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Seminar On Jason

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In response to the seminar on Jason’s section, I would like to look at Jason and his car. Jason purchased his car with the money that his mother had given him to invest in the store. Jason obviously sees himself as an astute businessman. However, Jason must prefer the automobile to business as he pursues the purchase of a car rather than a stable career as part-owner of the store where he is an employee. There is something about owning a car that, to Jason, means more than owning part of a business. It is as if after losing the chance to have a position at the bank due to Caddy’s divorce Jason has found his lost manhood in the car. To achieve the control and independence that he seems to want so badly, Jason must purchase a car and a certain kind of car. The reader knows that Jason does not own a Ford, “I think too much of my car; I’m not going to hammer it to pieces like it was a ford” (238). To Jason, a Ford is obviously a cheap car and his more expensive car is necessary for him to attempt to retain the class status of the Compson’s that has dramatically declined since the Civil War. There is, however, a conflict between Jason and his car. Jason’s sense of smell is as sensitive as his brothers’. It is not the smell of trees, death, or …show more content…

Of course, the car fails in reclaiming the status that Jason desires. It also fails to reclaim the masculinity that Jason seems to be seeking and actually helps to reduce his masculinity and reveal his failures. Jason fails in his hunt for Quentin and the man in the red tie and is forced to hire an African-American to drive him home. The car becomes a symbol of his failed masculinity and in the end he is unable to drive the car that he is so proud of. He has been defeated by the very vehicle that was supposed to help him establish his place in

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