In Absalom, Absalom! the act of narration blurs the individuality of the characters. Quentin and Shreve lose their sense of self while telling the story of the Sutpens. They become the people whose story they tell, including Bon and Henry. The act of storytelling has a way of moving characters out of their identities and into a state of fluidity that allows storytellers to recreate the tale in a way that changes it from its original and gives it a newly invented life. telling stories makes Quentin think. He thinks Yes. Maybe we're both fathers. Maybe nothing ever happens just once and is finished, maybe it never happens just once… Yes, we are both Fathers. Or maybe Father and I are both Shreve, maybe it took Father and I both to create Shreve or Shreve and I both to create Father or maybe it took Thomas Sutpen to create us all. (210) Quentin thinks that perhaps our creations, including the stories we tell, are not separate but, perhaps, it takes all the tellings of a story to create it. As he is told and as he tells Sutpen's story, he creates Sutpen even though Sutpen already was. The mixing of selves also occurs again, such as when he says, “we are both fathers.” They are each other and themselves at the same time. They have to know each other so that they can be who they are. Without Quentin telling Shreve about his father, Mr. Compson would not exist for Shreve, so it takes "Shreve and [Quentin] both to become a father." Oral tradition is necessary to keep the past and legacy of the Sutpen family alive. The four boys, Quentin, Shreve, Henry and Bon, become mirrors of each other. They are referred to collectively, only by numbers and not by their names. At times, they come together to be... middle of paper... and other qualities to define her as a person, but for the purposes of the story, she only needs to to be “the octoron”. " to highlight the racial connotation of why Sutpen abandoned her and Bon. Recalling the fluidity of Quentin and Shreve's selves, they are referred to as "two" and "four" when including Bon and Henry, and so they have also lost their names and are just their numbers. The breaking down of what they are into pieces is similar to the breaking down of the Sutpens into only shadows of themselves. They are no longer wholes, but only images, projected by those who tell them, which do not constitute a true self. The act of narration, in Absalom, Absalom!, creates as much as it destroys. Although the narration brings the Sutpens, particularly Thomas, to life, it also breaks down what self is for Quentin and Henry and removes the individuality of others..