We just read As I Lay Dying and I am sure there is a great deal to be said. Look at our characters. We have many different voices present and those voices are all unique. I want you to pick a character whose voice you like and a character you find interesting (only one).Pull a passage from the character's chapters that you see as an example or representation of who they are and what they stand for in this text. Type out the passage (choose a smallish section that is poignant) and break it down. Analyze this character and tell us why they matter.
“But Jewel’s mother is a horse. My mother is a fish. Darl says that when we come to the water again I might see her and Dewey Dell said, She’s in the box; how could she have got out? She got out through the holes I bored, into the water I said, and when we come to the water again I am going to see her. My mother is not in the box” (Vardaman pg 196)
ReplyDeleteThis passage comes from one of Vardaman’s sections, and it is a good representation of Vardaman’s innocence and imagination, which he has a lot of considering that he is a child. Vardaman’s imagination is emphasized as he constantly refers to his mother as a fish and to Jewel’s mother as a horse even though they have the same mother; this makes sense in his mind since he is child with a wild imagination, he doesn’t think logically and this allows him to look at situations with a different view. Vardaman’s imagination is also seen as he believes that his mother escaped the coffin through the holes that he drilled and returned to the water - which is her natural environment since she is a fish. Vardaman’s action of drilling holes into the coffin also serves as a demonstration of his innocence and lack of knowledge regarding death, considering that he believed that his mother would still need air after she was dead. Ultimately, Vardaman appears to be the only character in As I Lay Dying who does not have a complete understanding of death, causing him to have a different view on the novel’s events as compared to the other characters, and he shares those views - views in which people change form, in which others change or disappear when those people change, and where death is not quite an end of life - with the readers.
“I made it on the bevel.”
ReplyDelete1. There is more surface for the nails to grip.
2. There is twice the gripping-surface to each seam.
3.The water will have to seep into it on a slant. Water moves easiest up and down or straight across.
4. In a house people are upright two thirds of the time. So the seams and joints are made up-and-down. Because the stress is up- and-down.
5. In a bed where people lie down all the time, the joints and seams are made sideways, because the stress is sideways.
6. Except.
7. A body is not square like a crosstie.
8. Animal magnetism.
9. The animal magnetism of a dead body makes the stress come slanting, so the seams, and joints of a coffin are made on the bevel.
10. You can see by an old grave that the earth sinks down on the bevel.
11. While in a natural hole it sinks by the center, the stress being up-and-down.
12. So I made it on the bevel.
13. It makes a neater job. (Faulkner 82-83)
I believe that Cash has the most logic out of all of the characters. To me he sometimes seems to the only character that gives reasons. Like on page 82-83, he makes a list, he his a thorough thinker. He makes numerous amounts of sacrifices throughout the book for his family. Even with his leg being broken multiple times, he focused more on keeping up with his family rather than his own health. WHY DOES NOBODY LISTEN TO HIM! He is so quiet. But what’s the point? No one will listen, why not be quiet. It's always the quiet ones. He’s also the oldest, maybe he believes that he has to make great efforts to care for his family. It bothers me that his family not only ignores him but his completely unappreciative. I admire his love for his mother despite the fact that she does not return it to him. For him, creating the perfect coffin is his final gift to his mother. In his mind, it’s only logical that her final resting place be as clean and fit as possible. If I’m going to be honest he’s probably the only character that I like.
“Pa stands beside the bed. From behind his leg Vardaman peers, with his round head and his eyes round and his mouth beginning to open. She looks at pa; all her failing life appears to drain into her eyes, urgent, irremediable. ‘It’s Jewel she wants,’ Dewey Dell says” (47). - Darl
ReplyDeleteWhen I first read Darl's fifth chapter I was very confused. This is the first time we see Darl narrate when he is on his errand with Jewel. Darl seems to know what is going on back home, even though he is not present. Originally I thought he was just describing what he imagined the scene by his mother’s bedside to be, but the dialogue and description to follow proves he is not present. I found this passage most fitting as an explanation of Darl’s character. He is our omniscient narrator. The regular writing that in the chapter signifies Darl’s omniscient narration and the italics represent his physical presence. Darl is also the only person who knows Dewey Dell is pregnant. The reader tends to gather the most reliant and detailed information when Darl is the narrator. Jewel and Darl’s relationship helps aid in his characterization as well. Darl envies Addie’s adoration for Jewel while she was living. He proceeds to taunt Jewel because he is an illegitimate child and claims Jewel is not a real member of the family. Darl is the most logical thinker and his ability to justify his actions make him seem “crazy”. The final straw that leads him to the insane asylum is his gesture of relieving the burden of the journey to Jefferson off of his family’s shoulders. This act was meant to give his mother a proper cremation, however he is viewed as crazy. Darl’s omniscience and logical way of thinking is the best way to summarize his character.
“Sin and love and fear are just sounds that people who never sinned nor loved nor feared have for what they never had and cannot have until they forget the words.”
ReplyDeleteAddie is a mysterious character, yet also one who is very clear, definitively fulfilling her requirements in her role as a mother yet emotionally leaving her family numb. She is clearly very damaged, yet as Cora notes, “every woman is”, and it is often unclear (especially in her own chapter) whether or not she acknowledges this and understands that her feelings are not unique or if she truly feels alone and as if her own problems are special. Nonetheless, she martyrs herself, and even though others try to belittle her feelings, she recognizes the importance these emotions of unhappiness and loneliness for better or for worse. Nor does she try to mask them, and despite how her family obviously has difficulty coping with her death, it soon becomes clear that they were emotionally depraved and didn’t have the bond that one would expect; after all, Anse remarried before even burying her. She knew that she was only a convenience for him, and because of this distances herself from a family she feels does not appreciate nor really needs or loves her. In spite of this, her children clearly are upset by her death, to varying degrees. Strangely, when she dies, those closest to her are those emotionally more distant (Dewey Dell, Anse), while those outside (Vardaman, Cash) and even those farther away (Darl and Jewel) have increasingly strong feelings of love for her. Despite what they feel for Addie, the important thing to note is what Addie feels for them, and whether or not the family members actually had relationships with her or if they were just pretending, and throughout the novel, she judges each character more by their actions than by their words. Darl, for example, expresses great love for her, and despite being the most conventionally good and eloquent son, he does not receive this in return. Jewel, however, obstinate, vicious, and lacking mastery of language, shows his love through his actions, even saving his mother’s corpse twice, and strangely is loved all the more. This is reflected in the passage above, in which Addie expresses how actual experiences and passions are so much more important than words and fake people who try to express what their heart has not attained. She does not comment on whether or not she believes she has felt any of the aforementioned emotions - sin, love, fear - in their truest state. Yet the reader does know for certain that hers is a heart which has endured a lot, and whether or not these things have been felt, the words alone have taken a toll.
“‘Did she go as far as town?’ ‘She went further than town.’ ‘Did all those rabbits and possums go further than town?’ God made the rabbits and possums. He made the train. Why must He make a different place for them to go if she is just like the rabbit.” (66) ~ Vardaman
ReplyDeleteVardaman is young and insecure. He does not know why his family decides to move Addie into the coffin, all nailed up. He sticks to his religious knowledge that God had created everything in his own image, an image that is supposed to roam and be free to travel. Indirectly, he suggests that they must travel to Jefferson by means of a train, a movement toward industrialization. Vardaman, with his wild imagination, sees Addie as a fish because she is a rabbit or possum, free to live on. He feels that Cash’s nailing harms her and prevents her from moving, justifying his means of drilling holes in the top of the coffin or her head.
“It’s because he stays out there, right under the window, hammering and sawing on that goddamn box… where she’s got to see him saying See. See what a good one I am making for you. I told him to go somewhere else. I said Good God do you want to see her in it… I can see the fan and Dewey Dell’s arm. I said if you’d just let her alone. Sawing and knocking, and keeping the air always moving so fast on her face that when you’re tired you cant breathe it…”
ReplyDeleteThis passage from Jewel’s chapter distinguishes him as one of the only family members (along with Darl) who see the absurdity of the family’s actions and the lack of true, sympathizing love in those actions.
Jewel finds ludicrous the idea that Addie’s coffin is being built in front of her by her own son while she is sick – such an action blatantly destroys any of Addie’s hope of her condition ever improving. And with that hope gone, Addie has no more reason to struggle, to fight off her sickness mentally. By destroying that hope, Cash effectively kills her. Jewel is the only family member who loves Addie enough to recognize this.
Dewey Dell also helps kill Addie by fanning her face. Fanning seems to be an action of love, of devotion, an attempt to help Addie breathe, but Jewel recognizes that fanning actually has the opposite effect, of “keeping the air always moving so fast on her face that when you’re tired you cant breathe it.”
Both of these acts – Dewey Dell’s fanning and Cash’s coffin-building – seem superficially to be acts of love. But to Dewey and to Cash, those actions are not done out of love – they are done out of duty. And when something is done out of duty, the focus is on the act itself, without overt concern for the result. When something is done out of love, on the other hand, there is an ability to sympathize with the one you love, an ability to feel the effect of your actions. If Dewey Dell and Cash truly loved their mother, they would have been able to recognize the deleterious effects of their actions just as Jewel recognized them.
This chapter establishes Jewel’s unique ability to love and sympathize with another’s condition in contrast to the other family members, and in stark contrast to his portrayal by Darl as wooden and mechanical. Jewel, with his superficial woodiness and internal love, helps the audience see the superficial love and internal woodiness of the other family members.
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Delete“Jewel…do you know that Addie Bundren is going to die? Addie Bundren is going to die?” -Darl
ReplyDeleteDarl shows the most intelligence and understanding of all the characters in this novel. Darl best describes himself and situations surrounding him, even if he is not present. He describes Addie’s death from afar, and knows about Dewey Dell’s pregnancy. Darl makes decisions based on logic, not emotion, which is why I believe he burned down the barn. His ability to not cloud his judgement with emotions makes him a reliable narrator, as seen in this quote.
Peabody: I said, "I reckon a man in a tight might let Bill varner patch him up like a damn mule, but I be fanned if the man that'd let Anse Burdren treat him with raw cement ain't got more spare legs than I have"
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time we see someone criticizing Anse in front of the rest of the family. Throught a trust worthy logical source,we get a new perspective in the family dynamic. Because we have had unreliable first person narration we can't really get a clear picture of the family. However when the outside third-party of Peabody is introduced we get new insight into the dynamic of the charecters. The short chapter allows us to see a more negative view of Anse and the things he is putting on his family. It reveals to us how crazy all the family members are in general and for being complaicent with Anse.
“You don’t know what worry is. I dont know what is is. I dont know whether I am worrying or not. Whether I can or not. I dont whether I can cry or not. I dont know whether I have tried to or not. I feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth.” (Dewel Dell)
ReplyDeleteThis passage ends a chapter in which Dewey Dell prepares dinner for her family, however Vardaman is nowhere to be found. Dewel Dell is frantic, and when she finds Vardaman in the barn she proceeds to scold him. In this chapter, Dewel Dell repeats Lafe’s name over and over again, lending the idea that she has some sort of relationship or intimacy with him. This ending passages and her confusion about the word “worry” and her feelings reveal that Dewey Dell is dealing with inner turmoil due to new experiences: new sexual experiences in regards to Lafe and new motherly experiences as she is left as the only woman in the house in the wake of her mother’s death. She has no guidance, as she only has brothers and her mother is dead, who was never warm or loving in the first place. Dewey Dell is alone with her thoughts and feelings and has no one she can go to. She is so lost she cannot even decide if what she is feeling is worry, or if she can cry or not. This confusion and lack of guidance is further exemplified in her seeking of an abortion. Due to the shame of having a child out of wedlock and also being a teenager, Dewey Dell cannot go to anyone she knows, and Lafe, who got her pregnant only provided assistance to her in the form of money, not in consoling or encouragement. This pregnancy becomes her problem and hers alone. Dewey Dell’s aloneness in this leads to her not finding the help she needs and later being raped. She is left feeling like no one can see her and the pain she is going through and is left in darkness, unable to grow or move past her problems. Dewey Dell is stuck. She cannot begin to sort out her feelings on her own, and yet despite her personal struggles, she still cares for the family. She still bends down to wipe the vomit off of Cash’s wet face.
I actually finished my post before I saw yours, and even though we used the same quote I hadn't considered that her sporadic thoughts were because of her lack of guidance. If she is being swallowed by her isolation and is truly "left in darkness" and "stuck" as you said, why does she continue on?
DeleteJewel: "It would just be me and her on a high hill and me rolling the rocks down the hill at their faces, picking them up and throwing them down the hill faces and teeth and all by God until she was quiet and not that goddamn adze going One lick less. One lick less and we could be quiet" (15).
ReplyDeleteFirst of all it was extremely interesting that Jewel only got one passage out of the entire book to narrate. To make it even more interesting the passage was less than 2 pages in length. Jewel never really talks to much throughout the book so we basically have to analyze him through his actions. His actions throughout the book demonstrated a deep love for his mother Addie that is inexpressible in words which is fitting because Jewel doesn't use words. In his passage he explains his inexpressible love for his mother in graphic and violent ways that provides an insight into the deep and dark mind of Jewel. It is ironic that Jewel's father was a preacher unlike all of his other siblings because he is the one who essentially saved his mother from the water and redeemed her.
“‘You needn’t to cry,” I said. “Jewel got her out. You needn’t to cry, Darl.” The barn is still red. It used to be redder than this. Then it went swirling, making the stars run backward without falling. It hurt my heart like the train did. When I went to find where they stay at night, I saw something that Dewey Dell says I mustn’t tell nobody,” Vardaman.
ReplyDeleteVardaman is the youngest and most naive narrator in As I Lay Dying. The excerpt above comes after he goes into the barn to see where the buzzards stay at night. Vardaman has a fascination of these buzzards, the omens of death that come to ensure that his mother is taken away from him. Vardaman does not seem to have the understanding about the buzzards, or about the events that happen in the barn that night, but he is fascinated with them both nevertheless. Vardaman sees Darl set the barn with their mother’s coffin inside on fire. Vardaman doesn’t realize that Darl does this to relieve the family of their burdens. He cries because his plan failed, and because he was driven to this point. Instead, Vardaman figures Darl is upset that their mother almost got hurt. Vardaman’s speech is very repetitive, much like his italicized inner thoughts. Vardaman also focuses on the past, as seen by his sentences about the barn’s redness. He doesn’t mention a fire, only the red, as if he does not know how to describe it. He describes the smoke without using the word “smoke”. He sees the sky and the stars as beings in the sky, capable of moving because of small actions, put in the sky just for his world. Vardaman translates the situation into something he can understand, as children often do. He mentions a train that he wants and fears he will not get throughout the novel. This is his tragedy. He translates the loss of his mother into the loss of the train. His italicized thoughts add to the stream of consciousness style of the novel. This thoughts show how much he respects his family and older siblings. He listens to them without question. Vardaman’s southern dialect is also evidenced throughout his writing. Vardaman matters because he represents a child in tragedy. He shows firsthand how hard it is for the young to experience traumatic events, and he provides yet another point of view into the lives of the Bundrens. The young sometimes see things that the old are blind to, and Vardaman seeing the fire and its cause is clear proof of this.
“The sky lies flat down the slope, upon the secret clumps. Beyond the hill sheet-lightning stains upward and fades. The dead air shapes the dead earth in the dead darkness, further away than seeing shapes the dead earth. It lies dead and warm upon me, touching me naked through my clothes. I said You dont know what worry is. I dont know what it is. I dont know whether I am worrying or not. Whether I can or not. I dont know whether I can cry or not. I dont know whether I have tried to or not. I feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth” (63-64).
ReplyDeleteDewey Dell is so distraught with her coming child that she cannot pause to feel anything in the wake of her mother’s death. This quote comes from her second chapter in the book, in which we first see her thoughts and conflicts. From the recurring word “dead” and the confusion as to what she is actually feeling, Dewey Dell is portrayed as a frantic mess, consumed with panic about her pregnancy and in shock because of her mother’s death. The irony with Dewey Dell arises in her wish to have an abortion and kill her unborn child when her mother has just passed away. Rather than show the continuation of the cycle of life, Faulkner pairs the idea of birth with death, effectively saying that life is stagnate. Had he characterized Dewey Dell as being excited for a coming child, instead of having her live in a constant state of anxiety, a possible theme of the novel may have been the idea that life continues and moves on, even after the loss of a loved one. However, Faulkner did not follow that- he created Dewey Dell, the daughter too overwhelmed with her own life’s worries to grieve for her dead mother. I suppose that says something as well, that Dewey Dell is the only character with motivations that do not revolve around Addie’s funeral. Of course, she uses the journey to try and find a way to have her abortion, but she remains abstained from any emotion involved in Addie’s death. Dewey Dell matters because she does not fit the stereotypical woman in the south. Faulkner could have easily written a novel that includes a typical girl grieving for her late mother, but instead he wrote one with a woman who spends the entire trip working towards her own goal of an abortion, a which was extremely uncommon, especially in the south. There’s Jewel, the illegitimate child who was his mother’s favorite, Darl, the outspoken man of the family who is the talk of the town, Vardaman, the youngest and most naive, Cash, the quiet father-like figure in place of his father; all outsiders in one way or another, yet Dewey Dell is the most isolated and she is the one working for herself and her own ambition to have an abortion.
“It takes two people to make you, and one people to die… ‘The reason you will not say it is when you say it, even to yourself, you know it is true: is that it?’” (Darl pg. 39)
ReplyDeleteThis quote in Darl’s chapter in which he discusses the death of Addie Bundren with Jewel is interesting because it reflects Darl’s perspective on death. Even though Darl is gone when Addie dies he is very cognitive of her death and often discusses the theme of death, which is why he is an important character in the novel. In the second part of the first sentence Faulkner uses the word “people” instead of “person,” which is important because Darl now encompasses the idea of grieving process that comes along with the death of a family member. By using the word “people” Darl states that more than just one person “dies” when someone physically dies because of the emotional stress it puts on someone. The second part of this quote also demonstrates Darl’s reflectiveness on the topic of death because as he says this to Dewey Dell regarding her desire for an abortion, he states that people in general try to avoid the truth that one is dying by refusing to talk about it. Through this quote Darl’s wisdom is displayed and because Darl is so logical, Faulkner uses him to narrate the most sections in As I Lay Dying.
“Darl and Jewel and Dewey Dell and I are walking up the hill , behind the wagon. Jewel came back. He came up the road and got into the wagon. He was walking. Jewel hasn’t got a horse anymore. Jewel is my brother. Cash is my brother. Cash has a broken leg. Jewel is my brother too, but he hasn’t got a broken leg” (Faulkner 210).
ReplyDeleteVardaman is one of my favorite characters. His sense of wonder and innocence reminds me of my nephew who is around the same age as him. His simple observations in the novel reflects different point of views due to his unknowing look on death and events happening in the book. This passage from page 210 shows his childish ways of describing events because of his repetition. Repeating that Jewel and Cash are his brothers and repeating actions and telling the story with simple language represents that he does not have an elevated vocabulary due to his age. Vardaman also points that Jewel does not have a broken leg either but even though he does not have a broken leg, he is still his brother. Vardaman as a child pays close attention to detail. Although his point of view comes in bits and pieces of his child-like language, he may be the most reliable narrator.
Cash
ReplyDeleteI made it on the bevel.
1. There is more surface for the nails to grip.
2. There is twice the gripping-surface to each seam.
3. the water will have to seep into it on a slant. Water moves easiest up and down or straight across.
4. In a house people are upright two thirds of the time. So the seams and joints are made up-and-down. Because the stress is up and down.
5. in a bed where people lie down all the time, the joints and seams are made sideways, because the stress is sideways.
6. Except.
7. A body is not square like a crosstie.
8. Animal magnetism.
9. The animal magnetism of a dead body makes the stress come slanting, so the seams and joints of a coffin are made on the bevel.
10. You can see by an old grave that the earth sinks down on the bevel.
11. While in a natural hole it sinks by the center, the stress being up-and-down.
12. So I made it on the bevel.
13. It makes a neater job. (82-83)
Cash was my favorite character because he knew what he was supposed to do, and he did it well. Everything he crafted he put meticulous care into. He didn't do this for his family, he did it because that's what he thought right to do, but he never pretended to be doing anything for anyone else if he wasn't. Even though the coffin was making was for his mother, he did not think about that while making it. He made it on the bevel because it was logical and the nature of the object called for it. Making it on the bevel was the right way to do it, so that's the way Cash did it.
Many of the characters in the novel are selfish and put their needs before the needs of the group. Anse drags the family to Jefferson under the guise of keeping a promise, but he really just wanted teeth and a new wife. Dewey Dell needed an abortion, and Vardaman was just trying to cope with the loss of his mother. Cash did not complain when he broke his leg after they did not listen to him about the wagon, not when they decided to pour cement on the wound. He kept his mouth shut and his head down, because he saw that his words and complaints were unnecessary and would not be helpful. If more characters had been as stoic as Cash, many troubles would have been avoided. Of course, that would also probably make for a pretty boring book.
Anse-
ReplyDeleteIt’s a hard country on man; it’s hard. Eight miles of the sweat of his body washed up outen the Lord’s earth, where the Lord Himself told him to put it. Nowhere in this sinful world can a honest, hardworking man profit. It takes them that runs the stores in the towns, doing no sweating, living off of them that sweats. It aint the hardworking man, the farmer. Sometimes I wonder why we keep at it. It’s because there is a reward for is above, where they cant take their autos and such. Every man will be equal there and it will be taken from them that have and give to them that have not by the Lord.
But its a long wait, seems like. It’s bad that a fellow must earn the reward of his right-doing by flouting hisself and his dead. We drove all the rest of the day and got to Samson’s at dust-dark and then that bridge was gone, too. They hadn’t never seen the river so high, and it not done raining yet. There was old men that hadn’t never see nor hear of it being so in the memory of man. I am the chosen of the Lord, for who He loveth, so doeth He chastiseth. But I be durn if He dont take some curious ways to show it, seems like.
But now I can get them teeth. That will be a comfort. It will.
This passage exemplifies the importance of religion and Anses character as a whole. Anse complains about his plight as a farmer and his only consolation is his place in heaven. He holds a grudge towards the townspeople while at the same time Anse wants to go to town for his own personal reasons. This shows his double sidedness and his hypocrisy. Anse’s attitude towards the townspeople undermines the text’s theme of religion. Anse is also very self centered. The passage starts with him feeling pity for the hardships he faces. The passage ends with his selfish motive for going to town, with getting his teeth. Overall , I think this passage shows Anse as a self centered individual who wants pity, but won’t pity others. He is a selfish man whose only motive for burying his wife ends with personal means.
Jewel: "And now them others sitting there, like buzzards. Waiting, fanning themselves. Because I said If you wouldn’t keep on sawing and nailing at it until a man cant sleep even and her hands laying on the quilt like two of them roots dug up and tried to wash and you couldn’t get them clean. I can see the fan and Dewey Dell’s arm. I said if you’d just let her alone. Sawing and knocking, and keeping the air always moving so fast on her face that when you’re tired you cant breathe it, and that goddamn adze going One lick less..."
ReplyDeleteWe only hear from Jewel once in the entire book. Although he may seem angry and mean, we, as readers, actually learn a lot about him. Jewel is told through the light of a terrible person. However, we, as readers, actually know that he does love someone: his mother. I like his character because he is so dynamic. It may seem like he doesn't love anyone, when he just doesn't know how to convey his feelings. All of the other characters have their own objectives to complete throughout the novel, Jewel wasn't selfish, he just couldn't handle his mother dying. Jewel matters because he is the only one without arterial motives, and yet is painted in the worst way. The author may be trying to tell us not to judge people for how they look on the outside and that maybe we should try to get to know a person before we judge them.
“Cash is my brother. But Jewel’s mother is a horse. My mother is a fish. Darl says that when we come to the water again I might see her and Dewey Dell said, she’s in the box; how could she have got out? She got out through the holes I bored, into the water I said, and when we come to the water again I am going to see her. My mother is not in the box. My mother does not smell like that. My mother is a fish” (Vardaman, 196)
ReplyDeleteVardaman was the youngest out of the siblings and still had his childish imagination. When his mother died he could not grasp the concept that she was dead and instead clung to the last thing that made him happy, which was the fish that he had caught. In his head Jewel did the same thing and in sorrow his most prized possession, the horse, became the replacement and comfort to Jewel. Vardaman possess an innocence that many lose as they get older, as shown through his siblings, he is one of the only characters that I have noticed to be actually unaffected by the death. With the exception of his outburst right after the death he remained calm about it and instead chose to change the situation into the fact that his mother is a fish and is now living in the water. He believes that she is not gone forever and instead he is going to see her again in the water. Of course we see the older siblings trying to disrupt his imagination by saying that she was not able to get out of the box, but his imagination still overcame the logic. He possess the innocence that many yearn to still have, to not have to see the bad in life and always remain in a content state of mind, to not have to see the bad going on in the world and be blissfully ignorant. He still has the vivid imagination that as you get older you replace with logic and reasoning. All in all, he has what we cannot posses.
Cash
ReplyDelete"So we set in the wagon, but the music wasn't playing now. I reckon it's a
good thing we aint got ere a one of them. I reckon I wouldn't never get no work done a-tall for listening to it. I dont know if a little music aint about the
nicest thing a fellow can have. Seems like when he comes in tired of a night, it aint nothing could rest him like having a little music played and him resting."
Cash is a stand out character as he is static and does not go through any change. He is honest and hardworking, with no selfish desire. The one thing that did interest him was a record player, and this passage shows that his selflessness is stronger than his desires. Previously he had to give up his money he was saving for one, and here he addresses that it would be probably not in his best interests to get one anyways. He admits that he "wouldn't never get no work done a-tall for listening to it." He convinces himself that he is a hard worker, but it is past that. He is institutionalized, brainwashed to believe that his hard work for the benefit of his family is the right thing, when in reality he is becoming duller and soulless. The fact that he opposes music now shows his only yet biggest change at the end of the novel. He was always a hard worker and obedient, but then the thought of having music to "rest him" was something he liked. Now music means nothing but sounds, and his lack of care shows his loss of personality. He became a robot that only expects work, and never built from that. Cash's character shows the product of what occurs when being too obedient. He acted selfless, and got nothing for himself in the end, yet was content with that. He has no urge to get what he wants, and lets fate decide his life for him. Cash shows the audience that even if the other characters acted selfless and tried to help each other like Cash did, they would not end up in a better situation.
"Eat," he says. "Get the goddamn stuff out of sight while you got a chance, you pussel-gutted bastard. You sweet son of a bitch," [Jewel] says (3.12).
ReplyDeleteThere are always some times when we each feel isolated and misunderstood. And even times when it is our passions that separate us from the majority. While Jewel wasn’t necessarily my favorite character in this book, he was one that I felt was very relatable.
Profanity and all, I believe that this quote is one that does a good job in characterizing Jewel Bundren.
It may seem somewhat weird to us that Jewel would be so harsh to the very creature he loved so dearly, or why he would be so distant to the one and only family member he loved, Addie. He was frequently looked down upon by people like Darl, who always described Jewel as wooden, rigid, and pale, and by Cora, who thinks Jewel would rather make money than comfort Addie as she dies. However, knowing that his horse was the most prized possession he had, and knowing that he wished that he could be alone with his mother as she died, instead of her being surrounded by Dewey Dell fanning her, or Cash sawing away at her coffin, we can see that Jewel deals with love and emotion differently, and that that is not a reason to be outcasted. Though Jewel seemed to take for granted his mother during her lifetime, he shows his love for her through his actions after she has died by saving her body from the river and from the fire. Jewel is an important character for this reason. He shows us that love does not always have to be expressed through words, and that it is more solidly confirmed through actions. While he is a little rough around the edges and is misunderstood by his family members, he seems to be the only one capable of genuine love.
ReplyDeletePeabody:
“You mean, it never bothered Anse much,” I said. “No more than it bothered him to throw that poor devil down in the public street and handcuff him like a damn murderer( Faulkner, 240).”
This passage was taken during Peabody berating Cash over letting Anse use concrete on his twice broken leg along with after Cash states his injury,” never bothered me much( Faulkner 240).” . Immediately it starts off with with Peabody stating how Anse was not bothered by Cash’s injury, and he is implying that Cash is just trying to hide is pain from his family as Cash tries to state beforehand that it doesn’t bother him. By twisting Cash’s words about his pain into focusing on Anse the reader gains a sense of outrage as well as building anger within Peabody. Furthermore, Peabody goes on to what could possibly be considered a small rant as he states that Cash’s injury bothered Anse just as much as it bothered Anse when he treated Darl,” like a damned murderer.” To Peabody it seems that Anse doesn’t even care about his family. Not only does he force a completely idiotic, not to mention cheap, treatment onto his injured son, but he also throws Darl to the wolves as he is forcibly handcuffed in the street. As a matter a fact, the use of the word,” public,” in describing the street on which Darl is handcuffed may seem redundant, but in reality it adds to the feeling of despair Peabody associates with Darl’s arrest. It was not in some darkened alley or secluded barn but in a “public” street for all to see as Anse betrayed his kin, seemingly without remorse at least to Peabody. Then the usage of,” like a damn murderer,” in describing Darl’s arrest unveils the possibility that Peabody does not know of Darl’s crime, or Peabody may view his arrest as unjustifiably cruel for said crime of burning down another man’s barn. This all coming from a man who works, as well as assumingly lives in, a town shows the disconnect with the townsfolk and those of the rural areas. Where those of the rural South may see concrete as an acceptable substitute brace, at least one member of the town views it as abhorred. A family from the very rural portion of the South can look past personal suffering for the supposed good of the family, but a doctor from the more urbanized South views it as abuse by the family patriarch by exploiting their sense of duty leading to the family’s suffering.
“You don’t know what worry is. I don’t know what is is. I don’t know whether I am worrying or not. Whether I can or not. I don’t whether I can cry or not. I don’t know whether I have tried to or not. I feel like a wet seed wild in the hot blind earth.” (Dewey Dell)
ReplyDeleteThis passage comes from Dewey Dell’s second chapter, where we as the reader are exposed to her thoughts and inner turmoil with the realization of her pregnancy. She cannot even begin to grieve or wrap her head around her mother’s death because she is too consumed and distraught with the conflict that her pregnancy causes. Dewey Dell is portrayed as a spastic mess between trying to accept her mother’s death and figure out how she wants to handle her pregnancy. It is very interesting that she becomes so eager to get an abortion, terminating the pregnancy, when her mother has just died as well. Rather than being excited to bring new life into the world after death, we as readers are shown that the life cycle seems to not really exist here and that all of their lives seem to be stuck in a rut. Each character is more concerned about their own selfish issues, rather than the death of their mother or her burial process. Dewey Dell is important because she is very different from a typical woman in the south during this time period. Her motivation to get the abortion, or having an abortion in general was fairly unheard of. Dewey Dell’s drive to take care of herself and control what happens in her life makes her one of the stronger characters in the book, even though she’s often consumed with worry of how her future will turn out.
Peabody:
ReplyDelete“...Then you all could have stuck his [Anse’s] head into the saw and cured a whole family…”
We don’t see much of Peabody’s perspective in the novel, but he’s probably the most reasonable character, and also seems to be the character that best articulates his thoughts. Cash generally seems somewhat reasonable, but I can’t let slide the fact that he believes in “animal magnetism,” which is, of course, completely ludicrous. Anyway, Peabody seems reasonable, and also isn’t afraid to speak his mind. He is the only character that says to the Bundrens what he thinks of them –– that their father is useless and does nothing but harm to his own family, and that the family would be better off had the father’s head been sawn off –– while other townsfolk (like Tull) will only whisper that truth amongst themselves. Peabody also seems to be the only educated character –– the contrast between his outspokenness and the townsfolk’s gossip may just be highlighting the difference in social behaviors between the educated and uneducated. The point may be that educated people are more likely to take action against perceived deficiencies, while uneducated, ignorant folk are more likely to accept whatever situation they find themselves in.