actually getting it repaired. Quentin may think of himself as something similar, alive but useless, or “dead”.
Why would he carry around an item that reminded him of himself? Does it have something to do with his father disliking timepieces? What other significance does the watch have? What other reason would he have to destroy it?
4 comments:
Quentin is aware that this is his last day on earth. I believe that he keeps the watch with him as a reminder that time is of the essence that day. It doesn't seem as though he is carrying the watch around to spite his father, but rather that Quentin is attempting to take some of his father's advice. He isn't, however, able to ignore time so he destroys the face so he is not as tempted to look at it.
Quentin's fixation with time I believe comes from his necessity of needing to live his life with/through his memories. As time passes everything is becoming a new memory. On this final day Quentin in a way wants time to stand still. He doesn't want to deal with the promiscuity issues of the past yet he knows what he will do. The fact that the watch continues to work could foreshadow that suicide was fate for Quentin.
I think that one of the reasons Quentin is so depressed is because of time. Time caused the South's destruction and the destruction of the Compson family. Time caused Caddy to grow older and lose her virginity. Time is something Quentin cannot grasp and control which is why he tries to break it, though he cannot.
Quentin experiences events that become more and more troubling for him to endure as time goes on. Never receiving help from his father, humiliated with the cigar incindent, Caddy losing her flower, and the meltdown of the Compson family all tend to be a downward spiral that eventually cause Quentin to want to stop the coninuation of time. When he realizes he can't stop it he comes up with the solution of stopping his own life clock.
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