Cambridge Inset: Picnic Site in The Sound and the Fury (Location)

Mrs. Bland takes her son Gerald, two young women, Spoade, Shreve and finally (after he is released by the magistrate) Quentin somewhere for an outdoor "party" (168). The location is not specified, and the fact that Quentin's mind is "in" Mississippi and his past for almost the entire scene does not make it any clearer where they are in Massachusetts. They do not seem far from the Italian neighborhood. There is a house nearby, and when Quentin leaves to catch a "trolley" back to Harvard, he walks "across the yard," "around the house," "down a rock path" and "through a gate, onto the road" (168). The trolley he takes runs past the river. But the place we put this spot on the map is purely speculative.