Vivian's Major Role Throughout A Lesson Before Dying

               Vivian is a major character in the story, as Grant says multiple times that she is the reason he is willing to go see Jefferson.  On page 130, Jefferson provokes Grant, to which he responds, “That’s a lady you spoke of boy. That’s a lady. Because it’s she who keeps me coming here. Not your nannan, not my aunt. Vivian. If I didn’t have Vivian, I wouldn’t be in this damn hole.” Grant cares a lot about Vivian and will not let anyone disrespect her. He also takes everything she says seriously and will do it. Grant complains to Vivian on page 141 saying, “I’m not doing any good up there, Vivian. Nothing is changing.” To which she replies, “Something is.” Grant will listen to Vivian because he loves her so much, and without her words of support, the entire mission of Jefferson becoming a man could become abandoned.  

               In fact, Vivian is the one who convinces Grant to go to the jail in the first place. The two are at the rainbow Bar and Grant is explaining how his Aunt wants him to go visit. On page 32, Vivian says, “I want you to go up there. If they say yes, I want you to go for me. For us, Grant.”  Vivian knows Grant must do this, and when Grant is worried about it, she says, “I’ll be here.” This shows Vivian’s major role in Grant’s original choice to attempt to help Jefferson.

               In the newest part of the reading, Vivian has a major role. Vivian comes to Grant after Grant gets into the fight with the mixed men in the bar. She is “disgusted” by Grant’s actions. Grant is again showing his seemingly adolescent behavior. She takes Grant to a hotel, and Vivian must ruin everything for herself to take care of Grant. She ran out of her teaching job, and everyone knows where she went. Because of this, now the whole town knows for sure. She must take care of him while is he too injured to move, or drive himself home. If Grant had just controlled himself, he wouldn’t have had to deal with all of this.

               We also hear about Vivian’s actual husband wanting to see the kids on weekends. I blame Grant for this, as he didn’t take the incognito meeting with Vivian seriously enough.  He let enough people know about him and Vivian that the real husband decided to want to see the kids on the weekend, so they couldn’t run away with the children. I think Grant ruined things for Vivian and himself, and partly blames the racism, which is fair, but I also think he is a major part. I believe Vivian has good reason to be mad, and her “disgust” of Grant is justified. I didn’t get to ask this in my student discussion today, but whose side are you guys on? Is Grant right in being upset, and it’s OK he got in a fight, or is he ruining Vivian’s life and their relationship by getting in this fight?

Perspective and Cash's Role as the New Narrator

Towards the end of the story, I began to understand the reasoning why there are multiple narratives. It comes into perspective when Cash says, “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.” He is bringing the idea of perspective into the narrative, which makes the reader really think.  We began to get a few new perspectives on the Bundrens with MacGowan and Moseley. We see the Bundren family hobbling along in a more semi modern world, carrying a smelly corpse, on an old wagon, pulled by weak dying mules, looking grimy and dirty. Moseley narrates about how Albert says folks were scared of the wagon falling to pieces, how “ram-shackle,” the wagon is, how Cash lays on top of the ratchet home-made coffin, and just how bad it smells with his rotten-cheese analogy. The reader knows about the struggles the Bundrens had to go through to get to this point, but an outside perspective only sees where they are now, which exemplifies how ridiculous they look. We also see this perspective with MacGowan in Jefferson.  MacGowan’s coworker continually refers to Dewey Dell as “pretty good, for a country girl.” We see these perspectives and we realize how ridiculous what they are doing is.

               Although Cash’s quote is about how people look at Darl strangely, but it also applies to the general consistency of the narrative.  Most people would agree that moving the dead mother across the countryside to be buried with her own family is a morally sound cause. But, because of the hardships they face away from other people, when they come into the city, they are in rags, and are barely on their feet. I really like how Cash becomes kind of the main narrator at the end of the story. We talked in class about how the semi-crazy Darl had been our main storyteller, but now we have Cash. I like Cash’s sections because we know he is competent, sane, and truthful, making him a reliable narrator. It’s weird how his first chapter in the book is just a list of the steps required to effectively do his job, and then his last chapter is one of the most profound in the whole story. 

               Cash talks a bit about perspective and how people look at him, and I almost wish that we had another chapter from someone like the marshal, or any city person to see how the people see the ending of the story. As a reader, the ending of Anse getting remarried was totally weird to me, and It’d be cool to have another perspective, one of the things that makes this novel great.  It would also be cool to have a person from the Bundrens old world, the farm county, narrate on their return. I mean, they know who the Bundrens are and why they went to Jefferson in the first place so it would be interesting to see how they react. I think another perspective would be interesting, as perspective and point of view play a deep and major role in As I Lay Dying.