Darl XIII (156-164)

"That's a Lucky Break!"

Cash isn't talking, and he has thrown up. Cash isn't talking, but the others try to get him to so they'll know how many of his tools need to be recovered.

Anse keeps saying, "Was there ere a such misfortunate man?" Big help, Anse.

Vernon and Jewel dive to get the tools one by one. Anse says it's lucky Cash broke the same leg as before. (Actually, medically, this is a terrible thing.)

Notice the physicality/sexuality of Dewey Dell being highlighted again:

"Squatting, Dewey Dell's wet dress shapes for the eyes of three blind men those mammalian ludicrosities which are the horizons and the valleys of the earth" (164).

Darl XII (141-149)

"It's Log!"

As they work out their plan to cross, Cash keeps telling them the coffin isn't balanced. Jewel rushes them along, and begins cursing Darl and Cash.

When they're in the water, Darl feels the wagon start to go. A log comes along, and Jewel can't pull them ahead of it. The log turns the wagon over, and the mules start floating away, hooves in the air.

Major plot points in this book are usually narrated by Darl, the most lucid:

"Before us the thick dark current runs. It talks up to us in a murmur...silent, impermanent and profoundly significant..." (141)

Note the adverb "monstrously" used to describe the river's movement.

Cash repeats himself when stressed: "I ought to come down last week and sighted" (twice) and "It ain't on a balance" (three times).

Check out this florid passage:

"...pa and Vernon and Vardaman and Dewey Dell are the only things in sight not of that single monotony of desolation leaning with that terrific quality a little from right to left, as though we had reached the place where the motion of the wasted world accelerates just before the final precipice" (146). Whew!

The following description of Cash is alliteratively accurate: "His face is calm, down-sloped, calculant, concerned" (147).

Darl XI (128-136)

"How Jewel Got His Horse"

Darl remembers how Jewel got his horse. For 5 months, Jewel was falling asleep all the time. Turns out he was working at night to save up for the horse.

In the meantime, Addie made the others help with his chores, paying Dewey Dell to do the milking for Jewel because she thought Darl was sick. Sometimes she'd secretly make things for Jewel and hide them. Darl realized Jewel was gone every night because of the lantern and at first thought it was a woman. Cash followed him one night and learned the truth, but doesn't tell.

Note Addie's hypocrisy:

"She would fix him special things to eat and hide them for him. And that may have been when I first found it out, that Addie Bundren should be hiding anything she did, who had tried to teach us that deceit was such that, in a world where it was, nothing else could be very bad or very important, not even poverty" (130).

There is also the 800 lb. gorilla in the room:

"It was as though, so long as the deceit ran along quiet and monotonous, all of us let ourselves be deceived, abetting it unawares or maybe through cowardice, since all people are cowards and naturally prefer any kind of treachery because it has a bland outside" (134).

This isn't all about the horse, though:

"Jewel looked at pa, his eyes paler than ever. 'He wont never eat a mouthful of yours,' he said. 'Not a mouthful. I'll kill him first...'"

And at this moment, Darl knows he knows the big 'secret' about Jewel:

"And then I knew that I knew. I knew that as plain on that day as I knew about Dewey Dell on that day." (136)

Darl X (107-109)

"Smelly Corpse Passes Tull's"

The funeral procession passes Tull's place. Cash observes that in a couple of days Addie will be smelling. (Darl has already mentioned this.)

Jewel rides by, and splashes mud on the coffin, which Cash then scours with a willow.

Compare Cash and Darl's powers of perception. Also, the symbolism of the mud and the coffin is hard to miss.

Darl VII (94-95)

"Your Mom is a Horse"

Darl and Jewel return. Darl tells Jewel at least it's not his horse that's dead. The others have been waiting for them to return.

Darl: I cannot love my mother because I have no mother. Jewel's mother is a horse. (95)

Again, Jewel is described as "wooden" and "wooden-backed, wooden-faced" (95).

Why does Darl say Jewel's mother is a horse? Is Darl right?

In response, Jewel curses Darl. This conflict is widening.

Darl VI (75-81)

"Darl is Dang Lonely"

Darl imagines how the completion of the coffin must have went. Cash finishes it with help from Tull, while Anse is of no use: Anse "lifts his face, slack-mouthed" (76) at the rain, like a turkey. Cash has to arrange for the shelter of the lamp himself. They take the coffin in the house.

"...again he looks up at the sky with that expression of dumb and brooding outrage and yet of vindication, as though he had expected no less" (77-78).

Darl has a strange meditation on his loneliness, sleep, awareness, and existence in general (80-81). It wouldn't hurt to chart this, as there must be some philosophical depths to be explored.

Darl V (47-52)

"Darl's Clairvoyance"

Faulkner often does things in a non-traditional way, and he breaks a narrative rule here by having a character describe events he was not actually present for. Why does he do this? (If your answer is that Darl doesn't need to be there to know what his crazy family would be doing, you are absolutely correct. He knows them well enough to know.)

Darl, not present for Addie's death, describes how it would go down:

Dewey Dell claims it's Jewel that Addie wants to see. Addie raises herself to get a look at the coffin, then lies down and dies. Dewey Dell, drama queen, falls on her mother, keening. Anse blames Darl and Jewel for not being there with the wagon.

Faulkner alternates this scene with a cutback (in italics) to Darl and Jewel in the wagon. It's stuck in the mud.

It goes back and forth like this, and the threads of each character come out: 1) Dewey Dell begins her campaign with Peabody ("you could do so much for me if you only knew" (51); 2) Cash's obsession with the coffin--his pantomime is hilarious (48); and Anse's final words over Addie? "Now I can get them teeth" (52).

How does Darl end the chapter?

Darl IV (39-40)

"Darl Tries to Set Jewel Straight"

Basically, two things are happening here: Darl keeps asking Jewel if he knows Addie's going to die, and Dewey Dell conitues to freak out about Darl possibly telling pa about her and Lafe.

As we will see, Darl seems to enjoy needling Jewel. Why does he do this?

What particularly nasty thing does Darl accuse Dewey Dell of, and what is the cause, according to Darl?

Notice the storm clouds are threatening again.

Darl III (16-18)

"One Load Before Addie Goes"

Okay, kiddies. Darl thinks his father is lazy and worthless. Which he is. Anse thinks that if Addie dies, she'll be disappointed if they couldn't start out immediately for Jefferson. Darl says if she dies, they'll need the $3.00 they'd get from selling the wood. ($3.00 was a considerable amount back then.)

The conflict between Darl and Jewel continues. Watch this one. Jewel's eyes are described as "pale wood" (17) and Jewel is said to have "pale wooden eyes" (18). What are we supposed to be picking up here?

Jewel, according to Darl, was both whipped more and petted more by Addie. Adse accuses Jewel of having no "affection or gentleness" for Addie. Watch how Jewel acts whenever the subject is brought up, and how he treats the coffin. A lot of anger there.

Addie's family burying ground is in Jefferson, 40 miles away. A big jaunt by horse and wagon. Darl and Jewel promise to be back by tomorrow sundown.

Darl II (10-13)

"Jewel vs. the Horse"

In this chapter we learn that Vernon Tull never went to town in his overalls, according to Darl.

Darl also spends some time describing Jewel's complicated nature. For example, he caresses the horse, and also abuses it, a la Mongo in Blazing Saddles. Well, maybe not that bad.

Faulkner talks about horses an awful lot in this book, especially with regard to Jewel. Pay attention to this theme.

An interesting word? Myriad.

Darl I (3-5)

"Walking 2 the Cottonhouse"

The edition we are using to study As I Lay Dying is the one to your right. Blog entries will be titled by character name followed by a roman numeral when necessary.

In addition to this, I have taken another cue from Adler and renamed the chapters. Why do this? It forces you to summarize, and it reinforces the story. (I like to make mine comical whenever possible, but of course, you will be the judge of that.)

It's a good idea to take note of first sentences: "Jewel and I come up from the field, following the path in single file." Is there any special significance to this? Maybe, but I don't think we have enough information to tell yet. Is it important that Darl has the first say? Again, we don't know yet.

Reading through this chapter, we do learn that Darl is highly perceptive and given to noticing small details, such as the cottonhouse. He also devotes some time to talking about Jewel, whom he describes as having a "wooden face" (4). Darl will often describe Jewel in terms of wood...we need to figure out why.

Jewel goes through the house, and not around it, as Darl does. It is not explained why he does this, but can we make a guess? At the very least, we should keep this in mind.

We learn about some other people as well: Tull, who owns the wagon; Cash, who's building the coffin; and Addie Bundren, who will be put in the coffin soon.

Two neat things to notice: 1) the use of the word delapidation, which has an interesting etymology, and the use of onomatopoeia of Cash using the adze. "Chuck. Chuck. Chuck."