$
I didn’t end up talking about the ending of the book like I
had planned to, but once I started typing my mind kept wandering towards Cash.
I admired him the most of all the characters. Even so, there’s a lot about him
that Faulkner purposely keeps from us. I think it makes him more interesting of
a character as well t not know enough about him. As the reader you kind of have
to draw the line between bits of information given about him. So this is a
little of my take on Cash. .
Cash is the stoic hardworking man
of the Bundren Bunch. He has his signature list styled chapters that go for the
practicality of situations. He refers to the balance of the wagon in a few of
his chapters. We don’t get a lot of
chapters from Cash to begin with, so it’s hard to tell what he’s thinking at a
given time.
The Bundren’s show a peculiar way of
thinking. They tend to rely on fate more than balancing options. To them, their
decisions are the only option. As Jewel articulates well for me “I reckon there
ain’t nothing else to do.” The combination of fate and Cash’s formulaic mode of
thinking makes for interesting inputs from him
In his
chapter beginning on page 232 Cash looks back to the scene at the river and explains
that when Jewel worked to maintain hold of the coffin, he was “going against
God in a way.” He’s saying that it was Gods plan for the river to take the
coffin. The implication being that was supposed to be the end of their journey.
Darl agrees in his own way, so he tries to creat his own fat by burning down
the barn along with the coffin inside. Cash seems to respect Darl for trying to
sabotage the journey. It was like the only choice Darl had was to put things
back into their natural order by getting rid of the mother.
Even Cash’s
afterthoughts of the situation dances around fate. “He [Gillespie] would a suspicioned
it sooner or later.” He’s saying it was
fate for Gillespie to find out, which means that it was fate for Darl to become
a burden to the family, and with that reasoning it makes it okay for Darl’s
fate to go to Jackson. Once again his thinking is cause and effect and
practical.
This is a really interesting take on Cash as a character. He is definitely one of my favorite characters to think about from this book because he's so strange. His narration is very matter of fact and doesn't give off much emotion. When his leg is broken and he's in extreme pain he keeps saying it doesn't even hurt him, even though we know it does. Maybe he has a hard time expressing emotion and that is why he is so accepting of the journey ending by water or fire.
ReplyDeleteI'm not surprised that he can't show emotion. As the oldest kid, he was at one point the only child of Anse and Addie. I can see Ans overworking Cash even as a kid on account of his sweat thing. That would also explain his hardworking nature. And Addie we know to fundamentally distant. Cash never felt important enough to his parents to speak his emotions. Instead (and I think we touched on this in class), Cash found a new way of expressing himself through his work, like the coffin.
DeleteI totally agree that Cash is by far the most admirable of the characters. I think one reason I felt that way is his attitude. He is also matter of fact and never complains. This comes off as a very positive aspect of him especially compared to people like Anse. The other thing that made me like him was the fact that he got a job outside of the Bundren farm.
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I love that he ventures away from the family farm. I think it's funny how the things that make Cash admirable are the reasons that we see Anse as such a clown. As we find out early on in the book, Anse is afraid of sweating, so he won't bring himself to work on the farm. Meanwhile Cash works hard and never complains. Anse also hate roads, because they mean that people can move far from there home. But Cash goes out of his way to get a job elsewhere. What a great guy.
DeleteNice post! I really like your idea that the Bundrens think their decisions are the only options. I hadn't thought about it like that but I definitely agree. It's really interesting to see how this mindset affects them differently. For Cash he's just extremely stoic and focused on doing what he thinks he has to do but Anse tends to talk repeatedly about what he has to do (I'm thinking specifically about the scene where he says he has to cross the river) until he figures out how to do it or until somebody else does it for him.
ReplyDeleteHaha, yeah Anse does tend to talk a lot about what needs to be done, but in the end someone else does the work for him. What I used to find out of place for Anse was how he contradicted himself with one idea as "we have to get Addie to Jackson" and the other "I don'e want to do more than I have to." And yeah Anse isn't really doing any work he's just riding the wagon, but once they confront he river you'd expect Anse to fold. When I realized it was all about the ulterior motives it made sense.
DeleteYou have a very interesting take on Cash's character here. I think that fate affects all of the Bundrens in a pretty similar way. Take Jewel's line you mentioned before. In addition, Anse seems very fixated on getting to Jefferson with the coffin, to such an extent that he borders on complete trust in fate. He constantly pushes forward without so much as a glance back or a doubt in his mind that he's meant to do this, and that if he continues on his journey, he will get it done.
ReplyDeleteAnse is to the point that he's obsessing about the journey. Nothing truned him around (not the original wagon set-back, not the flood, not the log crash, not the fire), but I still wonder, what would Anse have done if Cash or Jewel died along the way. They both had some near-death experiences, but in an alternate reality where they die: would Anse have stopped there or throw them in the coffin too?
DeleteI also really liked Cash. I think one can read him as the most selfless and practical of the Bundren clan, and his personal philosophy/internal narration is really endearing. He doesn't seem to want to bother others with his needs, like when his leg is covered in concrete(!) and he just sort of accepts how much it sucks. His go-with-the-flow, calm attitude basically defines him as a character, and it's a really interesting addition to the otherwise extremely chaotic Bundren family.
ReplyDeleteChaotic is a very good word to describe the family. I bet his internal thinking is chaotic at pints, but we barely get a peak into his mind. Compared to everyone else he is the for sure the most selfless. I wish he had taken charge of the team towards the beginning, since he's really the only one who knows what he's doing. Even Vardaman speaks out more. But I guess that's a part of Faulkner's irony as well, the most capable of the bunch also is the least outspoken.
DeleteCash is certainly the most "normal" of the Bundrens (which only makes it worse that he ends up losing so much following his dad's foolish mission). You can sort of see his normalcy in that he's the only character who Darl doesn't have a weird relationship with - when Cash starts narrating more towards the end, all you see of Cash and Darl's relationship is a pretty normal brother dynamic.
ReplyDeleteI have to agree on this take of Cash. And to add on I think the very absence of Cashes dialogue in the beginning of the book speaks volumes to us about his evolution as a narrator. He goes from being a man of very few words, to becoming a more reflective person and narrator as the journey progresses. Which, like many other characters, shows us the returning to the roots of the typical hero archetype of returning as a "master of both worlds" .
ReplyDelete