As I Lay Dying
Themes/Symbols/Motifs
Obstacles:
1) Discuss the symbol of the river. How does the description of the river and the river
crossing relate to the method of narration? How might this scene of the river crossing be
seen as a metaphor? What does the image of the river say about the emotions of the
scene?
Consider Darl’s section (just before Vardaman's description of the river crossing):
“Before us the thick dark current runs. It talks up to us in a murmur become ceaseless and
myriad, the yellow surface dimpled monstrously into fading swirls traveling along the
surface for an instant, silent, impermanent and profoundly significant, as though just
beneath the surface something huge and alive waked for a moment of lazy alertness out
of and into light slumber again…”
2) Compare the four different perspectives prominent in the description of the crossing:
Darl, Tull, Vardaman, and Cash. How does each of these four narrators describe the
river? What is the relationship between the way they see the world, the images they
attach themselves to, and the way they describe the river crossing? Consider especially
Vardaman's stream-of-consciousness style, where the toss and tumble of his thoughts as
reflective of the turmoil of the flooded river. Cash, in his brief section that might be
considered the conclusion of the river crossing, measures the attempt according to his
carpenter precision: "It wasn't on balance."
Hope and Loss
3) Read the 10th Darl section; it contains this passage:
“It [the New Hope sign] wheels up like a motionless hand lifted above the profound
desolation of the ocean; beyond it the red road lies like a spoke of which Addie Bundren
is the rim. It wheels past, empty, unscarred, the white signboard turns away its fading and
tranquil assertion.
4) Discuss this image—the road "like a spoke of which Addie Bundren is the rim"—in
depth. How does this image reflect the structure of the story? Consider:
The symbol of the wheel—how can this be interpreted in relation to family? To narrative
form?
*If Addie is the rim, what or who might the spokes represent?
*Why is the "New Hope" sign a "fading and tranquil assertion"? Is there a role for "new
hope" in
this novel?
Death and Dying
5) What does the portrait of the Bundrens look like? Are they as rotten as Addie's corpse,
full of despair and dissolution? Or are they a tribute to the vigor and resolve of a
Southern family, attempting to successfully complete an overwhelming task?
6) The title of the novel, As I Lay Dying, indicates action that occurs simultaneous to the
death of the matriarch—what else might be "dying"? The South? The authority of the
narrator? The institution of the family? How does Faulkner's artistic depth allows for all
of these possibilities.
Despair and Desolation:
8) One way of reading the novel is to see the myths of the South slowly revealed to be as
rotten as the corpse of Addie Bundren. How do the desires of each family member reveal
in different ways this sense of despair and dissolution? Consider, for example, Anse's
false teeth (and new wife), Dewey Dell's failed abortion, Darl's 'madness,' Cash's lost
tools, and Jewel's bartered horse.
Success and Endurance
9) Another way of reading the novel involves recognizing the images of success and
endurance. To do this look at the comedic and optimistic aspects of the novel. Many of
the Bundrens, after all, do succeed in their endeavors, especially Anse, who not only gets
his new teeth but also finds a new "Mrs. Bundren"—possibly a hopeful indication for
progeny and prosperity.
10) What does the final portrait of the Bundrens look like? Are they as rotten as Addie's
corpse, full of despair and dissolution? Or are they a tribute to the vigor and resolve of a
Southern family, who successfully complete an overwhelming task? Does Faulkner truly
resolve this issue