Cash Character Analysis

In William Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying; the use of stream of conscienceness to highlight characterization by the namesake and the characters around them. Cash is one of the most complex characters of the novel, often described as the quiet child of Anse and Addie Bundren, never without a hammer or nails in his hands. Cash is dealt the task of building his dear mother's coffin when she falls ill, a task that could not be assigned to a better person.
It in no secret that in the novel Faulkner chooses to have Addie show affection only towards her illegitimate child, Jewel, conceived with the reverend Whitfield in a fit of passion, probably to escape her chosen (or forced) life with Anse. Cash is the second eldest of the children, and one of the most ignored by his mother, perhaps because he is also Anse's son. Indeed, Cash is not given a chance to speak by Faulkner for the first 81 pages of the novel, during which he is consistently described as 'sawing the boards that look like sulphur' a peculiar choice to describe wood. Cash's sawing is 'like snoring,' and the steadiness is uninterrupted until Addie calls to him through the window and he holds up a board for approval by the future occupant.
Cash is often described with a gaunt face, one that 'is a composite of him since childhood' that reflects the pain and tiredness of his body although he is young. Cash comes into the house looking like an outdoorsman with the sawdust from the coffin covering his arms to make them appear as sand. Cash's first chapter only describes the way he cut the boards for the coffin, as on the bevel to make a cleaner job for the last residnce of his mother. Cash drills into the coffin, nailing the final nail into his mother's coffin, cementing her death.
His emphasis on the construction of the coffin hints at carpentry as a possible method to substitute the affection he needed from his mother that never came his way. Carpentry is Cash's method of expressing himself and escaping from the hustble and tired causing household in which he resides. When Cash is thrown into the river and breaks his leg, he does not object the puring of cement on his leg, although common sense would have told anyone that it was a bad idea to put a somewhat corrosive material on human skin.
Cash is the most neglected besides Darl and instead of bottling it up like his brother he shows himself as a presence within the household when they arrive in Jefferson, stepping up as the eldest child in presenace when Darl is sent to the institution. Cash is pitiful, and although not one of my favorite characters, his unique interactions with his family make him a standout.