WHAT!?!?

So last time I said I would say something regarding characters' views the following day, which I didn't get around to, so I'll just start off today by saying something quick about that. My main point I wanted to discuss was the children's views of their mother, specifically those of Vardaman, Jewel and Darl. According to Vardaman, his "mother is a fish" (84). I've already discussed some of that and I shall do more so later on in this post. According to Darl, "'Jewel's mother is a horse'" (101). This would indicate that Jewel views his mother as a pack animal or servant or something of that kind; she is a useful asset in his life, but not worthy of an equal value to his own. As for himself, Darl thinks that if he had a mother, "it is was. And if it was, it cant [sic] be is" (101). In other words, because Addie is dead, Darl sees it so that he no longer has a mother at all. This makes Darl seem complacent about his mother's death, but I still don't know how he felt towards her when she was alive. How much did Darl actually care for Addie?

Moving on to today's section, we get a peaceful stroll across a torrential, flooded river with great mishaps and misery - what a fun day! You see, Anse and family plus Vernon Tull are finally taking Addie to Jefferson, Tennessee, but the bridge they need to cross to get over a river has been torn down by the waters. Logically speaking, the only option is to find a bank to use instead of a bridge, so Dewey Dell, Anse, Tull and Vardaman cross over some logs while Cash and Darl on the carriage and Jewel on his horse find another location at which to make their way over (or through) the river. So let's discuss Anse for a while. I find it admirable that Anse is fulfilling Addie's wish to be buried in Jefferson and it makes him seem significantly less selfish than he apparently has been throughout his life. However, he still a very passive person, as he refuses to wield the carriage across the river himself and leaves his sons to do it for him.

Which brings me to Cash. He's very focused on balance of Addie's coffin, constantly remarking on it. "'It aint on a balance'" is repeated almost to a nauseating degree (145). The sad fact of this, however, is that he is focused on the coffin and not on his mother. It is not of little significance whether or not Addie is OK; only the coffin needs to be on balance. Jewel also thinks little of his mother - or his other family member's for that. He rides separately on his horse, signifying a sense of superiority. He only does what he needs to because the rest of his family pressures him into saving Addie after she falls into the water when a log causes Cash to lose control of the wagon. Vardaman showcases his childish self in one of my favorite passages of the book when he is following the action of saving his mother:

Cash tried but she fell off and Darl jumped going under he went under and Cash hollering to catch her and I hollering running and hollering and Dewey Dell hollering at me Vardaman you vardaman you vardaman and Vernon passed me because he was seeing her come up and she jumped into the water again and Darl hadn't caught her yet (150)

 This passage gives a sense of urgency and despair because of its composition: four entire paragraphs are written in this manner without any periods or breaks between sentences. Vardaman just follows the action and wants everything to turn out all right in the end. Oh, and he still thinks his mother is a fish, which makes sense, as she's about to float down a stream. In a coffin. Which is totally normal… Right?

Anyway, Addie actually narrates this time around. From inside her coffin. When she's dead. And rotting. Well, at least she takes the reader's mind off of that with her back story. Upon reading this I was excited to get to know her past: how Anse didn't like her, how she  did everything for her children - NO! That's not how her life was, despite everything precluding that it was like that. My mind blew when I read this section, which is very uncommon to happen to me when reading. I often may be intrigued or perplexed, but not downright frazzled. Addie's father taught her that "the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time" (169), and once she had Cash, she "knew that living was terrible and that this was the answer to it" (171). She's an incredibly pessimistic person with bottled up rage (She would "look forward to the times when they [her children] faulted, so [she] could whip them" (170)) and hatred for everyone around her. In a sense, she is almost as Anse has been portrayed - selfish, uncaring, dead - while Anse is finally doing something selfless by returning Addie to Tennessee.

She also doesn't love her children. She only really shows affection to Jewel, and she "gave Anse Dewey Dell to negative Jewel. Then [she] gave him Vardaman to replace the child [she] had robbed him of" (176). She doesn't think that she and Anse had chidden together. Instead, the children to only one parent each. I don't understand though, if it is Cash or Darl that she robbed Anse of. I'm just happy that Addie isn't my own mother. It would not have been a fun life. Then again, she doesn't seem to have revealed any of her thoughts to anyone else. She must have been a good actress.

And now her family had no mules to bring her back to Tennessee.