Who killed Jacky Jarvis

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Who killed Jacky Jarvis?
The protagonist in the novel ‘On Agate Hill’ by Lee Smith is Molly who was an orphaned teenager. She lived with her widowed uncle Junius in the estate known as Agate Hill that belonged to the uncle. Molly lost her family in a civil war and got education in spite of her background and the unpleasant headmistress. Her life’s secrets are revealed by the words that she made as well as the letters and ballads that she wrote. The paragraphs below argue that Molly probably killed Jacky Jarvis.
The first part of the novel is narrated through a diary of Molly. Her life involved hiding in the roof space, playing pixie and being commanded by the housekeeper who finally got married to her uncle. The second part shows how Molly attended school with the help of Simon who made himself Molly’s benefactor. Unfortunately, Molly was so much hated by the headmistress who always despised her and this made her drop out of school. Molly’s diary acts as the framework for the novel. She met Jacky Jarvis, a banjo player, during a house party at Martha’s house. Jacky persuaded Molly to take her to a cliff that was located beyond the bone valley. As soon as they arrived, there came a lightning storm that made them to escape by entering a cave, which was found in the man-bone rock. After a few days, Molly followed Jacky to his tree which was hollow. Surprisingly, they lay down together and what followed was Jacky’s proposal to Molly, who definitely agreed.
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In part four of the novel, ‘Black Jack’, Jacky’s brother, gave evidence on crime which took place about twenty five years before, and the crime was associated with certain events that took place during that time. For instance, it is the time when Jacky brought Molly back to the rag mountain. Molly attracted everyone especially when working in the store that belonged to Jacky. In addition, she acted as a nurse. Unfortunately, Molly’s four children died and the children’s gravestones made Jacky say, “What a fine crop of babies I am raising” (Smith 111). Ultimately, Jacky initiated a relationship with Hinshaw and black Jack showed his love for Molly. After a few days, Jacky passed away in a fire that burnt his store building and the story concludes that Molly had gone to the building when it was burning so that he could offer aid to Jacky.
Molly might have killed Jacky because it is not apparent whether he had gone there to rescue Jackie or he is the one who lit the store. There is a possibility that Molly killed Jacky because he left her and developed another relationship with Icy Hinshaw. Therefore, she might have decided to revenge.
In part five, Molly got freed from jail and went back home since she had been accused of killing Jacky. She decided to offer his house to Icy and her children, who belonged to Jacky. According to me, Molly decided to give Icy and her children the house since she felt guilty after killing Jacky. Agate hill estate had already been bought by Simon, who later died. Simon had written very many letters to Molly on how he adored and treasured her.
Molly also wrote letters in 1927 that answered questions on how Jacky’s death occurred as well as how fate occurred to other characters. It means that Molly knew everything about Jacky’s death and that is why she could write letters on how the death occurred. So, she might have been involved in it.
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In the novel, Lee Smith, clearly shows how orthodox Christianity was oppressive and not fulfilling to women. Traditional Christianity in the novel has been associated with negative feelings and thus the characters do not follow any God’s teachings. This can be seen clearly when Molly calls the local minister “an old sourpuss Presbyterian” (Smith 200). To make it worse, she continues to say that “he has got a poker up his ass” (Smith 200). This clearly depicts negative characters of Molly thus indicating that she was capable of doing anything unpleasant including the killing of Jacky.
The most common themes in this novel are loss and survival. The theme of loss has been portrayed in many parts of the novel. To start with, Molly lost both her parents and all her siblings when she was still young. This made her believe that she lived in a house that was full of ghosts. She later lost her uncle and was left in the hands of her aunt who really despised and tortured her in front of other people.
Molly survived the hard times but was lucky to join a boarding school whereby the headmistress was so tough on her. She eventually dropped out of school thus lost her education opportunity. Moreover, Molly lost her first boyfriend after she met a charming handsome man, Jacky Jarvis. Unluckily, the man left him after sometime because she was giving birth to stillborn babies. The author emphasizes this by describing the tiny graves where the babies were buried by saying that, “just a row of rock babies up on the mountain like