“I went to the dresser and took up the watch, with the face still down.  I tapped the crystal on the corner of the dresser and caught the fragments of glass in my hand and put them into the ashtray and twisted the hards off and put them in the tray.  The watch ticked on.  I turned the face up and the blank dial with little wheels clicking and clicking behind it, not knowing any better.”

  In this passage you can tell that Quentin was really bothered.  The watch being faced down sort of says that he’s not really worried about the time or for some reason he doesn’t want to know it.  He randomly breaks this watch that his grandfather gave to his father that his father gave to him.  After that he takes the hands off of the watch and puts the glass along with the hands in the ashtray.  The watch continued to tick which shows that time goes on and feels stuck in it.  He finally turns the watch over to see the time and the clock is still ticking, it almost seems as though he thought he was going to stop time.  

I think this passage is very significant when thinking about why Quentin kills himself eventually.  It says a lot about his character and sort of sets the mood for the rest of the chapter that he is narrating.  This reminds me of the part where he tells us about Caddy.  He is so stuck in the moments that he had with her, that he can’t move past it, therefore being stuck in time.  In real life this reminds me of two of my friends that during high school and this past fall commited suicide.  They both seemed really happy on the outside, but they obviously had some inner thoughts that were driving them crazy. The only way they see out is to die.  I think that is exactly how Quentin felt, that his memories were taking over his life allowing him to do nothing but be stuck in time, and it made him feel as though there was only one way out.  I think this beginning passage really helps us to get a good idea about Quentin.  It should if looked at the right way and not ignored, give us a good idea about how he feels and what is really bothering him.  The rest of the chapter he sort of ignores time and I think he finally sees what time it is towards the end.  This chapter is full of hidden meanings and starting right with the first paragraph, you just have to read into them, and I think the meanings behind the watch are a good indication of how the chapter is going to go.