Jewel is one of the most significant characters in the novel, even though he only has one narration throughout the story. Jewel is the only of Addie’s children who has a different father than the rest. Jewel has a deep and inexpressible love for his mother. Jewel seems to have the most violent nature of all the Bundrens. However, he is not a Bundren because he is Addie’s son who was born from an adulterous affair between her and Reverend Whitfield. Jewel is a person who feels violently and can only express himself through acts of violence. Because of this, he is unable to express his love, for his mother, in any way except violence. Also, because of his violent nature, we only observe Jewel in symbols of violence, and mostly from the narration of other characters.
Jewel is unable to face any type of reality where his mother is concerned. He refuses to believe that she is dying, and he refuses to say the word “coffin” because it is a symbol of his mother’s death. As far as Darl is concerned, Jewel is this way because Jewel doesn’t know how to express his love, and he speaks with harshness so that he can cover up the fact that he can’t say the word “coffin”. Jewel’s deep and inexpressible love for his mother is constantly the basis of Darl’s taunting. Darl finds a delight in taunting, teasing, and antagonizing Jewel, possible because he can sense the deep-founded love between Jewel and Addie. He is possible Jewel of this relationship that Jewel and his mother share. He could also be jealous of the fact that Addie is more partial to Jewel; she shows favoritism to Jewel, moreso than her other children. She does things for Jewel in secret, even though she has always felt that deceit was one of the worst sins that could ever be committed. Despite her hatred of deceit, she does things secretly for Jewel, maybe because she feels that Jewel will be her salvation, which she states. She says that Jewel will save her from the water and from the fire, which he did. Jewel saved his mother’s coffin/body form the river and from the burning barn. Also, Jewel sells his horse, the symbol of his love for his mother, so that the funeral procession can continue. This is what made Jewel be Addie’s salvation.
Jewel’s relationship with his horse is one of the central ideas in the novel. Jewel acts with violence toward his horse, but beneath the violence there is a sense of deep devotion to the animal. Because Jewel is unable to express his love for his mother, he substitutes all of his deep-rooted, violent, but inexpressible love for his mother in his horse. For this reason, Darl taunted Jewel by saying that Jewel’s mother is a horse, indicating that Jewel devotes all the love he possesses for his mother on the horse. The horse is violent and untamed, and Addie thought Jewel was conceived in violence, which could make the horse be a symbol of the circumstances under which Jewel was conceived. This could also be the reason that Jewel expresses his love for his mother in terms of violence.
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I also did my character analysis on Jewel! But I didn't look into his violent nature like you did. I think you definetely brought up a lot of points that I didn't even think about for instance I didn't make the connection between the horse and Addie until reading this but now that you brought it up it does make a lot of sense, and I can definetely see the parellels. Its like the horse was meant to foreshadow Jewel's love for not only Addie but his family overall because throughout the book he seems so harsh and its questionable whether he cares for his mother or family at all but in the end when I finished reading it was clear to me that he really did care about Addie and Cash and everyone else he just expressed himself a lot differently then I guess a reader would normally suspect. Just like how he loved his horse but treated it very harshly throughout the story. I think this is really important to the story because by making these parrellels it helps to read more between the lines into Jewels character. Thanks!
I never would have thought 2 look into the violent nature that Jewel had. that was really inshightful I do like the idea that you extend to the his conception. I wondered if the idea of the violence with the horse was the feeling that he didn't feel as though he deserved the love an consideration that his mother showed him. I do have to agree that he commonly was unable to express his feelings and his love for anyone, including his mother. I really liked that you read into the quote from her that said that Jewel was going to be her salvation. I thought that it was a very important quote but i couldn't find a way to incorporate it properly into my character analysis. I liked it though, it was helpful to find someone who did.
I agree in many ways with your analysis on Jewel. He is very violent in many ways. Jewel seems to lack to the ability to express himself, his love and affection he feels towards others, specifically Addie and his horse. Jewel has a special connection with Addie. Throughout the novel, Jewel sacrifices for his mother when he gives up his horse and risks his life in the water and burning barn to save her corpse. Likewise, Addie sacrifices for Jewel when she lies for him despite her firm feelings against lying. Jewel seems so tense and upset all of the time almost unable to function in a state of happiness with the rest of the world. Jewel plays and important role in As I Lay Dying and he demonstrates how tough facing reality can be and the difficulty of dealing with strong emotions!
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