Jason Chapter

Jason is the controlling, greedy, and narcissistic Compson son. He is a truly unlikeable character and has no redeeming qualities. As we discussed in class, Jason represents the old South. He seeks money, status, and power, especially over women and African Americans. Jason won’t take responsibility for any of his faults, and actually blames all of his problems on his sister Caddy.
Caddy’s daughter, Quentin, now lives with the Compsons. Each month, Caddy sends her daughter money, but Jason steals it. Opposite of his brothers, Jason is not obsessed with Caddy; in fact, he is ashamed of her and only values her money. He schemes his way through life– stealing Quentin’s money, lying to his mother about where he gets his money, and never actually working. He is terribly rude to Quentin and basically everyone he encounters, except for his mother, who thinks Jason is her one good child and the apple of her eye. However, this is far from the truth. Jason is bitter and simply malicious, as readers see when Luster wants to go to the show. Jason has two tickets he knows he won’t be using and decides to burn them in front of Luster just because he can. We also see these traits in the way he poorly treats Dilsey, the woman who practically raised him, just to exert dominance and prove that himself and white people are superior.
In one scene, Jason’s greed is clearly exemplified when he lies to Quentin about the money Caddy sent her. Caddy promised to send Jason money to help out with her daughter, but instead, Jason uses it for himself. This particular time, Quentin knows her mother sent a letter with money and comes looking for it. Caddy sent 50 dollars, but Jason tells Quentin she only sent 10 and bullies his niece into signing the order so he can keep the other 40 dollars for himself. Not only does he scam her, but he also constantly treats her with no respect, likely out of spite for Caddy.
I found Jason to be a morally wrong character with absolutely no redeeming qualities and a convincing example of why the old South needed to be reformed.

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