Grieving In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

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A horrific aspect of life that many people have a difficult time dealing with is death. The thought of death scares people because as humans we do not have a way to comprehend something that we cannot test, see or even have a grasp of. When a person loses a loved one they get scared by this reality of that they do not know where they are going and when they make it there how will it be for them. In William Faulkner's book, As I Lay Dying, we go through the process at which a family loses a “loved” one and we follow the family all the way until the deceased, Addie Burden, is buried in Jefferson. In As I Lay Dying you see the steps of grieving are different for many people and some of the people will come out destroyed and others without a scratch. The character Cash goes through a process of grief, odd to most in his way of grief we do not see pain because of the pressure he puts on himself to finish the journey for the family. Cash’s brother, Jewel, seems to snap from the pain of losing his mother and he let the pain ingulf his life. Finally, the last …show more content…

The focus he has grasp of within him is the only thing keeping the family on track to Jefferson and possibly is the only thing keeping the family from separating all together. Cash’s strong focus is seen throughout the book especially when he looks after the family. A scene within As I Lay Dying shows how the family is ready to leave the house and does not care about the last preparations needed to make the trip easy and successful. Cash though looks after the family and is even caught worrying about their travel when he says“ [The wagon] won’t balance” (). This one scene shows that Cash worries about this family and even if Cash had the chance to show his pain he still would not because he would not want to worry the family. This shows that Cash had something built into him that makes him care for others and how others are

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