The Favorite

Jewel is Addie Bundren's favorite.

There. Now we can move forward.

Addie claims Jewel. The other children, according to her, "are his and not mine." It doesn't matter who his is (it's Anse), only that they are not hers. Jewel is hers. Only Jewel.

On the flip side, it is Jewel, way back in section 4, way back in the only section he narrates, who claims "[i]t would just be me and her on a high hill and me rolling the rocks down the hill at their faces." It doesn't matter who their is (Anse, Cash, Darl, Dewey Dell, Vardaman, Vernon, Cora, Kate, Eula, the rest of mankind), only that he and his mom are together. Just he and his mom. Just mom.

A great family is the best possibe kind of blessing we have a chance at on this earth. But families are tricky things. They are not always great, and even when they are, they sometimes represent poisonous things. Like competition. Exclusivity. Love itself, or at least a corrupted form of it, like needing it to the detriment of others, like an addict.

Addie Bundren, by the way, represents corrupted love. Or lack. Either way, she represents bad, gentle reader. Let us lean on the vague for a moment:

Jewel is the favorite son. For awful reasons. And I wonder if he knows that about himself. I wonder if that is the root of all his anger. I want to get on board with his absolute loyalty, his fierce love, his unequaled devotion. But I hesitate, because I worry about the source of these things.

If it is love, then I applaud you, Jewel.

I do not know that it is love.