Much is written about Cash Bundren, the carpenter in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying.  While most essays 

focus on Cash's nature and function within the novel, occasional articles also discuss the significance of 

Cash's tools.  For example, Michael Hardin, in "Freud's Family: The Journey to Bury the Death Drive in 

Faulkner's As I Lay Dying," notes that "[t]ools are often associated with male sexuality and the phallus 

because they represent the artisan's (pro)creative capabilities;” therefore, the loss of Cash’s tools in the 

river crossing represents his symbolic castration (98).  In his essay "Faulkner's As I Lay Dying," Tim Poland 

posits that Cash's “entire identity is located in the fact that he is a carpenter,” and that “[h]is sole means 

of expression is through his carpenter skills” (118; 119).  Poland notes that when Cash loses his tools to 

the flooding river, he simultaneously loses consciousness and the ability to speak.  Thus, Poland links the 

loss of Cash’s tools to the “submersion of Cash’s selfhood” (119).  As Poland observes, it is not until the 

tools are found that Cash regains both consciousness and speech (119).

 

That the tools function as more than just literal implements is also implied by the deliberate manner in 

which Cash regards and tends them.  H. H. Siegele, in his book Carpenters' Tools: Their Care and 

Maintenance, discusses how tools become anthropomorphized in the hands and mind of an efficient and 

fastidious carpenter:

A carpenter should take such care of his tools, that they will seem like intimate friends; 

which is to say, that if a tool is properly cared for, it will always be on friendly terms with the 

man who uses it. (36)

 

In Cash, we see such a careful carpenter. After days of crafting his dying mother Addie's coffin and 

working outdoors throughout a rainy night to complete his task, Cash takes the time to tend his tools.  

Although he must be psychologically drained and physically exhausted, Cash "gathers his tools and wipes 

them on a cloth carefully and puts them into the box" (Faulkner 80).  Later, during the family’s trip to bury 

Addie, as he begins guiding the wagon across the swollen river, Cash "lifts his box of tools and wedges it 

forward under the seat," thus commencing the dangerous crossing with "his arm braced back against 

Addie and his tools" (147; 149).  Cash thereby demonstrates the same concern for his tools as for his 

mother's remains in the coffin he had built to protect them. 

 

The people surrounding him recognize and respect the importance to Cash of his tools.  After the 

disastrous crossing, Vernon and Jewel go to great lengths to retrieve Cash's tools, then lay the tools next 

to the injured carpenter in an attempt to revive and reassure him (163).  As the family sets off to 

Armstid's, Cash tries to speak, not to complain about his injuries or to inquire about the family's situation, 

but to ask about his tools (181).  To calm Cash, "Vernon got them [the tools] and put them into the 

wagon.  Dewey Dell lifted Cash's head so he could see" (181).  Once at Armstid's, Cash's sole concern -- 

upon regaining consciousness after his leg is painfully set -- is his tools.  Again, to comfort Cash, Darl 

brings the tools into the room and places them under the bed "where he [Cash] could reach his hand and 

touch them when he felt better" (186).  Finally, Cash's tools are laid next to him in the wagon as a source 

of solace when the family resumes their journey to Jefferson (191).

 

Cash possesses a total of nine tools: adze, auger, chalk-line, hammer, plane, rule, square, saw, and saw 

set.  Of these, Cash takes all but the adze and auger on the journey to bury Addie.  Accordingly, seven 

tools accompany the seven Bundrens on their trip.  All seven tools are briefly lost in the flooded river, 

which also nearly claims Addie’s corpse; only six are recovered, corresponding to the six living members 

of the Bundren family.  These parallels suggest that the tools serve a richer figural purpose in AILD than 

just as symbols of Cash's consciousness, power of speech, or sexuality.  A careful look at the attributes 

and functions of the seven tools in Cash's tool box reveals a relationship between each tool and a 

corresponding member of the Bundren family.¹

 

Often, parts of tools -- themselves extensions of the human body -- are given names that correspond to 

various parts of the anatomy.  Where pertinent, such connections will be examined in this essay.  

Furthermore, while the basic nature and use of the tools found in Cash's tool box have remained the same 

since AILD was written over 70 years ago, improvements and innovations have been made to some of the 

tools mentioned.  Therefore, the tools discussed here are, as best can be determined, of the type used 

during the 1920s, when the primary action of the novel occurs.  This consideration is important in 

exploring the possible correlation between the tools in Cash's tool box and the individual members of the 

Bundren family.    

  

The Square

The square is a tool used most often for determining right angles (Brown 187).  It is also employed to 

produce a straight line for cutting off the end of a board (Hjorth 24).  One type of square frequently used 

by carpenters during the time frame of present action in AILD is the try square.  The try square is made up 

of a "steel blade set in a [. . .] wood or metal handle exactly at a right angle," with the handle being 

shorter than the blade (Hibben 73).  Try squares come in several sizes, with the blades of most of them 

marked in inches (Hjorth 24).

 

The text implies that Cash's square most likely is a try square.  Cash's square fits into his tool box -- which 

is able to lie under the seat of the wagon and the bed at Armstid's -- indicating a relatively small tool.  [In 

contrast, for example, a framing square would have been unwieldy, with its shortest length, the tongue, 

measuring fourteen inches (Hjorth 25)].  Also, when Cash is beveling one of the boards for Addie's coffin, 

instead of using a tool to check his angle, he planes the edge, then "squints along the plank" to determine 

the proper slant (Faulkner 79).  This indicates that Cash's square is set at a rigid angle, unlike the sliding 

T-bevel, a "try-square adjustable to any angle," with which Cash could more accurately measure the bevel 

(Hjorth 61).                         

 

The try square, with its particular advantage of permitting precision when squaring material, resembles 

Cash, with his low tolerance for ambiguity and insistence upon accuracy.  These traits are evident from 

Cash's earliest years.  According to Jewel, "when [Cash] was a little boy," in an effort to please Addie, he 

interpreted literally her wish for fertilizer and took "the bread pan and brought it back from the barn full 

of dung" (Faulkner 14). Later, as an adult, when asked how far he fell from the church roof in an accident 

that broke his leg, Cash answers, "Twenty-eight foot, four and a half inches, about" (90). 

 

To yield precise measurements, a line should be squared "on both sides and both edges" of the board being 

cut (25).  In an analogous manner, Cash looks at all sides of an issue in an attempt to discern what is true 

and correct.  For example, he examines the incident, and implications, of the barn burning at Armstid’s 

from several points of view. Despite his own heroic efforts in constructing and salvaging the coffin, Cash 

"can almost believe [Darl] done right in a way" by setting fire to the barn in his effort to destroy the coffin 

with its contents and put an end to the family's torturous journey (233).  Cash also notes that Jewel, in 

spite of being "too hard" on Darl, had a right to be upset about the attempt to incinerate the coffin 

because it was also "the value of [Jewel's] horse Darl tried to burn up" (233).  Although Cash believes "it's a 

shame" that Darl will be locked up in an institution, he finally "reckon[s] nothing excuses setting fire to a 

man's barn and endangering his stock and destroying his property" (233).         

 

Descriptions of Cash emphasize characteristics that are reminiscent of the square.  When he is introduced, 

and throughout his construction of Addie's coffin, Cash is presented sawing boards.  While sawing, his arm 

is held at an angle that strongly resembles the right angle of the square.  Similarly, after he breaks his leg 

for the second time, his lower body will resemble the unequal blade and handle lengths of the square.  As 

Doc Peabody notes, Cash will "have to limp around on one short leg for the balance of [his] life" (240). ²     

                                                              

The Plane

  The plane’s primary function is to level out the surface of wood, and its uses include, among others, 

reducing in size a board that is "a little thicker than you want it," and smoothing the rough edges of a 

board that has been ripped, that is cut in width rather than in length (Hibben 64).  In The Carpenter's Tool 

Chest, Thomas Hibben describes the plane as "much like a chisel set at a fixed angle in a block of wood or 

a steel frame" (63).  It is most likely that Cash's plane had a wooden block, not a steel block that would 

surely sink, given Vernon's suggestion about the plane that "'It'll float'" when he and Jewel were 

determining what tool would help them find Cash's saw (Faulkner 161).  

 

Even the simplest plane consists of at least three parts: the cutter, the wedge with which to hold and 

adjust the cutter, and the block in which the cutter and wedge rest (Wildung 34).  Depending on its 

complexity, however, a plane may contain as many as 20 named parts, several of them adjustable (Siegele 

33).  Among these are the cap, toe, heel, and mouth; the bottom of the block of the plane (called the 

stock) is known as the sole (Siegele 33; Hibben 65). 

 

Intricate in its design, the plane can be complicated to use, requiring precise adjustment to insure uniform 

trimming (Siegele 34).  It is essential to properly regulate the amount of the cutting blade (cutter) that 

protrudes from the mouth of the plane; if the blade sticks out too far, it can gouge, and therefore 

damage, the wood (Hibben 65).  In addition, when using the plane one must recognize the direction of the 

grain of the wood being processed (Hjorth 55).  As Herman Hjorth writes in Basic Woodworking Processes, 

"Planing against the grain makes the surface rough, while planing with the grain [. . .] makes it smooth" 

(Hjorth 55).     

 

Like the plane in contact with wood, Darl demonstrates the ability to rub either with or against the grain 

of other characters.  As an example of the former, Darl's actions at his mother's deathbed help to restore 

Cora Tull's "faith in human nature" (24).  Cora even maintains that Darl "was touched by God Himself" 

(167).  Although Cora’s interpretation of Darl’s behavior is later ironized, it demonstrates his ability to 

impress someone favorably, also reflected in Cora’s daughter Eula’s attraction to Darl (9). 

 

On the other hand, his interactions with Dewey Dell and Jewel reveal his facility for alienating others, and 

it is here that his mouth gets him in trouble.  Darl torments Dewey Dell about the "bad luck" of her 

pregnancy, and taunts her with his insight that Dewey Dell “’want[s] [Addie] to die so [she] can get to 

town’” for an abortion (39; 40).  He further upsets Dewey Dell by refusing to disclose whether he plans to 

tell Anse about her pregnancy or to kill her lover, Lafe, for impregnating her (40).  

 

Similarly, Darl torments Jewel with references to Addie's impending death, asking "'do you know that 

Addie Bundren is going to die?  Addie Bundren is going to die?'" (40).  Darl continues to irritate and 

provoke Jewel by alluding to Jewel's questionable parentage with statements such as "'Jewel . . . whose 

son are you?'" and "’who was your father, Jewel?'" (212).  Like the plane whose blade has been improperly 

set, in these instances Darl's words cut too deep, causing Dewey Dell and Jewel to retaliate: Dewey Dell 

informs Gillespie that Darl started the barn fire, and Jewel attacks Darl, then helps restrain him for the 

authorities (237).

 

Like the complex plane, Darl is the most sophisticated member of the Bundren family.  He is certainly the 

most worldly, as he is seemingly the only family member that has been outside the confines of 

Yoknapatawpha County.  Perhaps because of his exposure to the greater world, Darl is able to relay events 

in poetic language, indicating his artistic soul (sole).  For example, notice the internal rhyme when he 

muses, "How often have I lain beneath rain on a strange roof, thinking of home"  (italics mine) (Faulkner 

81).  In a beautifully alliterative passage, Darl recounts, "The lantern sits on a stump.  [. . .] its cracked 

chimney smeared on one side with a soaring smudge of soot, it sheds a feeble and sultry glare [. . .]" (75).  

Accordingly, it is his voice that presents the "tableau" of Jewel and his horse, "savage in the sun" (12).  

And his description of "the square squat shape of the coffin on the sawhorses like a cubistic bug” speaks 

to his probable exposure to paintings by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque when he was "in France at the 

war" (219; 254).

 

Additional examples of Darl's multi-dimensional character are woven throughout the text, reinforcing his 

connection to the intricate plane.  One such trait is revealed in his uncanny ability to relate incidents at 

which he is not present, such as Addie's deathbed scene and Cash's completion of Addie's coffin (47-52; 

75-80).  In addition, Hamlet-like, Darl contemplates the enigmatic nature of being as he ruminates before 

sleeping: "And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you.  And when you are emptied for  sleep, you 

are not.  And when you are filled with sleep, you never were.  I dont know  what I am.  I dont know if I am 

or not" (80).

 

Finally, the reader becomes acutely aware of Darl's multi-faceted nature when he finally suffers a mental 

breakdown and his mind fragments into more than one personality (253).  Like an inexperienced carpenter 

who does not understand how to properly adjust his plane, Darl has lost the ability to maintain his sanity. 

The Hammer

According to Siegele, the hammer is, essentially, a tool used "for striking blows" (63).  The carpenter uses 

it most often to drive nails "through one piece of wood into another" (Hibben 52).  The hammer consists 

of a head, made of iron or steel, and the handle, commonly made of wood (52). 

 

It is likely that Cash's hammer is a carpenter's hammer, or claw hammer, whose head incorporates a 

slightly rounded face with which the nails are pounded (52).  Opposite the face is the peen, fashioned like 

a claw, with which nails can be extracted (Hjorth 186).  This particular type of "bell-faced" carpenter's 

hammer prevents the wood from being indented or scarred when the nail is pounded flat to the wood 

(Hjorth 186; Hibben 52).  In addition to the face and claw, the head of the hammer also contains the 

sleeve and house (or eye) into which the handle fits; the neck, which connects the sleeve to the head; and 

the poll, the flat surface between the face and the claw (Siegele 63).

 

Siegele suggests that "the hammer should be placed first when making a list of carpenter's tools" (63).  In 

the Bundren family, Jewel, though not Addie’s firstborn child, is her favorite.  As Darl relates, "Ma always 

whipped him and petted him more" (Faulkner 18).  Beginning with this simple correlation, we can 

associate the hammer with Jewel. 

 

Of the tools in the carpenter's box, the hammer, according to Siegele, is one of the hardest working in 

that it "has the widest field of usefulness" (63).  In like manner, Jewel demonstrates the willingness and 

ability to do many kinds of work.  As Cora Tull recounts, "Jewel [was] always doing something that made 

him some money" (Faulkner 24).  Jewel's secretive efforts clearing forty acres "single handed[ly]" to earn 

his horse indicate that he does not shy away from hard labor (135). 

 

Jewel also exhibits physical characteristics that evoke images of the hammer.  The wooden handle of the 

hammer is proportionately larger than the head, depending on the type of hammer.  Thus, the hammer is 

primarily composed of wood.  Appropriately, Jewel recognizes that of all the tools in Cash's box, the 

"'[h]ammer's got the most wood in it’" (161).  Like the hammer, Jewel is repeatedly described as being 

composed of wood.  He has "pale eyes like wood set into his wooden face" and walks "with the rigid 

gravity of a cigar store Indian" (4).  Jewel is "wooden-backed, wooden-faced," and "sits on his horse like 

they were both made out of wood" (95; 122).  After his horse is sold, Jewel rides on the wheel of the 

wagon into Jefferson "as though carved squatting out of the lean wood" (231).  Additionally, his strength 

echoes the iron and wooden strength of the hammer.  As the coffin is being moved from the house, 

"Jewel carries the entire front end [of the coffin] alone" (98).  Later, "he upends the coffin and slides it 

single-handed from the saw-horses" (222).

 

Occasionally, the handle of the hammer shrinks and becomes loose within the sleeve.  If this occurs and is 

not corrected, the inattentive carpenter may strike a blow and have the head of his hammer, quite 

literally, fly off the handle.  People also fly off the handle, usually in anger.  For Jewel, flying off the handle 

is habitual, so much so that virtually all his speech, and much of his action, is peppered with profanity and 

marked by fury.  To his horse, he is overheard "cursing" with "obscene ferocity" and speaking "in a 

whisper of obscene caress" (12; 183).  When he talks to other characters, "Goddamn you" seems to be his 

favorite retort, no matter what the stimulus.  One can understand his angry rejoinder of "'Goddamn you. [. 

. .] Goddamn you’" to Darl's taunting about Addie's death (94), but Jewel's response of "'You go to hell [. . 

.] Goddamn you"' to Cash's suggestions about crossing the raging river seems unwarranted (146).  His 

volatile nature almost causes a tragedy when he attempts to strike a knife-carrying man at whom he 

swears while on the road to Jefferson (229).

 

Jewel's recurrent pattern of striking blows is also reminiscent of the hammer’s function.  It is difficult not 

to feel sorry for his beloved horse as Jewel "strikes him across the face with his fist," "hammer[s] its head 

with his fist," and "strikes it upon the face with the back of the curry-comb" (13; 149; 183).  Later, 

Armstid notes that Jewel, frustrated at being unable to move the wagon by himself, appears to be "fixing 

to beat out the back end of the shed" (188).  Occasionally, Jewel's hammering is productive, such as when 

he three times strikes the wall of the burning barn with a stool, creating an opening that allows a cow to 

escape the fire (221).  But, for the most part, Jewel's blows, like those of the bell-faced hammer, leave no 

lasting impression.

 

The Chalk-Line

The carpenter frequently needs to mark a straight line longer than the straight edge of a square will 

allow.  One way to accomplish this is by using a string or cord rubbed with a cake of blue chalk, known as 

the chalk-line (Hibben 72). 

 

To use the chalk-line, the carpenter anchors one end of the string with, for example, a nail, to the point at 

which he wishes to mark one end of the material.  Then, holding the other end of the string taut, he rubs 

the string with the cake of blue chalk (72).  Both ends of the string are then secured so that the string 

rests above the "imaginary line" on the material to be marked (Siegele 20).  The string is then snapped, 

leaving a distinct line on the material (20).

 

The chalk-line is the only tool in Cash's box that requires two separate components in order to be used.  

Faulkner doesn't mention the blue chalk cake; however, Cash's chalk-line is called "the blue string," 

indicating that the line has been chalked (Faulkner 162).  In fact, the chalk-line has been so infused (dare I 

say impregnated?) with chalk that even after being soaked in the river it still has the capacity to turn 

Jewel's fingers blue (162). Fittingly, the color-saturated chalk-line relates to the pregnant Dewey Dell, who 

conceived her illegitimate child after she, aptly, "picked on down the row" of cotton with Lafe (27). 

 

In order to store the chalk-line in their tool box, many carpenters use a chalk-line reel around which they 

coil the chalk-line (Wildung 45).  Faulkner, however, does not indicate that Cash has such a device.  Cash 

most likely winds up the chalk-line into a ball around itself.  Correspondingly, Dewey Dell is wrapped up in 

the dilemma of her pregnancy.  Her self-absorption is such that, as Darl suggests, she secretly yearns for 

Addie's death so that she can go to town to seek an abortion before her condition shows (40).

 

Like the string accompanied by the chalk, Dewey Dell is also virtually always in the company of someone 

else.  When we first see her, she is tending to Addie, surrounded by the Tull women (9).  Once Addie dies, 

Dewey Dell becomes responsible for her younger brother Vardaman, who is, therefore, her frequent 

companion.  Dewey Dell sleeps with Vardaman, takes him with her to meet MacGowan, and, arguably, 

even masturbates when Vardaman is hidden nearby (215; 248; 62). More significantly, Dewey Dell is 

physically linked by an umbilical cord to the fetus she is carrying. Since this physical connection is not 

severed by an abortion, the emotional ties of motherhood and the responsibilities of parenthood seem 

likely to link Dewey Dell with her child for many years to come. 

 

Furthermore, except for her plan to transport her Sunday clothes in a package disguised as Cora Tull’s 

cakes, many of Dewey Dell's actions are prompted by the influence of others, usually men.  Both Anse and 

Peabody instruct her to fix supper on the evening of Addie's death (51).  Later, at Samson's behest, she 

helps his wife Rachel prepare food and beds (116).  Moreover, it is Lafe who provides Dewey Dell with the 

idea, information, money, and, presumably, encouragement to seek "something at the drug store" that will 

end her pregnancy (202). 

 

Finally, Dewey Dell is also easily "strung along."  Lafe has done so, in both seducing her and inducing her to 

terminate the pregnancy.  And McGowan, with just the barest deception, convinces her that he is a 

doctor, not a druggist’s assistant, and that his "treatment" will be her cure (248).    

  

The Saw                                                               

A saw is the tool used by the carpenter to cut material (often wood) to the proper size.  There are many 

types of saws; all consist of a flat steel blade -- comprised of a back, point, heel, and teeth -- attached at 

one end to a wooden handle (Siegele 24).  To cut the material, the blade, with the teeth on the bottom, is 

drawn through the wood in a back-and-forth motion.

 

  A good all-around saw, and the one likely found in Cash's tool box, is the crosscut saw, designed with a 

handle that is bolted on, a flexible blade, and teeth bent and beveled at a specific angle so as to permit a 

smooth cut across the grain of the wood (Hjorth 39). The bent teeth also allow for a saw cut wider than 

the blade, thus preventing the saw blade from binding in the cut and the saw dust from gumming up the 

cut (Hibben 57).

 

Siegele ranks the saw "a close second" to the hammer in importance among a carpenter’s tools (24).  

Analogously, it can be argued that Vardaman -- Addie’s youngest -- appears to be his mother's second 

most favored child.  In the moments before her death, Addie, surrounded by part of her family, gazes at 

Anse "without reproach, without anything at all," watches Cash "neither with censure nor approbation," 

and does not even look at Dewey Dell (47; 48).  However, "all her failing life appears to drain into her 

eyes, urgent, irremediable" as she searches, according to Dewey Dell, for Jewel (47).  In like manner, just 

as she is dying, Addie "looks at Vardaman; her eyes, the life in them, rushing suddenly upon them; the two 

flames glare up for a steady instant" (48).

 

Vardaman, in spite of his youth, demonstrates a complex mind, at once fixed and malleable, reflecting 

both the ductility of the saw's blade and the rigidity of its wooden handle.  In an effort to distract 

Vardaman from Addie's death, Dewey Dell tells him of the train set "behind the glass, red on the track" in 

the Jefferson shop window (66).  Concerns about the train permeate Vardaman's thoughts throughout his 

journey.  He frequently thinks of the train, "shining with waiting," and pesters Dewey Dell with his worry 

that one of the town boys has bought it (100; 102).  His desire for it makes his "heart hurt" (216).  Once in 

Jefferson, however, he readily yields to Dewey Dell's compensatory suggestion that he'd "rather have 

bananas" (252). 

 

Similarly, his impressionable mind, in grief at the loss of his mother, conflates the image of Addie with the 

fish he has caught just prior to her death.  In a related manner, Vardaman's mind is also susceptible to the 

suggestions of others.  At Darl's intimation that Addie’s corpse is speaking, Vardaman puts his ear to her 

coffin; he believes that he “can hear her.  Only [he] cant tell what she is saying" (214).  

 

While Vardaman, "with his round head and his eyes round," does not physically resemble the saw's straight 

edges and sharp lines, several examples of his phrasing in both thought and speech echo the repetitive, 

back-and-forth rhythm of the saw (47).  For instance, after frightening off Peabody's horses, Vardaman 

cries to Cash, "'Durn him.  I showed him.  Durn him'" (56).  And when Addie’s coffin is rescued from the 

burning barn, Vardaman attempts to console Darl with the refrain, “’You needn’t to cry, [. . .] Jewel got 

her out.  You needn’t to cry’” (225).  Occasionally, too, like the saw teeth that become bent and then bind 

in the wood, Vardaman gets stuck in his phrasing.  For example, when Jewel brings his horse home, 

Vardaman implores, "'Let me ride, Jewel. [. . .] Let me ride, Jewel. [. . .] Let me ride, Jewel'" (136). 

 

As Cash is sawing the wood for Addie's coffin, "the saw in the board. [. . .] sounds like snoring" (9).  This 

allusion to sleep further connects Vardaman to the saw.  Vardaman is seen "laying asleep on the floor" 

after he bores the holes in Addie's coffin (73).  Later, at Samson's, Vardaman is sleeping  "in the trough in 

a empty stall" (117). 

 

The Rule                                                          

No matter what the project, the carpenter must have a means of measuring space and materials.  To 

provide the most accurate measurement, the carpenter uses a rule.  Rules come in many sizes, types, and 

materials, but the rule most likely in Cash's tool box is a folding rule, made of wood with jointed sections, 

so that it can easily fit in the tool box or the carpenter's pocket (Hjorth 23).  A disadvantage of this type 

of rule appears over time with repeated use, however, as the joints become loose, causing measurements 

to be inexact (Siegele 116). 

 

The angles and folds of the rule call to mind Anse's physical characteristics.  Anse's "feet are badly splayed, 

his toes cramped and bent and warped," and his "wrists dangle out of his sleeves" (Faulkner 11; 31).  But 

even from an early age, Anse more resembles the loosened joints of a well-used folding rule.  As a young