Mother and Jason

At the beginning of section three, with Jason as the narrator, we are able to observe the relationship between Jason and Mother. Through Quentin’s thoughts in the previous section, I believed that Jason and Mother’s relationship would be much different. From Quentin’s narrative we assume that the relationship between Mother and Jason is ideal—Jason is, by far, her favorite child and has never caused her any grief. This is shown when Quentin recalls a conversation with Mother and Father when Mother says, “I must go away you keep the others I’ll take Jason” and later, “Jason, he has never given me one moment’s sorrow since I first held him in my arms I knew that he was to be my joy and my salvation” (102, 103).

After our first look at Mother and Jason’s relationship, we see that Jason is not the perfect, compatible child we pictured. Rather, he is constantly arguing with Mother and Quentin about what should be done with Quentin. Perhaps mother continues to love Jason without question because he is the only one willing to stay at home and, essentially, raise Quentin for her. We later learn that Jason is also stealing money and lying about it.

Mother appears to be blind to the fact that Jason is stealing money, but many of his other undesirable actions toward her are obvious. Jason is clearly annoyed by her dramatic and emotional personality, but she is so blind with her love for him that she does not care or does not notice. So, why does Mother love Jason so much? Is Mother really blind to all of Jason’s actions? If not, why does she continue to love him? (270)