Quentin's back for a sequel! Or a prequel?

It only took a few pages for Faulkner to reveal that Quentin Compson would make an appearance in a completely different novel. Although Absalom, Absalom! was published after the Sound and the Fury (Quentin's first appearance), Absalom's events take place years before The Sound and the Fury, before and during his time at Harvard.

The reader stumbles upon the same old Quentin. Quentin is not Absalom's protagonist, but he is a main role player, and catalyst for the novel's events. Quentin seeks the truth in the same obsessive fashion that distinguished him from others characters in Fury. Quentin approaches the issue like a detective, seeking justice for his long gone grandfather. Thomas Sutpen is the protagonist of Absalom, Absalom!. Quentin follows his trail, futilely due to the different biased, and mythical accounts of several people who knew him. This only adds more mania to Quentin's manic ways.

Therefore, there is no evolution, or regression in Quentin. He is the exact same young man we witnessed rising and falling. His issues with Caddy are much more significant than anything presented to us in this novel, but Quentin's behavior is identical to that of Sound and the Fury. Faulkner seems to know Quentin so well, that his new portrayal in Absalom is completely accurate. Quentin, although arguably the most fatal character, is closest to Faulkner. Quentin and Faulkner share the same obsession with lineage, and family history. Both have a need to decipher things that were not even relevant to their time. Things they never witnessed afflicted them enough to find out the missing links, and filling out the mysterious void. Quentin, as a truth seeker for the sake of his own identity and demons, is relentless in his pursuit for Sutpen's true destruction, and General Compson's fall. Quentin, although assuming the role of narrator at times, is not a storyteller. Faulkner is the storyteller, and Quentin is his perfect medium, and vessel to express his innermost concerns and issues. I think that is why Faulkner felt so comfortable in including him in Absalom, Absalom! as well.