The Sound and the Fury: April Sixth, 1928 Summary & Analysis

This chapter is narrated by Jason Compson, and it begins on the morning of Good Friday, the day before Benjy’s section takes place. Jason is arguing with his mother about Miss Quentin, Jason’s niece. Mrs. Compson is worried that Miss Quentin is skipping school, and Jason says she is being promiscuous just like her mother, Caddy. Jason bitterly says that he never had a chance to go to Harvard like his brother Quentin, but always had to work for a living.

Mrs. Compson cannot control Miss Quentin, but she is afraid to let Jason discipline her, as he can be cruel and easily angered. She says that Jason is her only true child, the only one who is more Bascomb – her maiden name – than Compson. She repeats her usual litany of self-pity and complaint, that she will be dead soon and everyone will be better off, and that all her family’s problems have been punishments against her. Finally she agrees to let Jason discipline Quentin, and he goes to find her.

Miss Quentin is with Dilsey in the dining room, and Jason confronts her about skipping school. Quentin tries to argue but he grows violent and grabs her wrists, asking her about sleeping with boys in town. Dilsey tries to interject and protect Quentin, but Jason pushes her away. He is about to take off his belt and beat Quentin when Mrs. Compson comes down the stairs.

Miss Quentin is upset and Dilsey comforts her, promising to protect her, but then Quentin turns her anger on Dilsey and pushes her away too. Jason goes to drive Quentin to school, and as he leaves the house Dilsey is tending to the upset Mrs. Compson. Jason goes around the house to get his car and encounters Luster and Benjy. He sends them away angrily, ranting to himself about his lazy servants and idiot brother.

Jason drives Miss Quentin to school and the family’s situation becomes more clear – Caddy sends money to Quentin for her upbringing and welfare, but Mrs. Compson burns the checks, as she still refuses to have anything to do with Caddy. Jason and Quentin argue in the car, and again Jason grows violent. Quentin leaves for school and taunts Jason that she knows she is bad and going to hell.

Jason then goes to his work, which is as a clerk in the farm-supply store in town. He gets a letter from Caddy asking about whether Miss Quentin has been receiving her money. Jason then goes on an inner rant about the laziness of black laborers, and how Jews in New York are making money by swindling Southerners. Jason uses his extra money (which is still mysterious) to play the cotton markets, and he pays an insider in New York to send him information.

Jason opens his next letter, which is from Lorraine, a prostitute he visits in Memphis. Jason then rants about women, and how he can control them with money or fear. Sometimes he gives Lorraine money, but he never calls her on the phone or writes her.

Jason burns Lorraine’s letter and is then called up to the front of the store by Earl, his boss. Jason mocks the “redneck” customer who comes in, and follows this exchange with an inner tirade about how much he has had to work all his life, and how Benjy, Miss Quentin, his mother, and the Gibsons (Dilsey and her family) are nothing but burdens to him.

Jason is still bitter that Mr. Compson never sent him to Harvard like his brother Quentin, and Jason remembers when his father died. In the memory Uncle Maury comforts the mourning Mrs. Compson, but Jason is only thinking about how Maury has borrowed more money from them.

Jason then remembers Mr. Compson taking in the baby Miss Quentin, even though Mrs. Compson had disowned Caddy. In the memory Dilsey accepts that she will raise the baby, as she has raised all the Compson children. Mrs. Compson is distraught at the situation, and decides then that Miss Quentin will never know Caddy’s name. That night Mrs. Compson tells Jason she is glad that Jason is alive and not Quentin, if one of her sons had to die.

Back in the present, Jason ignores his letter from Uncle Maury, as it will be asking for money, as always, and turns to the next letter from Caddy. He then shifts into a memory of the day Mr. Compson was buried, when Jason encountered Caddy after their mother had gone home. Caddy offered to pay Jason a hundred dollars just to see Miss Quentin for a minute, and Jason took her money and then gave Caddy only a passing glimpse of her daughter as they drove away.

The next morning Caddy found Jason at his store, trying to convince him to let her see Miss Quentin, but he bullied her into leaving, still raging about the job at the bank she “stole” from him. Caddy then convinced Dilsey, but Jason threatened Dilsey if she ever let Caddy see Miss Quentin or Benjy. Dilsey called Jason a “cold man” and thanked God she had more heart than he.

Caddy then met with Jason again, and she relented to an arrangement where she would send money for Miss Quentin’s welfare, but she must promise to stay away from the family. Back in the present, Jason complains about Earl, his boss, and then opens Caddy’s letter, which contains a money order, not a check. This messes up Jason’s scheme – which is still unclear – as it requires Quentin to sign for the money herself.

Miss Quentin suddenly shows up at the store, asking about the letter. Jason mocks her and says the money order is only for ten dollars. He keeps bullying her and Quentin finally relents to him, signing the money order without looking at the amount. Jason then sends her back to school.

Jason takes his dinner break, goes to the bank, and gets some blank checks that he “fixes” for his mother. His scheme becomes apparent – Jason himself cashes Caddy’s monthly checks for Miss Quentin and gives a false check to Mrs. Compson, who tearfully burns them. This is the extra money Jason uses to play the cotton market and pay for his prostitute in Memphis.

Jason goes to the telegraph office, where he learns that his stock in the cotton market has gone down, which enrages him. He mocks and threatens everyone at the office and then goes home to eat dinner, which Earl had specifically asked him not to do. Jason gives his mother the false check, and she laments what a burden she and Miss Quentin are to Jason, but she still burns the check, as she wants no charity from a “fallen woman.”

Mrs. Compson continues to complain about how much she suffers for her children, and Jason mostly ignores her. He then listens to Luster feeding Benjy and rants to himself about all the lazy mouths he has to feed. Jason wants to send Benjy to the asylum in Jackson as soon as he can, as he is embarrassed and annoyed by Benjy’s presence. Miss Quentin doesn’t come home for dinner, which upsets Mrs. Compson and makes Jason feel justified in his cruelty to her.

Jason gives his mother the letter from Uncle Maury, which is written in flowery prose and asks for money, as usual. Jason then goes back to work, where he argues with Earl about how long he can take his dinner break. Jason tells Earl he was at the dentist and threatens to quit. Earl is patient with Jason’s sarcasm and anger, but he does imply that Jason bought his car with money stolen from Mrs. Compson. This enrages Jason further.

Jason goes into the back room of the store and starts mocking and tormenting Earl’s old black assistant, but he is interrupted when he sees Miss Quentin pass by the store with a man in a red tie. The red tie is especially infuriating to Jason, and he leaves the store to follow them. He thinks about how people must think the whole Compson family is crazy, now that he – the last sane one – is out chasing a girl in the streets. Quentin and the man know Jason is following them, and they lose him in the back alleys of Jefferson.

Jason is then interrupted in his chase by a telegram boy, who says that his account in the cotton market has fallen even further. Jason rants about the Jews again and vows to get out of the cotton business. He then drives home angrily and gets a splitting headache. He argues with Mrs. Compson some more and then heads back to work.

On his drive back into town Jason is nearly run down by a Ford, and then he sees the man in the red tie driving it and Miss Quentin in the passenger seat. Crazed with anger, Jason chases the Ford five miles out from town and then gets out of his car when he comes to a river. He thinks about how Quentin is sullying the family name, and how he has to argue with people about her, telling them his family used to own slaves while the rest of the town was all poor.

Jason’s headache gets worse in the bright sun, and he follows the tire tracks of the Ford into some underbrush. He hopes to catch Miss Quentin having sex with the man in a ditch, but then he hears their car start and the Ford drives past him and away, honking its horn. Jason runs back to his own car and finds that Quentin and the man have slashed one of his tires.

Jason goes to a nearby store and pumps up his tire and then drives back to town. He gets another telegram, saying he has lost more money. Jason goes back to work, argues with Earl some more, and rants to himself about women. He can hear the band playing at the minstrel show nearby, which makes him think more about how lazy all black people are, and how hard he has to work. Finally the store closes and Jason goes home for the night.

Jason arrives and finds Luster, who says that Mrs. Compson and Miss Quentin are fighting upstairs and Dilsey is trying to mediate. Luster complains about how he can’t go to the minstrel show, as he doesn’t have a quarter. Jason takes out two tickets to the show that Earl had given him. He tells Luster he doesn’t want them, but Luster can have them for a quarter. Dilsey comes downstairs and tries to shame Jason, but Luster can only watch helplessly as Jason burns the tickets.

Jason sits down and reads the paper, and he threatens to make Dilsey bring him his food unless Miss Quentin and his mother will come downstairs for dinner. They submit, and the three sit at the table and eat. Jason mockingly alludes to Quentin’s exploits with the man in the red tie, but he never explicitly mentions it to Mrs. Compson. Finally Quentin explodes angrily, asking Mrs. Compson why Jason treats her so badly. She says it is Jason who makes her misbehave. Mrs. Compson dithers and Miss Quentin leaves the table, saying she wishes she was dead.

Mrs. Compson then complains about how she doesn’t understand Miss Quentin, and how none of her family loved her except for Jason. Mrs. Compson says Quentin is probably studying in her room, but Jason suspects she is up to something. Jason hears Benjy snoring, and he thinks about how Benjy was castrated after he attacked the schoolgirls. Jason finishes by saying he is just trying to get his fair share, and wants a chance to get his money back.