In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying the Bundren family must travel to Jefferson in order to fulfill their late mother's final wish. The titular character of Jewel is greatly affected by the death of his beloved mother due to the unexpected development it thrust him into. By the end of the novel Jewel gains emotional independence, and finally relieves himself of his internal violence caused by the psychological turmoil relating to his love for Addie by realizing that life is nothing more than suffering, and ultimate relief is derived from death. This evident from Jewels relationship with Addie, and the subsequent events following his mother’s death. Jewels frequent internal and external feelings of violence were caused by not only his love for Addie, but the relationship the two shared. Jewel …show more content…
For Addie it is because Jewel is her own child, and not Anse’s; However in Jewel’s case he has what Tyson would call an oedipal fixation, which is, “A dysfunctional bond with a parent [the mother] that we don’t outgrow in adulthood and that doesn’t allow us to develop mature relationships with our peers” (16). This complex is the reason why Jewel is incapable of forming relationships with his family. For example, Jewels relationship with Cash; Jewel’s complains about Cash, and how he is building Addie’s coffin in front of her: “See what a good one I am making for you” (Faulkner 16). Jewel mocks Cash in this instance because he is overly possessive of his mother and is incapable of understanding that this is Cash’s way of expressing his love; highlighting Jewels ornery traits. Furthermore, Tyson introduces the thought of condensation, which is the idea that, “we use a single dream image or event to represent more than one unconscious wound or conflict.”(18). In Jewels only section of the novel he depicts a dream he had where he is with his mother alone in the hills where she can rest in peace while he
Jewel has some less-than-healthy fascination with his horse. While he frequently beats it about the head, he still refers to it as a “’sweet son of a bitch’” (13). He was willing to work all night every night for weeks in order to buy the horse, and he disappears for a while when Anse barters it for the new team.
“God’s will be done, now I can get teeth,” Anse says after Addie’s death. To some people, it may seem weird that someone wants new teeth, and to others, it might make them wonder if he’s sad about his wife’s death. Anse Bundren, a middle-aged man, has a reputation of being a lazy and selfish person. But how does that play a role in As I Lay Dying? How has Anse’s relationship with his family, his wife, and himself affect the outcome of the story? Another thing about Anse is his view of Addie’s death. How has Anse Bundren become dead in the story, but is really still alive?
Jewel, Addie's second favorite next to Cash, seems to be cursed by his callous mother.
... there is a direct correlation between Jewel's treatment of his horse and his ambitions. He is opposed to the family sitting by the bed and watching Addie die and cash sawing away at Anse' coffin. But at the same time he tells Darl to shut up when Darl raises an objection to the three dollar trip Addie tells them to make.
During his journey to the burial site of his wife, he always was worrying about his well being before the family’s well being. The only reason that he decided to carry out Addie’s wish was that he wanted to improve his image by getting false teeth. He did care for his wife, but this caring was overshadowed by his love to improve himself.
“As I Lay Dying, read as the dramatic confrontation of words and actions, presents Faulkner’s allegory of the limits of talent” (Jacobi). William Faulkner uses many different themes that make this novel a great book. Faulkner shows his talent by uses different scenarios, which makes the book not only comedic but informational on the human mind. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is a great book that illustrates great themes and examples. Faulkner illustrates different character and theme dynamics throughout the entire novel, which makes the book a humorous yet emotional roller coaster. Faulkner illustrates the sense of identity, alienation, and the results of physical and mental death to show what he thinks of the human mind.
Early in the book, Faulkner Throughout the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, the reader views Jewel as the most aggressive of Addie Bundren’s children. He is constantly arguing with his brothers, sister and father as they make their journey to Jefferson to bury his mother Addie, and he nearly gets in a knife fight when they reach town. Because of his angry responses and bad language it can be hard to recognize the significant impact Jewel has on his family. Jewel is courageous and sacrifices for his family even if the other Bundrens do not acknowledge or honor him for his actions. Jewel may not the most balanced son in the world, but neither are his siblings, and he shows throughout the forty-mile trip to his mother’s hometown of Jefferson that he wants to honor his mother’s wishes. Addie wanted to be buried in Jefferson, and without Jewel this would not have happened. In terms of his actions, Jewel shows that he loved his mother the most out of all her children. Cora argues that Jewel is the worst of the Bundren children though Addie also treated him as her favorite:
Jewel, Addie's son by Whitfield, is 18 years old. Like Pearl, the product of Hester Prynne's adulterous affair in Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel The Scarlet Letter, Jewel's name is a symbol of the value his mother places on him. The favoritism that Addie showed him is responsible for the antagonism between him and Darl. Jewel personifies Addie's preference for experience over words. He is always in motion. He expresses himself best through actions. When he verbalizes his love for Addie- in his single monologue- he does so with a violent fantasy about hurling down stones on outsiders. Elsewhere, he expresses his love for her through deeds, not words.
In As I Lay Dying (1930), Faulkner creates the deceitful, insensitive character, Anse Bundren, who will do anything to get what he wants, even if it means stealing and injuring his own children, symbolizing the avarice and apathy that can result from a world of non education, poverty, and overall suffering.
First of all, Julie is an insecure individual. When Julie meets with her boyfriend, he says that her real name Jewel “sounds like one of those names from the soap opera my mom likes to watch. My dad says they are garbage.” This results in Julie yelling at her mom when mom calls her Jewel. Julie states that a jewel is “something you buy in a gem shop.” By questioning her own name, Julie is showing the reader how she is
When the family arrives in Welch, they notice that their newly purchased house is dull-looking and depressing, matching their moods when they first start living there. Jeannette notices that their glum house is contributing to their glum moods so she suggests painting the house yellow, a colour that is symbolic of happiness, to try and boost morale. Nobody in her family is willing to help so she paints by herself and notices an improvement in the look of their house. Unfortunately, she leaves the paint outside in the wintertime causing it to freeze, meaning that she is unable to finish painting the house. One day while playing outside, Jeannette and her brother stumble upon a diamond wedding ring lying on the ground. The wedding ring symbolizes hope to the children because they realize that it can be sold for a substantial amount of money. They bring the ring to their mother and tell her that, “it could get [them] a lot of food” (185), to which she replies, “but it could also improve my self-esteem. And at times like these, self-esteem is even more vital than food” (185). Rose Mary decides to keep the ring because she values her own selfish needs over the welfare of her children. Both the yellow paint and the ring represent positive changes for the family but neither of them ends up actually changing their
In Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying we can meet with 15 different characters, who narrate the story from own perspective. One of those characters is Dewey Dell, to whom life changed completely after mother’s death. She is the only girl in the Bundren family of boys and on top of all, she is pregnant. Owing to the consequence of the affair, she is much more interested in getting rid of her pregnancy than her mother’s funeral. However, the situation is not easy for her, because she doesn’t want this child and she can’t talk about her secret with anyone. She approaches the world in her own, unclear way, which is partially shaped through circumstances she grew up. At once, she has to cope not just with the consequences of her romance, but also she has to accept a new role of mother and women in the house of the Bundren family. While other relatives have chance to manifest their feelings about the journey to Jefferson, she is ignored and feels rather alone.She is looking for a solution from her precarious situation, but she fails all the way. Her childish and artless nature is suddenly forced to behave as a woman, who seems to be lost. Therefore, the character of Dewey Dell becomes a victim of the whole story.
Similarly, he knew Dewey Dell was pregnant because he had seen her with Lafe, and he also knew that Jewel was illegitimate. Nevertheless, he was regarded as strange. Cora Tull says, he was "the one that folks says is queer, lazy, pottering about the place no better than Anse." Out of jealousy, he constantly taunted Jewel, Addie's favorite child. Except for Jewel, he alone among the Bundrens had no hidden motive for wanting to go to Jefferson.
That shows a lot how much money means to her. Thinking of herself, she asks that same friend if she can loan her some jewelry for this extremely elegant party she will be attending with her husband. Out of all her friend’s jewelry, she chose the most expensive looking necklace. But before asking her friend for the jewelry, she had told her husband that she did not want to go to the party because she did not have an appropriate dress. So her husband willingly gave her all his money, in which he had saved up for his own happiness. He gave her that so she could be happy, but that wasn't enough for her. She needed more. She needed jewelry now. So her altruistic friend happily loaned her the necklace.
Furthermore, the lifestyle both women want ends up in disaster however, one ends in death while the other in hard labor. In "The Necklace", the wife ends up losing her friend’s expensive necklace which causes her to work hard to earn enough money to pay of a new one. Due to all the work she loses her beauty. In contrast, whereas in "The Jewels" the constant attendance of the opera house during the winter causes her to die of inflammation which resulted a deep sorrow towards the husband. Both wife’s lived life differently. Both tries to find the best way to fulfill their desire for the good