Closure in The Sound and The Fury

At the end of The Sound and the Fury, the pear tree blooms on Easter Sunday. This ending scene provides closure for the novel because its characters and images represent hope and forgiveness. The pear tree represents original sin; Caddy's climbing it with her muddy drawers, which represent her loose affairs to come, and Quentin's (number 2) descending it to meet her lovers, etc. connect human sin with the tree, and therefore the tree is a symbol of sin. The pear tree finally blooms on Easter Sunday, now a sign of forgiveness, because of the significance of the day on which it bloomed. Easter Sunday is the day that Jesus rose from the dead after dying for the sins of the world. His resurrection was hope for the world, and so in the blooming of the pear tree, we see the sins of the characters forgiven and hope for the future.

Interesting factoid: This is not the first time that a pear tree (specifically) has been connected with Jesus or his dying, etc. The song, "The Twelve Days of Christmas," was written back in a time when Christians were persecuted and not allowed to practice their faith as a way to teach their children about the religion without actually speaking of it. "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me a partridge in a pear tree," in this line, the partridge in the pear tree represents Jesus on the cross. So, in this song the pear tree also acts as a symbol of sin and forgiveness, just as in The Sound and the Fury.