Jewel

the 1st ? i had while reading this book regarded Jewel and it was a pressing question that really engulfed me as i was reading causing me 2 b really excited when i was able to write on Jewel fer my character analysis. way back at his section on page 14-15 i asked if he was an atheist because he asks. “if there is a God, what the hell is HHHHe for?” now as i sit here i realize that the same question is staring me in the face. from what i’ve read i come up w/the answer, maybe he is. he doesn’t show the same reverence that the other characters seem to show and tends to use the phrase, “Goddamn” a lot. like in the scene where he’s taming his horse. Darl ‘splains that he constantly yells and hits the horse, using the phrase, “Pick up, goddamn your thicknosed soul!” (97) causing us to realize that not only does he not have a very x-tian mouth, but his actions aren’t very x-tian either.
Jewel is further chrarcterized by the fact that he’s not one of Anse’s sons and generally doesn’t act like he’s actually part of the Bundren family. 4 ex in the beginning one of the 1st thins Dewey Dell says is, “And Jewel dont care about anything he is not kin to us in caring, not carin-kin” (26). this st8ment in the beginning gives us the idea that he is very different from the rest of the Bundren family. Tull also explains how Jewel is always off by himself and rather than helping the family, worked to get $ to buy his horse. it’s further ex through the passage that Samson has when Quick says, “’There’s one of them Snopes horses Jewel’s riding.’…. ‘He bought it from pappy’” (112-113). this shows that Jewel is more concerned with his horse than with the rest of his family. the outsiders characterize him through ex how he got his horse not how he acts or where he belongs in the family. this idea is furthered through Darl’s st8ment to Vardaman that Jewel’s mother is a horse. that seems to b the culmination of it all, the person that seems 2 b the leader of the family st8ing that his mother is a horse.
Jewel does have a couple surprises in him for us though. within the passages about the river x-ing, we find that Jewel does indeed care bout his family even if he hadn’t showed it earlier. In the beginning of Darl’s excerpts, Jewel is the same old, not caring, off on his own person that we saw through the beginnin of the book, but then he changes. he becomes the only one in the family really working 2 get the wagon across and then to get Cash’s tools out of the river. he goes into the water many times; even going under to retrieve the saw, which is apparently dangerous since Dewey Dell whimpers his name as he dives to get the saw. this shows that even though he doesn’t constantly show affection for his fam, he does indeed care bout them.
through this ex of Jewel we see that he is a distant, possibly atheist soul who ex the phrase “still waters run deep”. he may not constantly show that he cares, but deep down there is some strong emotion there.