"He also had a word. Love, he called it." Although Addie Bundren rejects the word love when it is used by her husband, Anse, as "just a form to fill a gap," her other relationships are not as empty (172). In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner reveals the nontraditional love of Addie's children after her death as the family ventures to bury her body in a nearby town. Often irrational, her four children struggle to cope with their mother's death, especially when coupled with the disgraces inflicted on her corpse by her selfish husband. Vardaman, Cash, Jewel, and Darl's compassion for their mother, unusual as it is, proves the authenticity of their feelings in a way that words could not say. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”?Get the original essay Vardaman's immaturity and lack of guidance leads him to express his legitimate grief in unhealthy and often incomprehensible ways. First, Vardaman seeks to find the cause of this mother's expected death. His ignorance and emotional turmoil lead him to blame Doctor Peabody for his recent visit. By reproaching Peabody for having “killed” his “face,” Vardaman reveals the anguish caused by the death of the mother he loves (54). In her emotional state, Vardaman, drawing on past dramatic experience, believes that Addie needs air to survive, causing her to ask Cash if he will "Nail him? Nail him? " (65). No strong adult figure emerges to explain the reality of death or advise the visibly distraught Vardaman. His desperate and misguided love and loss, rather than reducing him to a melancholy stupor, instead leads him to "save" his mother by drilling air holes in the coffin and her face (67). However, the bond Vardaman creates between his mother and the fish he caught and then slaughtered illustrates the love he has for his mother. Initially, after Addie's death, Vardaman mistakenly believes that the disappearance of his big fish and the "disappearance" of his mother are inextricably linked. The fish becomes a symbol whose existence must be verified by Vernon, a neighbor who has already seen Vardaman and the fish. Because Vardaman firmly believes that "for both of us it will happen and then it won't," there is no doubt about the emotional significance of the fish for Vardaman (67). As this thought matures, the details become simpler until Vardaman bluntly proclaims that his “mother is a fish” (84). Although not a traditional simile used to remember loved ones, Vardaman is only able to express his complex emotions in terms of events he understands. Like Vardaman, whose personal experiences shape the way he expresses his love, Cash's technical skills allow him to grieve his mother's death. in an equally powerful but more subtle way. In an effort to show Addie the respect she deserves, Cash painstakingly constructs her coffin, using his carpentry skills to display his love and devotion. Although some characters view Cash's decision to build Addie's coffin in her eyes as disrespectful, the adze's "Chuck. Chuck. Chuck." undeniably comforts Addie, who understands Cash's affectionate action (5) . Unsurprisingly, however, Cash's logical mind is unwilling to accept the motivations for his precise creation. Instead of admitting that he bevels the edges because he wants to give his mother the best, he lists thirteen reasons why a bevel is the most practical option. What comes closest to thetruth is his vague thirteenth point: “It makes the work more careful” (83). Even after the coffin is created, Cash continues to worry about its upkeep, reinforcing the symbolic relationship between the coffin and his mother. After a piece of mud is thrown from the road onto the coffin, Cash "goes over the spot with the wet leaves" in an effort to preserve the sanctity of the coffin, as well as his mother's memory (109). Although Cash does not feel the need to verbalize the strong love he has for his mother throughout the novel, it is Addie's section that proves that this is an inherent characteristic of Cash, and not a product of his grief. Addie and Cash's relationship did not require the verbalization of their shared emotion, love. Because Addie recognizes that "Cash didn't need to tell me, nor me to tell him," Cash finds other ways, such as looking at the coffin symbolically like his mother, to express his love (172). Although Jewel, like Cash and Vardaman, uses a physical object to represent her mother, he also allows her anger to color her actions and decisions. While Cash makes the coffin in front of Addie's window, Jewel shows her first sign of aggression toward her mother's memory. Instead of recognizing Cash's true motivations for making the coffin, Jewel angrily demands Cash "go somewhere else," as if creating the coffin expresses Cash's desire to see her "in it" (14). This unprovoked anger, undoubtedly a coping technique, is soon augmented by the symbolic meaning Jewel places on her horse. It doesn't take much thought for the other characters to determine that "Jewel's mother is a horse" (95). When Darl takes the assertion further, reminding him that "it wasn't your horse that died", Jewel bursts into anger, almost as if he can't bear to allow others to witness the depth of his devotion towards his mother (94). Once the arduous steps required for Jewel to purchase the horse are revealed, the importance he places on it falls into perspective. However, even with her beloved horse, an ever-present anger permeates Jewel's interactions. Many of Jewel's selfless actions, such as saving Addie's coffin from the river and the barn fire, seem to be motivated by her love-induced anger. Even as her mother's body rots in her coffin, Jewel defends her honor, intentionally instigating a fight and risking bodily harm (228). While the other Bundren brothers have physical manifestations of their mother, Darl does not have these concrete connections and instead views the matter philosophically. . Without Addie, or at least a physical representation of her, Darl's own life loses its purpose and meaning; continuity once present is erased. At first, Darl even struggles with the idea of ​​loving his deceased mother. Darl concludes, “I can’t love my mother because I don’t have a mother” (95). This definitive statement does not calm Darl's active mind, however, and he quickly develops his idea. When discussing the subject with Vardaman, who is always comforted by its concrete symbolism of the fish, Darl only thinks of Addie as a "was", and thus he concludes that she "can't be". . More importantly, Darl proclaims, “Then I am not” (101). Linking his own existence to that of his mother is his subtle way of displaying his love and sorrow. It is not until much later that Darl allows these thoughts to affect his actions. After over a week of tolerating the torture of Addie's corpse, Darl expresses his love by selflessly sacrificing his own freedom to end the disrespect towards his mother. In a desperate effort to.