Isolation of Jewel Bundren
Isolation of Jewel Bundren
Introduction
In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, the Bundren family that is made up of exceptional members get introduced. At the start of the novel, Addie Bundren, the mother of the family is on her deathbed. The family journeys throughout the country looking for a right place of rest for their mother. Addie is Anse Bundren’s wife. He has terrible fatherly skills and behaves selfishly. The author also introduces the family children; Cash, Darl, Vardaman, Jewel, and Dewey Dell all of whom share a mother. Jewel is not Anse’s son; he is a product of an affair her mother had with a minister. Jewel shares similarities with his brother Darl though their character, actions, and views differ.
Jewel is his mother’s favorite compared to other siblings despite him not returning the love he gets from the mother, primarily when she was still alive. Given that he was what Addie contemplates to be true love, she ends up doting on him, taking care of him better than other siblings. The notion of love according to Addie is dependent on her belief in action. Jewel is forced to reject the love of her mother on discovering his origin. On the other hand, the other siblings were striving to compete for the attention of their mother (Spavento pg. 71). Jewel and Darl do not always get along to the extent that out of jealousy Darl makes fun of him. At some point, Darl tries to isolate Jewel from her dying mother. Darl has a telepathic ability a characteristic that makes a character describe occurrences in other locations other than where he is.
