It Don't Mean a Thing if it ain't got that Swing

In The Sound and the Fury, the swing underneath the tree seems to be a metaphor for the actual acts that take place in it. Cady has her rendevouss in that swing, and so does her daughter Miss Quentin. Both engage in acts of promiscuity in the swing. Caddy, and perhaps Miss Quentin, seem to be looking for an outlet of freedom or independece, yet their actions harbor just the opposite. By engaing in acts with these men, they have attached themselves, as well as they now have a need for the man for validation of some sort. They feel thay are being independant by making their own choice on the matter, yet they are only furthering thier dependence on others.
The girls' actions are like the swing. A swing moves back and forth, and may go higher and higher, but it never really goes anywhere at all. For a brief moment on a swing, one can feel as if they are soaring to the heights of elation, but the swing always comes to a stop. That flying feeling is fleeting. When the swing stops, you are in the same place you started, you have gone no where, and all you are left with is the memory.
Caddy and Miss Quentin, looking for an ecscape in the arms of men, feel as if they just might be rescued from the miserable morals of Southern society on the swing, but they are not. Just as the swing, moves but makes no progression, Caddy and Miss Quentin want to get away, but their actions only extend their roots further into the society from which they were trying to escape. They are stuck, feeling as though they are moving toward their goal, but never going anywhere.