The Mysterious Jewel in Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying Essay -- Faulkner’s

The Mysterious Jewel in Faulkners As I Lay DyingWilliam Faulkner loves to keep the reader guessing. One of his favorite narrative techniques is to mention at a topic and raise questions and then leave the reader dangling. We are unexpended with a void which we can not fill. The questions that the reader is left with will eventually be answered, only the reader will find the answers before Faulkner comes out and states what is by then the obvious. A good example is in As I Lay Dying where understanding the significance of Jewel is a major part of understanding the story. Jewel is introduced in the first lines of the story, but his character is presented as being different and set apart. We know who Darl is right a fashion. He is the narrator. What the relationship is among these two is unknown. The only clue that they may be brothers is their hats, but Jewels actions are set apart Jewel, fifteen feet behind me, looking straight ahead, steps in a single footfall through the window (4). The action of stepping through a window in a single stride is difficult to imagine being able to do oneself, and yet Jewel does staring straight ahead, his pale eyes like wood set into his wooden face(4). I am asking myself, who is this computerized tomography? Faulkner has set Jewel apart from the other characters.Faulkner heightens our curiosity about Jewel with the unusual scene with the horse. He captures his horse by diving into the air era the horse is rearing and pawing at him. He grabs onto the horses muzzle while in mid-air his whole body earthfree, horizontal, whipping snake-limber, until he finds the horses nostrils and touches earth again(12). After he catches the horse he doesnt put on a halter and lead the horse, or any way to control the anim... ...eople who dont know fear. Sin is just a word as well. Addie says that she has cleaned her house, and that was her life, that was getting ready to die. After Jewel was born she is set about with paying for her lifes mistakes I lying calm in the slow silence, getting ready to clean my house(176). She understands the words of her father completely. The simplicity of her life was spent getting ready to stay dead(175). Is the love hate relationship between Jewel and his horse similar to the relationship between Jewel and Addie? Cora tells us that Addie favored Jewel, but Addie says that she had two children that were hers before Jewel is born, and then she says, I gave Anse Dewy Dell to negative Jewel. Then I gave him Vardaman to tack the child I had robbed him of. And now he has three children that are his and not mine(176). Who are the three she is referring to?