The Significance of the Graphophone in AILD
By Steven Mirabito, Matthew Davern, and John Buttner
In As I Lay Dying, the graphophone is a central element to Cash’s narrative. To better understand the text, we have to look at what the graphophone is, as well as what it represents in the novel.
A graphophone is a record playing device that was considered to be the most modern device of its time, which happens to correspond to the time period of the novel. Cash, like the rest of the Bundrens, has an ulterior motive for going to Jefferson: to purchase a graphophone. Cash’s obsession stems from both the balance that music provides as well as the physical structure of the device, which comes from his experience as a carpenter. He describes a graphophone in this manner during a flashback: “The music was playing in the house. It was one of them graphophones. It was natural as a music-band” (Faulkner 235).
In the novel, Cash is a very organized man, some could say that he even craves the organization. We are not diagnosing him with OCD, but he needs to have some form of structure. This is what we believe the graphophone represents; his need for organization. An example is that the graphophone produces music, but more specifically, an organization of "vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion" (Google). Throughout the novel, Cash has always had a form of organization or structure that took up a majority of his time. One such time is when he was constructing his mother’s coffin.
" “I made it on the bevel.
1. There is more surface for the nails to grip.
2. There is twice the gripping-surface to each seam.
3. The water will have to seep into it on a slant. Water moves easiest up and down or straight across.
4. In a house people are upright two thirds of the time. So the seams and joints are made up-and-down. Because the stress is up-and-down.
5. In a bed where people lie down all the time, the joints and seams are made sideways, because the stress is sideways.
6. Except.
7. A body is not square like a crosstie.
8. Animal magnetism.
9. The animal magnetism of a dead body makes the stress come slanting, so the seams and joints of a coffin are made on the bevel.
10. You can see by an old grave that the earth sinks down on the bevel.
11. While in a natural hole it sinks by the center, the stress being up-and-down.
12. So I made it on the bevel.
13. It makes a neater job” " (Faulkner pgs. 82-83)
Another example is when he sees the coffin on the back of the wagon. He is so worried that can not get the though out of his head. He states that, ""It wont balance. If you want it to tote and ride on a balance, we will have--"
"Pick up. Goddamn you, pick up."
"I'm telling you it wont tote and it wont ride on a balance unless--"
"Pick up! Pick up!, goddamn your thick-nosed soul to hell, pick up!”
It wont balance. If they want it to tote and ride on a balance, they will have" (Faulkner 96) and then states again that, "It wasn't on a balance. I told them that if they wanted it to tote and ride on a balance, they would have to"" (Faulkner 165). He craves the need for everything to be perfect, for everything to be organized that the thought of it not haunts him until they take it off the wagon or something happens to it.
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-#q=definition%20of%20music
http://blogs.harrisonhigh.org/jasenda_league/As%20I%20Lay%20Dying%20Full%20Text.pdf
http://phonojack.com/images/Columbia-AB-Graphophone.jpg
A graphophone is a record playing device that was considered to be the most modern device of its time, which happens to correspond to the time period of the novel. Cash, like the rest of the Bundrens, has an ulterior motive for going to Jefferson: to purchase a graphophone. Cash’s obsession stems from both the balance that music provides as well as the physical structure of the device, which comes from his experience as a carpenter. He describes a graphophone in this manner during a flashback: “The music was playing in the house. It was one of them graphophones. It was natural as a music-band” (Faulkner 235).
In the novel, Cash is a very organized man, some could say that he even craves the organization. We are not diagnosing him with OCD, but he needs to have some form of structure. This is what we believe the graphophone represents; his need for organization. An example is that the graphophone produces music, but more specifically, an organization of "vocal or instrumental sounds (or both) combined in such a way as to produce beauty of form, harmony, and expression of emotion" (Google). Throughout the novel, Cash has always had a form of organization or structure that took up a majority of his time. One such time is when he was constructing his mother’s coffin.
" “I made it on the bevel.
1. There is more surface for the nails to grip.
2. There is twice the gripping-surface to each seam.
3. The water will have to seep into it on a slant. Water moves easiest up and down or straight across.
4. In a house people are upright two thirds of the time. So the seams and joints are made up-and-down. Because the stress is up-and-down.
5. In a bed where people lie down all the time, the joints and seams are made sideways, because the stress is sideways.
6. Except.
7. A body is not square like a crosstie.
8. Animal magnetism.
9. The animal magnetism of a dead body makes the stress come slanting, so the seams and joints of a coffin are made on the bevel.
10. You can see by an old grave that the earth sinks down on the bevel.
11. While in a natural hole it sinks by the center, the stress being up-and-down.
12. So I made it on the bevel.
13. It makes a neater job” " (Faulkner pgs. 82-83)
Another example is when he sees the coffin on the back of the wagon. He is so worried that can not get the though out of his head. He states that, ""It wont balance. If you want it to tote and ride on a balance, we will have--"
"Pick up. Goddamn you, pick up."
"I'm telling you it wont tote and it wont ride on a balance unless--"
"Pick up! Pick up!, goddamn your thick-nosed soul to hell, pick up!”
It wont balance. If they want it to tote and ride on a balance, they will have" (Faulkner 96) and then states again that, "It wasn't on a balance. I told them that if they wanted it to tote and ride on a balance, they would have to"" (Faulkner 165). He craves the need for everything to be perfect, for everything to be organized that the thought of it not haunts him until they take it off the wagon or something happens to it.
https://www.google.com/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-#q=definition%20of%20music
http://blogs.harrisonhigh.org/jasenda_league/As%20I%20Lay%20Dying%20Full%20Text.pdf
http://phonojack.com/images/Columbia-AB-Graphophone.jpg