Jewel Bundren
Text:
Character Key:
Display Name:
Jewel Bundren
Sort Name:
Bundren, Jewel
Parent:
Race:
White
Gender:
Male
Class:
Lower Class
Rank:
Major
Vitality:
Alive
Occupation:
Farming
Specific Job:
Farming
First Mentioned:
Date of Birth:
Friday, January 1, 1904 to Friday, December 31, 1909
Origin:
Yoknapatawpha
Narrator:
Stream of Consciousness
Biography:
Jewel is Addie's third - and favorite - child, illegitimately conceived with Reverend Whitfield. We know he is "a head taller than any of the rest" of the family (17), and the other narrators often reference his eyes to describe the intensity of his nature; they "look like pale wood in his high-blooded face" (17). While the Bundren family has always had mules, he worked hard to acquire a horse, which he rides with pride and skill. Throughout the narrative he is quietly, though violently, angry. His sole monologue highlights his sense of estrangement from the family and the neighbors, from everyone except his mother.
Note:
Jewel works for wages for Mr. Quick to buy his horse, however, we might also argue, as with the rest of the Bundren clan that he is financially dependent on Anse and the farm. For his birth date, we are told on page 234 that he “came” ten years after Cash and Darl. Based on this and our deduction for Darl’s birth, we have come up with a range. I was conflicted on whether Jewel’s narration is first person or stream of consciousness but as it seems to be an obsessive recycling of thoughts and starts in what appears to be the middle of a thought, without introduction, I have decided on stream of consciousness.
Financial Status:
laborer (works for wages)
financially dependent
Individual or Group:
Individual
Character changes class in this text:
digyok:node/character/5645