Cash III (165)

Cash says the coffin wasn't balanced. Even though Cash has a broken leg, this is all he can think about. He gets cut off mid-sentence; we really don't need to hear the rest...

Ironically, it wouldn't have made a difference.

Tull VI (152-155)

"Chaos!"

Tull relates everything to Cora. He says that Darl jumped free (Cash told him to, but Cora accuses him of cowardice). Jewel holds onto the rope at the other bank.

Where's Anse during all this? Like you have to ask.

Cora: "I notice Anse was too smart to been on it a-tall." (152)

Tull: "I don't know what you want, then," I said. "One breath you say they was daring the hand of God to try it, and the next breath you jump on Anse because he wasn't with them." (153)

Cora's argument-ender:

"...with that singing look in her face like she had done give up folks and their foolishness and had done went on ahead of them, marching up the sky, singing." (153)

By the way, Cash can't swim! (154)

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 VIII (97-99)

"Jewel in a Hurry"

Jewel, impatient and green-faced, rushes the loading of the coffin. Darl's side "coasts like a rushing straw upon the furious tide of Jewel's despair" (99). Dang, that is a poetic line.

Jewel hurls the coffin into the wagon. (This is how Jewel grieves; compare it to the reactions of the others.)

Cash II (96)

"The Coffin's Off-Balance"

While the coffin is being loaded, Cash keeps saying the same thing...it's off balance. Jewel curses him.

Note how the chapter ends on an incomplete sentence...as if the chapter is going on without

Cash I (82-83)

"Cash's Coffin How-To"

Step-by-step, Cash recounts exactly how he made the coffin. "On the bevel," he says.

Why does he make this list? Clearly Cash is literal-minded, and he has concerned himself with nothing but the coffin in this book. He never even mentions his mother's death in this chapter. We call this sublimation.

Tull II (68-74)

"Tull Helps Finish the Coffin"

Cora and Tull see Peabody's team come by; they argue about who it is first. Now, the rain has broken.

Vardaman comes to the door, standing in the rain and going on about Tull having seen the fish. Cora attributes this behavior to grief.

Vernon thinks Darl's problem is that he thinks too much.

Vernon helps Cash finish the coffin, and they put Addie in it. They do this because Vardaman wouldn't stop opening the windows of the cabin so she could "breathe." Finally, Vardaman goes to sleep next to the coffin after having srilled holes in it. Two holes had been bored into her face.

Vardaman's behavior is a little more understandable because of what he said in the last chapter. Granted, he's not all there, but at least he has his reasons.

Why have a dull character like Tull (dull/Tull, ha) narrate a crazy scene like this?

Cora, judgmental as always, remarks: "I see the hand of the Lord upon this boy [Vardaman] for Anse Bundren's judgment and warning." (72)

Meanwhile, Tull comments on Cora: "I reckon she would make a few changes, no matter how He was running it." What is Tull referring to, exactly?

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?

Jewel (14-15)

"Jewel's Complaints"

This is the only section Jewel narrates, so pay attention.

Clearly Jewel is bitter about Addie's death. He complains about Cash building the coffin where Addie can see it, and concludes that he wants to impress her, just like when he was a boy. For proof, he offers a comical story involving the young Cash and dung.

Jewel complains that Addie is being crowded; he feels the non-stop fanning by Dewey Dell (his sister) is harming Addie because she's too weak to breathe in the moving air.

We learn about Cash and Pa's (Adse's) injuries. Jewel does not think kindly of either of these two men, either.

Note the three times "one lick less" is used with regard to the adze, just as "chuck" was used in the first chapter. Also pay attention to the way violent symbols are used with regard to Jewel, and Faulkner's combination of the funny and the dramatic--for instance, Jewel's pain about his mother's dying (expressed in violent ways) vs. the funny story about Cash.

Cora (6-9)

"Cora and the Cakes"

In this chapter we are introduced to Cora, as well as a number of other characters. Cora is helping out the household with some cooking out of a sense of Christian charity. We learn that she is entreprenurial, money-conscious, and more or less resigned to God's will, so she says.

We learn that Addie Bundren is old and wasted away, but not yet dead. She's covered with a heavy quilt despite the heat.

Cash continues on the coffin outside, unseen.

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."