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.