In reading the novel As I Lay Dying, many questions arose in my mind. However, the one that plagued me was the question that I could not pin down. All of the characters in the book have a personality and play a certain role in the tale. However, the one character who fascinated me, yet I could not explain was Cash. Is Cash a bigger player in the novel than it appears on the surface? …showed first 75 words of 2106 total…

…showed last 75 words of 2106 total…possessiveness of his mules, and Jewels' hard work at night to buy his horse. The makeup of Cash's personality and person give him the ability to head his family. It is Cash who is the motor that gets things done in the novel. It is as if the family is in a centrifuge and Cash creates the gravity that glues the group together. Cash, not Anse, is the true patriarch and leader of the family.