Cash's Emotionless Narratives

[rjakubovic9]

While Dewey Dell attempts to cry, Vardaman uses his imagination to comprehend, and Jewel displaces his feelings towards his mother on his horse, Cash's narratives do not present clear signs of grieving. Thus far, Cash has listed the logistical steps of contructing a coffin in Chapter 18 and reprimands Jewel for trying to travel with a coffin that won't balance in his Chapter on page 96. Can anyone offer an explanation as to why Faulkner may have present Cash in this way? Do you think that Cash simply cares very little about his mother's fate or do you think that his obsession with coffin-building is an attempt to soothe his mother's concerns and distract himself from her impending death?

[arothenberg9]

I think that Cash is actually using a defensive mechanism to cope with Addie dying/death. He uses intellectualization is when some one takes an extremely objective viewpoint of something, without regard for emotions, and focus only on intellectual parts of a situation to create distance from relevant anxiety provoking emotions. I think that this is why Cash focus solely on building the coffin, and shows no emotion. He is telling him self that when some one dies, the right thing to do is build a coffin for their body, so that is exactly what he is doing.