Reading this chapter I found Jason’s sociopathic, dominating behavior very interesting. It all began with violence out of love. Infuriated upon finding out about you-know-who skipping school, he was livid, going as far as to threaten to whip her with a belt. You can see the concern, but like everything else he does, the ends do not justify the means. Finding out about Lorraine just proved his superiority complex more than any other. Jason sits there, almost expecting me to feel the pain of why all women are “bitches.” Then you tell me you associate with a woman that you know is with you for your money and calls you “daddy”. By the way you like to say money “has no value” (194) and isn’t important, but then black mail your sister for vast amounts of it. You say it’s to keep them in line but I don’t know where to think your motivations lie. Obviously you hate women more than the idea of money but its insanity. Most of his motivations seem to revolve around this theory that all women have something to prove to him. I don’t think there is any woman that can prove her worth enough. When Quentin grows up I’m sure it’s just a matter of time before she’s on the list. Look at poor Dilsey, this scene killed me, he convinced her she had leprosy. He knows that everyone in the house will catch on to why she can’t look them in the face, but he didn’t care. It’s all about now. Now in controlling you through the bible, now he’s controlling his sister for that money, now he’s telling this woman he will see her again.

Going back to the money “has no value” quote, I think money is more important to him than he cares to admit. Maybe it’s just Caddy’s money, but in his eyes, he is the breadwinner and gatekeeper of their home, and the gatekeeper for a child that isn’t even his. Maybe it’s the fact that he doesn’t know where all this money comes from, but it just seems likely he is forcing himself to be needed in the weirdest way possible. Manipulating people others is the only way he can seem to control his life. He knows he can manipulate Disley by her god-fearing attitude, he knows he can manipulate his mother by constantly convincing her of Caddy being evil, he can manipulate Caddy with her daughter, and he can certainly manipulate some idiot harlot with money. He learned to manipulate people when he had the means to. He always was the tattle-tale because that was his only means at power at the time. Now he’s an adult, the breadwinner, it’s either Jason or the poorhouse. It’s just sick, but I love him for it, what malicious behavior. Maybe it’s because I’m a psychology major, but I just love how he’s so quick to pick up subtle things and use it to his advantage.