The Sound and the Fury

by William Faulkner

I could hear my watch whenever the car stopped, but not often they were already eating Who would play a Eating the business of eating inside of you space too space and time confused Stomach saying noon brain saying eat

Quentin's thoughts are disjointed and unfocused. He is sometimes straightforward, but when his pocket watch ticks, he loses his mind. The absence of punctuation highlights this, as even his single thought, summarised as follows: "Who would play a," is cut off abruptly.

Then it was past.

What was passed? Quentin's episode of madness? The thought of someone playing (an instrument) possibly at Caddy's wedding? His vexation at people eating on the interurban? "Stomach saying noon brain saying eat". Quentin's curse is time. It is his intellectual despair. It is not how a normal person measures time with a watch. Quentin measures time by the loud tick of his pocket watch. He feels noon? Why? The sun has reached its zenith; the stomach rumbles.