Darl’s Bucket, Cash’s Casket, and a Rogue River-Log: The Nature of Wood in As I Lay Dying

Abstract:Through an analysis of three wooden things found in As I Lay Dying—Darl’s cedar bucket, Cash’s casket, and a river-log—this essay explores how Faulkner refuses to represent wooden objects as simply objects of human use or exchange. Rather, Faulkner invests objects with what new materialists have called “thing-power.” This thing-power complicates faith in human powers of quantification and control—faith that is exhibited by Cash and that was exhibited by Progressive-Era proponents of scientific forestry. Ultimately, the investigation suggests that Faulkner’s environmentalism is more akin to recent new materialisms than to conventional nature appreciation.