Upon Addie's death, Anse is definitely described as being the clumsiest of the family. His "claw-like hands," his extreme incapacity to help out Cash, his reluctance/inability to do any work, etc. all make him a rather tragic character. Despite his failings to really do anything laborious for Addie, he clearly feels grief and anxiety, as most obviously demonstrated by the constant rubbing of his knees and his absolute stubbornness to continue his monumental (for him personally at least) journey to Jefferson for his wife. His journey is so far out of his comfort zone that it really is, for the most part, a way for him to demonstrate remorse for Addie's death. I think that he truly believes this as well.
Cash is interesting because, like Anse, he doesn't seem to be doing anything obvious to grieve Addie at first. But it slowly becomes clear just how invested he is in making this perfect coffin for her. It's not just work for him. it's his craft, a work of art do demonstrate his love for her, a present essentially. His constant protection of the box isn't just him taking pride in his work, but also him taking care of his gift to his mother. Cash really isn't one to express emotion through hugs and kisses, but that certainly doesn't mean that he's just a robot.
Vardaman really doesn't know how to show remorse for his mother's death. He's still a very little kid and only understands death in a very limited way. His angst over the fish is the chief way that he expresses grief, as he understands how, like the fish, his mother was there, underwent some sort of non-physical transformation, and now just isn't. He is extremely concerned about the preparation of the fish for food, and is upset about imagining the equivalent for his mother.
I see these three characters as three of the most emotional characters in the book, they just all have very different methods of expression. Once I realized and comprehended that they do in fact have feelings of their own, the book attains a new level of depth for me and becomes even more intriguing than before.
I think it's interesting to see the different ways the Bundren's express their grief. In a lot of stories, when someone dies, all the characters cry and are sad, and now it's kind of what I expect when these things happens. Reading "As I Lay Dying" is really different because though some characters react as expected (Vardaman, as he's really young and doesn't understand death), some characters don't react at all (Darl), some react with a lot of anger (Jewel), and some react in unconventional ways (Cash).
ReplyDeleteOn the subject of characters not reacting, what about Dewey Dell? I would think she would have one of the strongest reactions in the book, considering how she is now the lone, secretly pregnant female in this group of men.
ReplyDeleteThis is just a hunch I'm throwing out there: I'm not sure if the reading is actually getting easier or if I'm just getting better at understanding Faulkner, but does anybody else notice the characters becoming more coherent? I'm thinking of Vardaman in particular here, when he talks about the vultures and seeing something crazy, as an example. Maybe this is the characters coming to terms with their grief?
In my opinion, Jewel is probably the most open about his emotion, as seen by his obsessive swearing. For me, I can't tell if Anse is actually emotional, or if it is just his extreme incompetence showing through in the way his hands are clumsy and shake. In some ways, Vardaman's emotional reaction seems the most real to me, as Cash is too closed for us to really know what he is thinking, and the rest of the characters are so cryptic that we can't tell with them either.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you about the ways in which Cash, Anse, and Vardaman react to Addie's death. Regarding the other characters, Jewel continues to be angry all the time, it isn't clear how Dewey Dell deals with her mother's death, and I don't understand Darl's method of coping at all.
ReplyDeleteI like all of these descriptions of how we can read emotion into characters who aren't so expressive (or have an unusual way of expressing themselves), but I especially like your portrait of good old Cash. Even his "I made it on the bevel" chapter, which seems the epitome of pragmatism (a numbered argument in favor of a particular carpentry method), can be read as an expression of love and even grief--a way of saying, "Everyone thinks I'm nuts for working so hard on this coffin, even through the rain, and taking so much care to get it just right. But there's a way things need to be done, and I'm going to make this the best coffin it can be." It's his way of turning the horrific and irrational (his mother's death) into something tangible, law-based, rational.
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