What is As I Lay Dying About summary?
Plot summary
It is the story of the death of Addie Bundren and her poor, rural family’s quest and motivations—noble or selfish—to honor her wish to be buried in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi.
What is the overall message of As I Lay Dying?
As I Lay Dying is not only about mortality insofar as it concerns Addie Bundren’s death. More deeply, the novel explores the theme of mortality by showing each of Addie’s family members, loved ones, and other acquaintances offer unique responses to her death, attempting to make sense of the nature of existence.
Who is the antagonist of As I Lay Dying?
Anse
Anse (sort of)
Anse is selfish and rather directly stands in between his children and their various dreams: Jewel and his horse, Dewey Dell and her abortion, Cash and his graphophone.
What does the cow symbolize in As I Lay Dying?
The cow, swollen with milk, signifies to Dewey Dell the unpleasantness of being stuck with an unwanted burden. Jewel and his horse add a new wrinkle to the use of animals as symbols.
What happened in the end of As I Lay Dying?
Shortly after Darl and Jewel leave, Addie dies. The youngest Bundren child, Vardaman, associates his mother’s death with that of a fish he caught and cleaned earlier that day. With some help, Cash completes the coffin just before dawn.
What are some symbols in As I Lay Dying?
As I Lay Dying Symbols
- The Coffin. The coffin symbolizes the sense of weight and lack of balance (literally and figuratively) that the Bundrens take on by carting Addie all the way to Jefferson to be buried.
- Jewel’s Horse.
- Fish.
- Tools.
What happens to Darl at the end of As I Lay Dying?
Darl is the second oldest child, behind Cash, of Addie and Anse Bundren and the leading narrator throughout the novel. At the end of the journey he is sent to an insane asylum in Jackson, his family classified him as mentally insane. Darl was not insane, he was just the only sane man in the insane Bundren world.
What is the setting of As I Lay Dying?
Faulkner’s fictitious Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, the 1920s.
Who is the main character in As I Lay Dying?
Addie BundrenDarl BundrenCash BundrenAnseJewel Bundren
As I Lay Dying/Characters
Why is Vardaman mother a fish?
Let’s start with Vardaman’s decision that his mother is a fish. Vardaman caught a fish and was holding it in his hands. Then he cut it all up into little pieces; once it was cut up, it was no longer a fish. So it was a fish, and then it was not a fish.
Why is Darl insane in As I Lay Dying?
Darl Bundren, however, is declared insane because he thinks differently from his family. Darl serves as the primary narrator in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, a story of one dysfunctional family’s journey through the Mississippi countryside to the town of Jefferson to bury their matriarch.
What is the last sentence of As I Lay Dying?
Then Anse introduces his children. “‘It’s Cash and Jewel and Vardaman and Dewey Dell,’ [Anse] says, kind of hangdog and proud too, with his teeth and all, even if he wouldn’t look at [them].” And then comes the concluding sentence: “‘Meet Mrs. Bundren,’ he says.
What is the conflict in As I Lay Dying?
major conflict When transporting the recently deceased Addie to her burial site, the Bundren family struggles against the forces of nature and injury in its river-crossing and the aftermath. The Bundrens struggle internally as Darl begins to question the logic of carrying Addie’s body all the way to Jefferson.
What does the river symbolize in As I Lay Dying?
The dead body of Addie is put upside down in the coffin. The imbalanced coffin in the river stands for the imbalance life of the Bundrens.
Is Darl a schizophrenic?
Darl, then, is not schizophrenic. A common criticism is that Darl has post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD; I do not quite agree with this either.
What happened at the end of As I Lay Dying?
When a stray log upsets the wagon, the coffin is knocked out, Cash’s broken leg is reinjured, and the team of mules drowns. Vernon Tull sees the wreck, and helps Jewel rescue the coffin and the wagon from the river.
What is the significance of the fish in As I Lay Dying?
After Addie’s death, Vardaman realizes that the fish, like his mother, is now in a different state of existence than before, leading him to conclude, “My mother is a fish.” This connection between Addie and fish emerges once again during the river episode, as Vardaman compares his mother’s coffin to the fish in the …
Does Darl have schizophrenia?
The leading diagnosis of the character Darl Bundren, as given by the critics, is schizophrenia (Simon 106).
What is the setting in As I Lay Dying?
Why did Darl burn the barn?
In the early part of this section, Darl tells Vardaman that he heard his mother asking to be hidden from the sight of man. This is one of the motivating reasons behind Darl’s decision to burn the barn. It can be assumed that Darl saw through the ridiculousness and absurdity of the entire procession.
What does Darl suffer from in As I Lay Dying?
So by the end of the novel, Darl is most definitely insane. From the very beginning of the book the man was not in perfect mental health. The events of the trip caused him to inevitably devolve into a truly insane person. However, he cannot be diagnosed with a specific psychosis.