Boomdaddy back here to talk about The Sound and the Fury again. This time I will be discussing the Jason chapter.
By far, this chapter was the easiest to read. Jason has a very straight-forward narration style with much fewer references to the past. He mostly stays in the present time. While Jason is the easiest narrator to understand, he is also the easiest narrator to hate. Make that: easiest character ti hate in the entire story. He is a harsh, cruel man and makes for the ideal bigot. He even lets you know right away what he is about with the first line of the chapter, "Once a bitch, always a bitch, what I say" (Faulkner). In the first paragraph alone, he lets the reader know his hatred for women and African Americans.
He is also very individualistic and wants nothing more than to make his image perfect in his mind, no matter who he hurts in the process. For example, he wants to put Benjy in the insane asylum as soon as he can because he thinks that Benjy ruins his image and embarrasses him. He is also ashamed of Caddy for leaving him to care for her illegitimate child, Miss Quentin, and losing his job offer at Herbert Head's bank when him and Caddy got divorced. Jason also refuses to give his tickets to Luster to go to a show and burns them right in front of him so he cannot go. He takes advantage of these characters especially because of the way they have "tarnished" his image.
However mean and twisted, Jason is quite clever. While Caddy believes that she is sending child support fund to Miss Quentin, Jason is embezzling the money from Caddy and uses it to pay for his mistress/prostitute. He has a mistress to curb his sexual needs, but otherwise, he did not look for human interaction at all.
Jason's intuition could be used to do some good in the world if he was not such a complete jerk. He has such an intelligent mind that it is just wasteful to spew such garbage and prejudice remarks. And to think, he was still Mrs. Compson's favorite child.
Hey boomdaddy. I like your analysis of Jason's cruelty. I agree that it makes him an ideal bigot. I also like how you say that he discriminates against the people he believes are tarnishing his image. Great use of vocabulary with "embezzeled." This really shows that you are doing your membean homework!! I think its unique how you pick out that Jason sees women as only objects of sexual importance. I agree with this, and even though he is messed up, Jason is a clever character.
ReplyDeleteThough Jason is a uniquely unlikable character I almost feel as though he is a caricature of the worst parts of old southern ideology --racism, sexism, cruelty and general intolerance-- instead of a real person. Also though Jason is clever in many ways his gambling and recklessness negate some of his intelligence. He also ignores the warnings of his boss when he says that he will tell his mother that he has been stealing from her, which is a stupid and arrogant move on his part.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing Boomer! Your blog was quite entertaining to read, and I agree completely with your view on him. He is exactly what comes to mind when you think of a bigot. He is the type of character that will make the audience cringe. Overall a great blog! Nice work!
ReplyDeleteNice voice :) I agree with how you said Faulkner portrays Jason as someone who is intelligent but uses it for bad. I think that exemplifies how being so wrapped up in your image should not be the focus of your life like Jason's.
ReplyDeleteFirst off, just let me say that I love how well you stayed true to your own character in this blog. I agree that "Once a bitch, always a bitch" is powerful and meaningful in establishing right off the bat that type of character Jason is. I also agree that he was a much easier read because he was so straight forward and stayed in the present time.
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