In William Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury"", it is evident that the historical context of this novel was greatly influenced by Mississippi, the area in which Faulkner spent most of life. The novel is set in 1910 and in 1928 during the post civil war pre-civil rights movement. The protagonists of the novel are the Compson's, a landowning family living in Faulkner's fictional county called Yoknapatawpha, which was inspired by northern Mississippi. The story mostly takes place at the family home and in the nearby town of Jefferson as well as Harvard University.

             Out of all the major characters in the novel, the life of Quentin Compson, the eldest of the Compson children, seemed greatly effected by southern culture and heritage. He's a very complex character and desperately tries to live up his heritage and its codes which ultimately results in a tragedy.

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             At his Southern home, Quentin did not have a good male role model. His father was an alcoholic who did not give the family any warmth or love. His grandfather on the other hand was different. He thought of his grandfather as an honorable and admirable person (especially because he was also a general in the Civil War), and he remembered his grandfather of always being right about many things. However the death of his grandfather left Quentin's memories of him unclear thus making him feel less stable.

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             Quentin, being the intelligent one in the family, is sent to the North to complete his education at Harvard. He feels extremely out of place and agonizes over the values of the North. He also gets ridiculed for being a virgin. Spoade, another student who was a southerner as well, constantly mocks him for his lack of sexual experience, even implying that Quentin might be gay. By being in this situation, Quentin becomes the "other" person and finds some sort of comfort in Deacon, an elderly black train porter who lived near Harvard. Quentin sees Deacon as a reminder of home and examines the way Deacon handles himself in the Northern setting.