Technically Jason is the most sane Compson brother. His chapter is written like any other book would be, with punctuation, grammar and sentence structure. However this doesn't make it any easier to read. I find Jason so despicable that I found myself skimming over the words just to get through this chapter. I think Jason is the most messed up out of Quentin and Benji. He wishes bad things to happen to others just because one wrong thing happened to him. He believes his own family is a burden to his success. His leading of the family is what shows that the Compson family is a wreak.
Jason likes to bully everyone around him because he feels sorry for himself. For example Lester wants to go to the puppet show in town but he has no money for a ticket. Jason has two tickets and tells Lester this but then decides to burn them in front of Lester. He also steals money from Quentin and his own family because he feels like he deserves it. He is racist and sexist. He believes black people are lesser and cannot do anything right. This is shown especially when he bullies the black man he works with at the farmers store. Jason does these things because he wants other to feel as bad as he does. He believes his current situation in life is not his fault. He blames everything that has gone wrong on someone else. He blames Caddy for losing his job at the bank even though he would have never gotten the job without Caddy in the first place. He blames his inability to get an education on Quentin because his parents would rather pay for Quentin to go to Harvard than Jason go to school. He blames his families embarrassment and downfall on Benji and wants to send him to an institution. His own mother is a burden to him. Jason spends his time feeing sorry for himself and stealing the money he thinks he deserves.
Some of you may wonder why Faulkner even added the character Jason into his book? There seems to be no point to Jason other than him being a jerk. However he is important because he help us realize how messed up the Compson family is now. The family used to he prestigious, they come from a long line of generals and old southern money. However now the family is run by a corrupt man who works in a farmers supply store. The old south is gone.
I agree that Jason is indeed the most messed up Compson brother... Quentin with his mental illness, and Benjy with his disabilities, Jason is perfectly 'sane', however he struggles the most with relationships and finding acceptance. I liked your analysis that Jason was a narrator/character for the sole purpose of realizing the Compson downfall.
ReplyDeleteI had never considered that maybe Jason is so cruel because he is simply feeling sorry for himself and wallowing in all that is wrong. I just assumed he was born that way. But that's an interesting idea.
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