Jewel

Quote: “Watch it, hell,” Jewel says. “You get out of that wagon and let me have it. By God, if you’re afraid to drive it over……” His eyes are pale as two bleached chips in his face.

Explanation: This quote emphasizes Jewel’s disconnect from the entire family, and the devotion to his mother. His one-track mind only wants his mothers wish to be fulfilled in her Jackson burial. He tries to claim responsibility for the journey by himself, saying “let me have it”, because he believes that his mother is his responsibility and he believes no one loves her to the degree that he loves him. Jewel’s emotions are expressed mostly through descriptions of his eyes, and the loss of color in them, and he is infuriated in this passage, as his eyes are pale white.

Relating: I’m relating this passage to “Frances the Mute” by the Mars Volta. This song uses many water-related metaphors, as does this section, as well as the water being the ultimate barrier to the Bundren’s in their quest to bury Addie. The song also is essentially the description of a mother being killed, and her son’s alienation after her death. This mirrors Jewel, who is left motherless and confused in his life. 

Lyrics: It’s been thirteen seconds

Since you all last said

I’ve become the apparition

You predicted for my death

You said that flirting brings you

Closer to the end

You can bait into the water

But you’ll never get the hint

And like a stain of bricks goes

Dancing by your head

Plucked from an icebox

Grafted on my skin

My coat has hid the marks

Mink hits the shovel fix

Near the sway of pendulums

Boar abrasions and a kiss”

She said, “I’ll never let them hurt you

I’ll never let them in

What you took from me is mine

What is mine I’ll never give”

Mascara glass in the molar weeds

Herash,a serpent infancy

His eye patch pussed a gap of sand

Into his shine a sedative

More and more the dirt collects

You’ll never find her body now

Her closet festered in a secret air

Blonde underneath a blackened hair

He never knew the colony

Gestated in his bed

Mingle with the carnivores you’ve something both in common now

Till one day his wasted breath

Swollen throat and karma debt

Set foot inside a parlor, to find her drunken by receipts

He held her by the ankles

Gutted at the nave, yes gutted and depraves

He tied a rope around her legs

And let her hang for seven days

This never happened, but I saw you leave,

And crawl into a bed of broken windows

Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JOadp1H4j68

The only issue with the video is it cuts out 4 minutes of ambient noise in the beginning, which I feel ruins the effect of the song