As I Lay Dying Section 1 - 7
As I Lay Dying is written in a non-linear manner and is told from the perspective of 15 narrators, which chiefly include the members of the Bundren family.
Darl
Darl Bundren returns to his home with his brother, Jewel Bundren, who as Darl notes is much taller and bigger than the rest of the members of their family. They walk in a single file, and come across an old cotton house, Darl goes around it while Jewel walks through the cotton house. They find a wagon at the foot of the bluff that belongs to their neighbor Vernon Tull and his wife Cora Tull. They climb the bluff to their home and hear the sawing of Cash’s tool before they see the house. Cash, the eldest Bundren sibling, is building a coffin for his mother, Addie, as she lies on her deathbed. None of them interact with Cash, and Darl enters the house while Jewel goes to the barn.
Cora
Cora Tull sits in Addie Bundren’s room and watches Dewey Dell, Addie’s tomboyish seventeen-year-old daughter fan her dying mother. Cora’s daughters are upset at a lady from town on her behalf, as that lady had ordered a set of cakes from her and then rescinded the order after Cora had made the cakes. Cora doesn’t begrudge the lady even though she had a shortage of laying chickens as well as eggs. Cora remembers Addie’s cakes and comments that Addie did not appear to have made peace with God. She sees Darl come to the door of his mother’s room, and stare at her without ever talking to anyone in the room.
Darl
Anse Bundren and Vernon Tull are sitting on the back porch, and Darl finds them there. Anse asks about Jewel’s whereabouts, but Darl focuses on taking a drink of water from a wooden receptacle. He thinks about all the times he would stay awake late at night just to have a proper drink from the wooden bucket. He tells his father that Jewel is in the barn with his horse, and he narrates to the reader the aggressive nature of Jewel’s relationship with his horse. Jewel rides the horse, returns to the barn, curses the horse, and feeds it.
Jewel
Jewel hates how his brother Cash is making his mother’s coffin right before her eyes, where she can hear him sawing the planks. He hates his sister Dewey for fanning her without giving her a moment of peace, and that the neighbors have come to their home to stare at his dying mother. If Jewel had his way, he and his mother would be alone on the bluff with the rest of them at the bottom, where he could throw rocks at them.
Darl
Darl and Jewel discuss running an errand for Vernon Tull, with Vernon and Anse. Anse is worried that they won’t be able to return to the house before Addie’s death, but Darl reminds him that it would get them three dollars. Vernon counters that Addie is looking better so she would likely remain alive for the duration of the errand, but Jewel hates that Vernon is allowed to give any input on their family matter. Jewel also becomes upset when his father discusses the plans to take Addie’s body to Jefferson for her burial since she hasn’t passed away yet. Anse allows the boys to leave for the errand but reminds them to return before sunset.
Cora
She thinks about how Addie had coddled her son, Jewel, who seemed unaffected by her affection, and contrasts that with Darl’s love for her despite her seeming indifference to him. She recalls the discussion she had with Vernon about the Bundren family’s plan to bury Addie in Jefferson, several miles away from their home. Vernon had explained that it had been Addie’s desire, but Cora still seems to blame Anse. Her recollection is interrupted by Dewey Dell asking her brother what he wanted. Darl doesn’t respond to his sister’s question and continues to stare, which makes Cora think that he is too emotional to speak.
Dewey Dell
Dewey is fanning her mother, but she’s thinking about the time she had gone cotton picking with a laborer, Lafe, from their farm. They had decided that they would make love if Dewey’s basket would be full at the end of their picking. Lafe had cheated by secretly putting his cotton into her basket, and so she had had no choice in the matter. She worries about being pregnant now and believes that her brother Darl knows, just as he knows that their mother is going to die. She knows he knows because he has told her without words, without ever telling her. She asks him what he wants.
Analysis
The title of the book is drawn from Book 11 Homer’s Odyssey, as Agamemnon tells Odysseus about how his wife had watched him be killed. Agamemnon’s death has served as inspiration for several artists who have always depicted the complicated nature of the murder through portraits of the House of Atreus. This reference leads the reader to question the connection between the House of Atreus and the Bundren family. There is only one connection, and it is that of hate that exists between the family members. The Bundren family members hate each other just as the members of the House of Atreus had hated one another. The author develops this hate rather gradually, but it is most evident in the narrative of Jewel and Dewey Dell.
The novel’s title invokes the Odyssey, as it is an epic journey much like the Odyssey, which described Odysseus’s return to Ithaca after the Trojan War. This novel describes an epic journey of Addie’s corpse, as the Bundren family overcomes hurdles in their quest to have their mother and wife, Addie Bundren, buried in Jefferson, which was the place of her family.
