In As I Lay Dying, Cash is arguably the most rational of the Bundren's and experiences a large amount of development over the course of the novel. He is one of the most Heroic characters in the novel throughout, in both his work and how he deals with the troubles that arise over the trip to town.
In the beginning of the book our impression of Cash is one of a very hardworking individual, the one with the best chance of being successful in life. We first get glimpses of his heroism when he builds Addie's coffin without stopping. Although it may seem like he is being insensitive, I believe that he is actually just trying to distract himself from the grief by working very hard, and that kind of release is pretty admirable.
Later in the book, Cash is heroic in his unwavering lack of notice that he puts towards his injury. Cash seems to know that complaining about his leg would make things worse for the whole family, so he endures that pain, saying that it doesn't hurt much, and makes them continue on the journey.
Cash also develops a lot during the journey. During the beginning he is wholly focused on building the coffin, but by the end of the book he turns into one of the most reliable narrators in the book. Cash manages to survive the whole journey, never complaining, and even questions some of the decisions of the other family members. One example of this is how he wonders if sending Darl away was really the correct choice to make.
Cash also is one of the members of the family who actually comes away with something, the "graphaphone". I think this suggests that he is more heroic because he did come out with something through a large amount of struggle and hard work, and because he lost a large amount of ability in one of his legs.
Overall, Cash is one of the most heroic characters in the novel and deserve the recognition that he gets by the end of the book as the main narrator.
In the beginning of the book our impression of Cash is one of a very hardworking individual, the one with the best chance of being successful in life. We first get glimpses of his heroism when he builds Addie's coffin without stopping. Although it may seem like he is being insensitive, I believe that he is actually just trying to distract himself from the grief by working very hard, and that kind of release is pretty admirable.
Later in the book, Cash is heroic in his unwavering lack of notice that he puts towards his injury. Cash seems to know that complaining about his leg would make things worse for the whole family, so he endures that pain, saying that it doesn't hurt much, and makes them continue on the journey.
Cash also develops a lot during the journey. During the beginning he is wholly focused on building the coffin, but by the end of the book he turns into one of the most reliable narrators in the book. Cash manages to survive the whole journey, never complaining, and even questions some of the decisions of the other family members. One example of this is how he wonders if sending Darl away was really the correct choice to make.
Cash also is one of the members of the family who actually comes away with something, the "graphaphone". I think this suggests that he is more heroic because he did come out with something through a large amount of struggle and hard work, and because he lost a large amount of ability in one of his legs.
Overall, Cash is one of the most heroic characters in the novel and deserve the recognition that he gets by the end of the book as the main narrator.
Cash was best suited for taking over Darl's job as narrator. He's very rational and offers the facts, and also gives precise measurements. I would agree that Cash is heroic, but not necessarily the hero of the book. Cash is persistent, he doesn't complain about being uncomfortable, and doesn't really say anything even about his broken and infected leg. However I felt that these characteristics that Cash displayed were nothing that were beyond my expectations of him. For me a hero is someone who goes beyond the call of duty, and Cash just does a great job of doing his duty.
ReplyDeleteI really liked Cash for many of the reasons you listed, namely for working so hard and not complaining and allowing the journey to continue. At the beginning of the book I did think he was kind of horrible to be building the coffin in Addie's sight, but I do think maybe his strange and kind of unwelcoming narration at the beginning was maybe a sign of grief for Addie's death, and he definitely grew as the story went on.
ReplyDeleteYou all know how I feel about Cash, and I agree with all of the points in this post. His quiet suffering when he's re-broken his leg (and especially after Anse makes it so much worse with the cement) falls into the stoical range of heroism, and it's a good example of the ambiguity between heroic and crazy in this novel--there's something close to insane about the way Cash suffers but doesn't feel any self-pity, or seem to blame Anse, or even to express any pain at all.
ReplyDeleteAnd as someone who loves recorded music, I also really like Cash's simple pleasure in anticipating having that graphophone--when a fellow has worked a long day like he has, he sure does have a right to relax his mind with a little sweet music.