Jason, You Rascal: April 6th 1928

Alllllright Faulker, you got me good on this one. Jason's chapter begins with lucid writing, clear sentence structure, no traces of Quentin like lack of punctuation, or Benjy like time shifting, everything you could ask for, right? Well unfortunately Faulker made the clearest narrator the most arrogant. I have never felt this strongly about a character. If I ever saw Jason on the street I would sock him. Let's dwell on a couple Jason quotes.

• A cute line that Jason begins and ends the chapter with, "Once a bitch always a bitch." 
• "Just like a woman. Six days late. Yet they try to make men believe that they're capable of conducting a business." The most ironic thing about this quote is that he is referring to Caddy sending the Quentin's check late, that is the check that he is stealing from his own niece and using to put in stock. To top off his incredible lack of honesty and large amount of deceitfulness, he then decides to degrade women by claiming they are unfit for a working environment. 
• Referring to Jewish people, "It's just the race. You'll admit they produce nothing." 
• "If you can't think of any other way to surprise them, give them a bust in the jaw." Jason is referring to Lorraine, his favorite prostitute, and, in general, how to deal with women. The way he nonchalantly suggests physical hurting women is vulgar.
• Although not a quote, Jason frequently refers to Benjy as "it." Example: "I'll quit work and nurse it myself.." Just fyi Jason, never refer to a person, let alone your little brother, as "it."
• "Like I say the only place for them is in the field, where they'd have to work from sunup to sun down. Let one stay around white people for awhile and he's not worth killing." Clearly Jason is racist and is not even slightly polite about his feelings for "inferior" races.

By now we have concluded that Jason is sexist, racist, demeaning, repulsive, and every other bad characteristic you can throw into the production of a character. The worst part about Jason's character is his influence on other people, specifically his mom Caroline. Caroline thinks Jason was sent down from the heavens, and she is always thanking her lucky stars for such a wonderful child. She claims Jason is the only one who isn't a "reproach" to her. Should we show her the quotes above? At one point when Jason says something rude to her, she even claims she "deserves it."

To enlighten you on the other attractive and appealing aspects of Jason, I will focus on three parts of his chapter. To begin, Jason tells Caddy she would be "better off dead" after tricking Caddy into paying money in order to see her own daughter. Jason, of course, drives by quickly and gives Caddy only a slight glance of Quentin, a cruel and evil move which only further explains to readers the atrociousness of Jason. Next, the part of the chapter when Jason not only refuses, but burns, tickets to a local show that Luster begs for is when I decided I genuinely hated Jason, despite the fact he is merely a character in a book. Lastly, Jason's immaturity and child like actions are evident when he refuses to eat his supper until Quentin and Caroline come downstairs and accompany him. In disregard to Dilsey's hard work in preparing his supper, he refuses to acknowledge supper is ready until he has the company of his niece and mother.

Ok, well sorry readers (reader?) if this blog post was more of a rant than a summary but my hatred for Jason did not simply end upon setting the book down. On a positive note, only one more chapter left ! woooo