As I Lay Dying Section 15 - 21
Vardaman
Cash works on the coffin, which causes Vardaman to be quite upset. Dewey Dell tries to cheer him up by talking to him about the bananas they would get in Jefferson when they would go to bury Addie. Vardaman momentarily forgets about the death of his mother as he remembers the toy red train-set that he had seen at a shop front. He later watches Anse pace back and forth over his mother’s body. He begins to think about how the dead fish and his mother had once been alive but were no longer so. He questions the concept of being and not being, as he asks himself about the differences between is, is not, was, and was not.
Tull
Cora sees Peabody’s horses gallop past her house, and intuitively knows that Addie has passed away. She tries to get going to the Bundren house with Tull, but he tries to discourage the notion that Addie has passed away. Tull is soon forced to believe Cora, as Vardaman comes to Tull’s door, and talks about how his mother is now like the fish that is not, but Tull believes that Vardaman is suffering due to Anse’s lack of religious faith. They take Vardaman back to the Bundren house, and Tull helps Cash put the coffin together. Anse circles them as they work, lifting a plank awkwardly and resetting it. Tull discourages him and asks him to get inside away from the rain, and Anse finally returns to the shelter of the house after Cash insists the same. Cash and Tull finish the coffin and carry it into the home with Peabody’s help. They nail Addie into the coffin and find that Vardaman drills two holes into the coffin to help his mother breathe but he bores holes into her face as well.
Darl
Darl and Jewel have been delayed in returning home, Darl tries to engage Jewel in conversation but he doesn’t respond. Darl describes Cash finishing the coffin and how it is brought into the house. He thinks about becoming empty for sleep and then conducts a thought experiment as he wonders about the difference between is and is not.
Cash
He presents a numerical list of the thirteen reasons why he chose to build Addie’s coffin on a bevel, the chief reason being that the nails would have more surface to grip.
Vardaman
He concludes that his mother is a fish.
Tull
Tull brings Peabody’s horseback and then returns for the funeral service at ten am. During the funeral, he engages a few of the neighboring farmers in conversation. They discuss Anse’s plans to have Addie buried in Jefferson several miles away rather than in New Hope, where the rest of the Bundren clan had been buried. Tull tries to defend Anse’s reasoning as he claims that it had been Addie’s wish and Anse merely wished to fulfill it for her sake. The farmers discuss the ongoing heavy rainfall and how it has led to the river reaching a dangerous level. They fear that the local bridge will be swept away if the river continues to rise. Anse appears in his Sunday clothes but he still manages to appear unkempt. Tull sees Cash working on wooden pegs to close the holes that Vardaman had bored into the coffin.
Whitfield, the local priest arrives and informs the gathered people that the local bridge has been swept away by the river. He had been forced to ford the river on horseback as he had been determined to arrive for Addie’s funeral service. Tull discusses the injury to Cash’s leg that had occurred when he had been working on the church. After the funeral service, Tull returns home and finds Vardaman trying to catch a fish in the bog. He tries to stop him and take him back home but Vardaman insists that there was a fish in the bog as Dewey Dell had claimed to have seen one.
Darl
Darl and Jewel continue on their journey home, and Darl points out the buzzards flying overhead to Jewel but he does not respond. Darl mocks Jewel by telling him that it wasn’t his horse that had died. He continues to think about his relationship with his mother and then concludes that Jewel’s mother is a horse.
Analysis
In this section of the book, the reader sees the development of the theme of heroic action versus self-interest. Dewey Dell tries to uplift Vardaman by telling him about the bananas they could eat during their trip to Jefferson but Vardaman begins thinking about a to train set. In this instance, Vardaman becomes like the rest of Bundrens, who merely outwardly state that their trip to Jefferson is about burying Addie when in fact they have their reasons. Anse wishes to get his new teeth, Dewey Dell needs to see the doctor about her pregnancy, and now Vardaman wants to get a toy.
Vardaman and Darl are the most philosophical narrators in the book, as the death of their mother drives them to consider the meaning of mortality and existence. They perform complex thought experiments in their everyday language as they seek to understand the meaning of death. Vardaman begins to equate his dead mother with the dead fish, but when he bores holes in the coffin to help her he decides that his mother is no longer in that body but in the cut-up body of the fish, which is why he is so horrified when he learns that Dewey has cooked the fish. Darl’s ability to narrate the actions occurring in the Bundren home is just one of several unexplained mystical occurrences in the plot of the book.
This section also features Cash, the eldest Bundren sibling, who seems to be a kind of foil to the rest of the Bundrens as he is truly selfless. Cash is a christ-like carpenter who seems to genuinely put the need of the others ahead of his own, however, it should is also interesting to note that he isn’t able to complete the coffin without Tull’s help. Anse’s inability or unwillingness to participate in the construction of the coffin stands out as another example of his flawed nature.
