The Love of Family in As I Lay Dying Essay

The Love of Family

William Faulkners novel As I Lay Dying tells the story of the Bundren family, a lower class family of Mississippi. The mother, Addie, is on her death bed while the rest of her family is basically planning her funeral. She is married to Anse Bundren and has five children Darl, Cash, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman. Two of the five are not Anses children, yet Faulkner does not reveal this fact to the reader initially. It seems like the family is tending to Addie by preparing her coffin and putting her on bed rest because she is sick; but in reality they are only looking out for themselves, especially Anse. The only ones who even try to save Addie, before and after she dies, are Cash and Jewel. Faulkner portrays these two characters as the most thoughtful and loving towards Addie; but out of the two, Jewel is the golden child. Critics disagree on whether or not Jewels actions are to benefit the well-being of his mother or his own well-being. His actions are, for the most part, beneficial to his mother, but some of his intentions are questionable.

Jewel is the product of an affair between Addie and Whitfield, the town minister; therefore he is automatically set apart from the rest of the Bundren children. However, he is apathetic about his identity. He knows the Addie is his mother, and that is all he cares about. Dorothy Tuck confirms this when she writes, Jewel, almost completely unreflective, is not apparently concerned with his identity; he seemed sure of himself in relation to Addie when she lived, and equally sure of himself when she is dead (38). He is quiet and concealed; and not much is said by Jewel. Tuck also states that he favors his mother in that he verbalizes his experiences through his strength and straightforwardness, meaning that he acts on his emotions more than discussing them (38). Cleanth Brooks proposes an outlook on this issue that may or may not be evident to the reader at first. He writes:

Jewel, too, is a passionate person who has no one with whom he can talk. Granted that there is a kind of nameless understanding between him and his mother, still it is nameless and unuttered, and his inarticulate poetry, the ardor and passion which he can express only through violent action, find no release in wordsin part because there is no one with whom he can converse. (257)

Although it may not be obvious at first, the reader catches on to the fact that Jewel is, indeed, different from the other characters in more ways than one. Because he is not as open as the others are, he is set apart from them and feels like he cannot talk to them. Therefore, he remains quiet and under the radar, so to speak. He keeps to himself and does not share his thoughts with anyone; yet he gives the most love, energy, and respect to/ for his mother.

Another hidden factor about Jewel is his name itself. The name Jewel is a symbol of the mother-son relationship between him and his mother. A jewel is a gem, a prized possession; and that is what Jewel is to Addie. He is the child that is the most like Addie and cares for her the most. When Addie shares her thoughts about him in the book, she tells Cora, He is my cross and he will be my salvation. He will save me from the water and from the fire. Even though I have laid down my life, he will save me (Faulkner 97). Faulkner uses this statement to foreshadow Jewels actions later in the story. Also, when any member of the family talks about Jewels actions, Faulkner writes in italics. This style of writing resembles a style used for Christ in the Bible. When Jesus Christ speaks, it is written either in italics or in red ink. Jewel is Addies salvation, just as Christ is the salvation of mankind. His actions are done out of the purity of his heart, and he does not ask for anything in return. This, too, is like Jesus Christ. This is not to give the impression that Jewel is god-like, but more so to emphasize the importance of the relationship between him and his mother.

Jewels acts of heroism are both literal and figurative. In the literal sense, he saves her coffin from floating away in the river and also salvages it from the blazing barn. In the first episode, the wagon tips over due to the overflow of the river and the familys mules drown. Since Jewel is on horseback, he manages to keep the wagon and its load from drifting downstream, which ultimately saves his mother and her coffin. The second instance is when Darl decides to set the family barn on fire. His reasoning behind his action is never clearly stated. Some think he wanted Addie to disappear sooner; some think he was trying to get rid of the awful stench her corpse was putting out; and some think it was done out of craziness. Despite the reason for his action, Darl set Jewel in a rage. Since Jewel is defensive about his mother, his instinct was to save his mothers coffin from the flames. He risked his life not once, but twice, in order to save Addie.

These heroic actions are almost done subconsciously, though. Brooks brings this to attention with his statement: There is Jewel, perhaps the least reflective member of the group whose heroism is so pure and unself-conscious that he is not aware that it is heroism (261). Jewel and Cash both are unaware that their actions are heroic instead they see their deeds are the opposite (Bakker 224). Jewels actions are done out of his love for his mother, but they are also done in spite of the rest of his family. He does not appreciate how everyone could be so willing to get rid of Addie, mainly because he is so attached to her. Furthermore, the reader does not expect much from Jewel due to his lack of outspokenness; yet he is the one who expresses his love the most in this story. Brooks affirms this observation by his remark: Heroism is heroism even though is sometimes appears to be merely the hither side of folly (262). This means that Jewels actions are not as random as the reader may initially think the love he has for his mother is very strong. On the contrary, Bakker goes on to say that his actions may be rooted by something which he could never allow himself to become conscious of: the element of incestuous desire (225).

Opposing this argument is Doreen Fowler, author of Matricide and a Mothers Revenge: As I Lay Dying. She points out that he resists his desire, more commonly referred to as the law of the father, when he performs these heroic duties (322). The law of the father is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud stating that The father forbids the child from realizing its unconscious wish to sleep with his mother" (enotes.com). Fowler supports her argument with the river crossing incident:

Darl, Jewel, and Cash, on the other hand, enter the water with Addie; and when Cash, who, as the eldest son, is an avatar of the father, fastens the rope to the wagon and hands one end to Darl and the other to Jewel, he is symbolically reconnecting the severed umbilical cord [Darl] unties the rope which connects Jewel to his mother, recreating the original separation of mother and child, the cutting of the umbilical cord. (322-323)

Moreover, Jewel would not act like this if his intentions were to get with his mom, so to speak. He truly wants his mother to be well taken care of and does not wish to further their relationship in any other way than maternally. However, the burning barn scene challenges her argument. When the barn is ablaze, Jewel rescues Addies corpse, which, according to Fowler, means that he is releasing a burning desire for Addies body (325). Now the reader must form his own opinion of Jewels intentions. Does he really have incestuous feelings for his own mother?

One event that confronts this question is when Jewel buys a horse for himself. The closest thing to a horse that his family owned was a mule; and Jewel was determined to get a horse. So, he devoted much of his time and effort into working on his neighbors farm at night and Anses farm during the day. This overload earned him enough money to buy a horse, which was soon his prized possession. Anse gets angry about Jewels investment and scolds him. He tries to persuade Jewel that the horse will only be a burden to the family. However, Jewel realizes the horse is not a concern for anyone but himself. This realization is symbolic of Jewels attitude towards Addie. Throughout the entire novel Anse has tried to make things difficult with Addies death by complaining and not taking proper care of her corpse. Still, Jewel stays true to his mother and saves her body time after time. Fowler supports this by stating, Jewel, Addies illegitimate son, born outside of patriarchal law, has proven himself again and again the champion of his mothers body (327). Later on, though, Jewel gives up his horse so that Addies body could be safely transported to the gravesite. This is considered his most heroic act (Brooks 259).

There are mixed reviews about whether or not his horse symbolizes his attraction to his mother. Richard Gray does not see the horse as a symbol of his desires, but rather a symbol of his own identity. He writes, In this fluid verbal environment, there is not so much intimacy as identificationpeople and things become one another Jewels mother is a horse (343). Although Jewel is indifferent about his identity, he knows who his mother is and is satisfied with it. His horse stands for his affection for her motherhood. Brooks points out how jealous Darl is of Jewel and Addies relationship, which leads to hostility between them. Essentially, Darl teases Jewel for substituting his mother with a horse; but he sees the underlying truth: Jewel would do anything for his horse, which means he would do anything for his mother (257). Affection between a son and a mother is rarely this strong, and that is why many critics question Jewels motives.

The case presented is that the Jewels motivation to save his mother does not come from his incestuous desire, but from his instincts as a son (Bakker 225). In Addies passage she interprets Jewels heroic actions into symbolism, in a way, according to Fowler (324). She calls attention to the fact that she and Jewel both save each other. Jewel literally salvages her coffin and dead corpse more than once, and her memory gets him through the sequence of catastrophic events following her death. These efforts tie back to the similarity between the two characters they express their emotions through their actions, not words. Both of their actions result in each others deliverance. Addie makes the point that people should focus more on what they do in their life rather than what they say, especially when she says, because people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words, too (Faulkner 102). Ultimately, good deeds go a long way; and everyone should strive to live effectively, just as Jewel did.

Works Cited

Bakker, Jan. As I Lay Dying Reconsidered. Modern Critical Views: William Faulkner. Ed. Harold Bloom. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1986. 221-232. Print.

Brooks, Cleanth. Odyssey of the Bundrens. As I Lay Dying: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Michael Gorra. Norton Critical ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. 256-262. Print.

Faulkner, William, and Michael Gorra. As I Lay Dying: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. Norton Critical ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. Print.

Fowler, Doreen. Matricide and the Mothers Revenge: As I Lay Dying. As I Lay Dying: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Michael Gorra. Norton Critical ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. 321-327. Print.

Gray, Richard. A Southern Carnival. As I Lay Dying: Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism. Ed. Michael Gorra. Norton Critical ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2010. 343. Print.