Faulkner once said that all he wanted to do in The Sound and the Fury was to tell the story of a little girl who fell down and got her drawers muddy. The use of water in one way or another plays an important role throughout the novel. In chronological time, the earliest event in the novel involves the Compson children playing in the branch. Both Benjy and Quentin return to this scene several times. It is here that Caddy fell down and got her drawers muddy. This act symbolizes her later promiscuity and sexual acts — that is, Faulkner is correlating her muddy drawers of one age with the sexual act of a later age. The water here is an ironic reversal of the traditional use of water as a symbolic baptism, as a cleansing and purifying agent. Here, water offers a baptism that foreshadows a life of sin.
Later, when Caddy is fourteen to sixteen years old, Benjy follows Caddy up the stairs and tries to force her or push her into the bathroom in order to wash away her perfume, or sin. Here, water, functions as the traditional cleansing or purifying agent. Later, when Caddy has lost her virginity, Benjy tries to push her into the bathroom because he senses that something is wrong. Caddy cringes because she knows that no amount of washing can purify her. We find out later, however, in Quentin's section, that Caddy goes down to the branch and lies in the water, letting it run over her hips. This act symbolizes her desire to be pure again.
But water is also a "return-to-the-womb" symbol, as well as a death symbol; Quentin's suicide by drowning symbolizes both. This particular death also fits Quentin's personality. He is only a shadow of a true character, and as he leaps into the water, his own shadow from below rises up to meet him. Thus, suicide by water cleanses Quentin of all responsibility of having to live with the knowledge of Caddy's sin; it is also a type of return to the womb since Quentin has never been able to establish a meaningful relationship with his mother. And, furthermore, it was on a bridge overlooking the branch that Quentin had his disastrous talk with Dalton Ames. Clearly, water, as a motif, is important to all the Compson children — except Jason. But remember that Jason does not feel or sense sin or shame or the need to be purified.
