As I Lay Dying Q&A

In the first few sections of the novel, Jewel spends a little time with his horse in the barn. In that narrative section, Jewel explains how he feels about the rest of the Bundren and his mother’s treatment. The chief emotion that materializes in his grief is one of hate, as he expresses violent hatred towards all his family members as well as the Tull family whom he describes as a group of buzzards. Jewel wishes that Cash wouldn’t work on the coffin where Addie can see him, and hear him. He also hates Dewey for constantly being around her mother. He ends that chain of thought by imagining being alone with his mother, while the rest of the family sits below a hill and he could then hit them with stones.

One of the final sections in the book is written from the perspective of Peabody, who administers Cash’s horrendously disfigured leg. Peabody admonishes Cash for bearing pain in silence and attempts to remind him that he should care for his own needs as well. Peabody does not see Cash to be completely responsible for the sad state of his leg, as he lays the blame on Anse’s cheap and negligent nature. His views highlight how certain members of the community see Anse’s true selfish nature and dismiss all the pious and virtuous dialogue that he spouts at any given opportunity.