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How Does Faulkner Present Jewel's Relationship In As I Lay Dying

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In his novel As I Lay Dying, Faulkner uses the river and Jewel’s horse to portray the malicious relationship between humans and the natural world. In the early chapters of the story, Faulkner uses Jewel’s horse to demonstrate how humans show hostile behavior towards the nature. In one of Jewel’s first scenes alone, he walks into a barn to feed his beloved horse. This basic interaction quickly changes as Darl narrates the violent battle between Jewel and the animal. To get the horse to eat, Jewel “kicks him in the stomach...strikes him across the face with his fist and slides on to the trough and mounts upon it” (4). He then insults the animal, calling it a “pussel-gutted bastard” (4). Jewel’s behavior toward his horse demonstrates the violent …show more content…

At the climax of the story, the Bundren family’s journey to bury their mother is interrupted by a flooded bridge and a river. The Bundrens attempt to cross this river, but their intentions backfire. As the family crosses the river, Darl “felt the current take [them]” (49) for the river created a “succession of troughs and hillocks” that were “lifting and falling about [them]” (49). In this scene, nature appears to take revenge on Jewel for hurting his horse, an animal that is a part of the natural world. Faulkner thus gives nature an antagonistic image, for it tormented the Bundrens in the middle of their journey. Romantic novels give nature a flawless image and show an ideal relationship between nature and humans; they give the impression that nature is an phenomena that humans can always count on, trust, and confide in. However, the opposite qualities of the relationship are portrayed in As I Lay Dying. The Bundren family should not have trusted that the river would be tame enough to let them cross the bridge. Furthermore, it did not help them on their journey; it set them back and nearly killed Cash. Nature is essentially a villain in the passage, thus emphasizing how nature can be hostile towards human beings. Along with Jewel’s behavior towards his horse, the two interactions demonstrate a mutual malicious relationship between human beings and the natural

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Faulkner’s choice of Vanderman, the most prominent symbol of innocence, to approach Darl allows the readers to have the perspective of an innocent child. Vanderman believed that Darl was weeping because he almost lost Addie’s coffin. However, differing viewpoints explain that Darl was weeping because his attempt at putting Addie to rest had failed. His tears are shed as an apology to Addie for his failure.

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