Reliability of Narration and Cash's Transformation

In a novel as initially disorienting as William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, the reader is placed in a precarious situation of scrambling to find a reliable narrator to align with, identifying this person as the hero of the novel as soon as possible. The multiple narrators and lack of a distinct narrator throughout the majority of the book cause us to take a very apprehensive approach to reading, as we can't really trust anything that the narrators proclaim without a clear-cut hero. Of the characters who narrate in the first section of the book, it seems that Darl is the most prominent and sensible narrator, as he narrates with the least amount of emotion in his words when compared to the rest of his family, and his pseudo-psychic omniscient way of narrating make him out to have an eagle eye view of the events occurring at any point in time within the Bundren family. Even Cora, who seems to be the other narrator in the first half of the book who is the most rational, vouches for Darl at several points throughout the novel, giving us more reason to align with him and trust his narration. Despite the consistency of his narration and calm manner in doing so, we are still reluctant to define Darl as the hero of the story, as his complete inactivity in virtually all of the Bundrens' quests, coupled with his unique style of narration, make him appear distant in comparison to the rest of his family. The most striking difference in narration styles from the beginning of the novel to the end is in the frequency and complexity of Cash's chapters. While he starts off as a seemingly incapable member of the family, acting very stoically and pouring his emotions into his work (rather than expressing them to the reader through narration), Cash seems like the most sensible narrator at the end of the novel, speaking clearly and simply to the reader about the events occurring and grappling with these philosophical questions of sanity and who's to judge it in response to Darl being taken away to Jackson.

With Darl essentially declared insane towards the end of the novel, we as readers experience a sort of mini-disillusionment, as we are forced to throw out any preconceptions of other characters that we may have gleaned through Darl's perspective and instead search for another reliable narrator. Interestingly, the one rational narrator that we can observe at the end of the novel comes in a place that we are unlikely to look: Cash. Considering what we know about Cash from the first half of the novel, he seems to be dealing with Addie's death by essentially shutting down emotionally, only speaking in straightforward ways whenever he is consulted in the family. When it comes to his narration, his case for being the most reliable narrator is hard to accept at first. In his first few chapters of narration, Cash is barely able to put together sentences and finish his thoughts, as his chapters of narration frequently break off mid-sentence as if Cash is unable to get across what he is trying to say. It seems that Addie's death hit Cash hard, as it did the rest of the family, and Cash's way of coping is by pouring himself into his work on the coffin--constantly obsessing over it in a near perfection-driven manner. Rather than explain the events that are occurring in the Bundren family or simply know everything that's going on like Darl, Cash focuses on the more simple details, such as his chapter narrating on the balance of Addie's coffin: "It wasn't on a balance. I told them that if they wanted it to tote and ride on a balance, they would have to" (165). Cash focuses solely on his work so that he doesn't have to accept his mothers death, forcing himself to think only about the intricacies of the coffin, such as the balance, the small holes that he painstakingly fills, and the glob of dirt that falls on it when the family is en route to Jefferson. This is what explains his difficulty narrating, as his already stoic disposition, coupled with his outward passivity in response to Addie's death, makes it hard for him to communicate his emotions to the reader.

Later in the novel, however, Cash narration becomes a lot crisper and logically sound, as it seems that our image of him is heavily strengthened by Darl's declared insanity. From a sheer numerical standpoint, Cash narrates much more frequently later in the novel when compared to the first half. In addition, the chapters that he narrates have a lot more substance to them, as opposed to the one or two line chapters--perhaps more appropriately deemed incomplete thoughts--that are present in the beginning of the novel. Rather than focusing so heavily on the nuances and mechanics of the coffin, Cash stars to widen his range of narration and speak about the other characters in the book. It is the manner in which he does this that provides such a stark contrast to his coffin-talk in the beginning of the book. The most prominent example of Cash's newfound narration technique is when he struggles to understand the reasoning behind Darl's identification as "insane": "Sometimes I aint so sho who's got ere a right to say when a man is crazy and when he aint. Sometimes I think it aint none of us pure crazy and aint none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It's like it aint so much what a fellow does, but it's the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it" (233). When contemplating the concept of sanity and who is allowed to judge it, Cash evaluates the concept very sensibly and speaks in an inquisitive manner--characteristics that make his curiosity seem genuine and warranted. Rather than launch into an emotional frenzy and immediately refute Darl being taken away or completely shut down emotionally like he did following Addie's death, Cash exudes pragmatism in his last few chapters of narration, struggling with the logic behind the decision to declare Darl as insane and whether any man has the right to do so in the first place. Cash even narrates the last chapter of the book, possibly speaking to how his new way of narration and perspective in the novel is seen as an end-all-be-all to the tumultuous events of the Bundren family's journey--something that the other characters were never able to achieve in their own narration.