Jewel is one of sons of Addie in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying. Jewel has one passage in the entire book but through other characters he may be seen as one of the easiest to pass judgment on. He is a loner throughout the entire book and it is clear he doesn't really fit in with the Bundren family. Although this may seem to be a choice, it also may be somewhat forced upon him for many different reasons.
The name Jewel is one of the key details to his character. It seems clear through other characters descriptions of him that Jewel was treated differently by his mother while she was alive and this is one of the reasons why there seems to be a distance between him and the other characters. Darl says "ma always whipped and petted him more" (18) demonstrating that it always was recognized by his brother that he was treated different and suggesting that the other children probably noticed as well which goes back to his name "Jewel". Compared to the others names Jewel's name is very different. Jewel can represent many different things; first of all it is very feminine compared to all the other names of Addie's children, even Dewey Dell, who is the girl of the family. This may suggest that he was babied. Jewel could also suggest wealth or money, which the family is lacking. Lastly it may suggest favoritism as in he was his mothers "Jewel". All of these ideas still suggest one main idea, he is different than the rest of his family.
Jewels name is not the only thing that makes him different however. Jewel is a half brother to all the others and is not Anse's son which becomes clear after reading Addie's passage. This may also be one of the reasons why Jewel acts so distant throughout the story, and doesn't really act the way the others do, just as how he is treated differently by the others. An example of this is when Jewel sneaks off at night and works for someone else to buy his horse. His mother is unaware of why he is sneaking off but she still goes out of her way to hide what is going on and baby Jewel while he is tired, or when he misses dinner. When his family finds out what he has been doing it puts more distance between him and the rest of the family because he is not acting as a team player the way the others do, and it can be seen as him taking money away from the family for selfish reasons.
Even after Addie's death Jewel still acts distant from his family. There is a lot of ambiguity about the actual motives of Jewel. One on hand it may be because of his overall resistance of how the family is treating his dead mother's corpse throughout the book, in this case he would be the only one to realize how wrong and morbid it is. He uses his horse to keep the distance between him and the family as he does not ride in the wagon with the rest of his family but on his horse instead. Once again he is acting as the odd one out. On the other hand Jewels motives may be completely selfish suggesting that he is not the one that loves her the most but the one that loves her the least instead. He does put her in a rough spot while she is alive even after she treats him so special, suggesting maybe he is spoiled and selfish. And in this case the reader can focus on how by putting space between him and his family after Addie's death he is also putting distance between himself and his mother.
Overall Jewels character is very different than the rest of the characters. And it is not completely by choice. He plays an important role in the book even though he doesn't speak as much as the other characters. The reader is able to learn a lot about him through interpretation of details and the opinions of others. But there is a lot that is still ambiguous and left open to interpretation about his character creating more to the story and more places where it is necessary to fill in the blanks. Jewel is important to the development of other characters as well as he allows us to step away from the family and question them, as well as Addie and why she was the way she was when she was alive.
