As I Lay Dying Section 22 - 30
Cash
Cash tries to explain to a family member that the Coffin has not balanced for it to be put on the wagon, but the family member refuses to listen. The voice curses Cash and demands that he lift the coffin.
Darl
None of the Bundrens pay attention to Cash’s complaint that the coffin has not been balanced as the three Bundren brothers carry the coffin to the wagon. Jewel carries the front half and hauls it quickly ahead which prevents the injured Cash from keeping up. Darl tries to tell Jewel to slow down, but Jewel just swears at them all and hauls the coffin almost single-handedly into the coffin with surprising gentleness.
Vardaman
The Bundren family begins to enter the wagon, and Vardaman thinks about the toy train set once more. Jewel heads into the barn and Anse tries to stop him but Jewel doesn’t listen to him. He hears Darl remark that Jewel’s mother is a horse, which confuses him quite a bit since he had thought that his mother was a fish. He expresses this confusion with Darl and both of them discuss what it means to be is.
Cash brings along his tools, as he hopes to disembark at Tull’s home where he needs to build a barn, but Anse complains that it is disrespectful to use her funeral service as a means of fulfilling errands. Dewey Dell then appears with a package that she claims contains the cakes that Cora Tull had made, and she intends to have them sold in Jefferson.
Darl
He watches Anse go towards the barn and notes the package under Dewey Dell’s arm. Anse complains that Jewel shouldn’t ride the horse but that he should ride with all of them on a wagon with the coffin. He believes she would have wanted it that way, and calls Jewel’s actions selfish. The family sets off without Jewel, believing that he will catch up to them though Cash suggests that Jewel stay behind and not come along.
Anse
He thinks how disrespectful it would be for the people to see them taking Addie’s coffin with a horse galloping along with them. An animal that he thinks is more appropriate for the circus than a funeral procession. Anse looks back and sees Darl chortling to himself, and it causes him to wonder how his son could find humor in that state of circumstances. He notes that this is perhaps why people have called him strange.
Darl
The family wagon nears the Tull place just as Jewel catches up with them, and Darl notes Tull observes them. Cash tells Darl about how the stench of their dead mother will become a problem among other technical details that they had to keep in mind, and Darl simply suggests that Cash tell these problems to Jewel, who passes by the wagon on his horse. The horse kicks some dirt onto the wagon that falls on the coffin, and Cash immediately sets to clean it up.
Anse
They near the bridge to Jefferson, and Anse begins to think about how difficult his family is as a farmer. He wonders when he will get his reward and thinks that perhaps his day will come when he is in heaven. They reach the home of another farmer called Samson and receive news that this bridge to Jefferson has also been swept away. Anse is upset that his journey has been complicated further but he knows that it will be worth it when he gets his teeth in Jefferson.
Samson
Samson notes that Bundren’s family wagon passes close to his house, and discusses their plan to bury Addie in Jefferson, although some of the people at his home are surprised that the family hasn’t buried Addie. Quick, a farmer who had attended the funeral, tells the Bundrens about the bridge that had been swept away. Samson offers them a place to stay in his house for the night since they couldn’t journey back immediately. The family uses just the barn of the house and refuses vehemently all other forms of help. Samson is annoyed by Anse’s stubbornness in not accepting help, as he claims that he is the chosen man of God who will see his wife’s will done. Jewel refuses to have the farmer feed his horse, and attempts to buy the horse’s food but the man does not comply.
Rachel, Samson’s wife, is upset that Samson had helped the Bundrens and she expresses her horror that the Bundrens were dragging her corpse around the countryside. Samson attempts to defend Anse with the claim that Addie had desired it, but it just upsets Rachel more. The next morning, the Bundrens leave without any further interaction with Samson, but they leave behind a stench of decomposition in his barn.
Dewey Dell
The family reaches the marker for New hope, and Dewey Dell begins to think about how she has failed to mourn her mother because she has been too consumed with her problems. She repeats the name of New hope to herself and attempts to gather her courage. She thinks about her brothers and imagines killing Darl with a knife. Dewey remembers a time she had slept close to Vardaman and experienced an odd dream in which she couldn’t see or hear but could only feel a cloth nearby.
They choose not to turn into New Hope and make for Tull’s lane although Vardaman asks them why. She expresses her belief in God.
Analysis
In this section, the author develops the theme of false faith in Religion, which has already been explored in the earlier chapters through the characters of Vernon Tull and his wife Cora Tull. These two often claim to hold a higher standing in terms of their faith as Christians than their neighbors. This is certainly true to an extent but ironically, the Bundrens themselves believe to be more faithful to God than the rest, or they pretend to do so. Anse tells Samson that he is the chosen by God to fulfill the task of burying his wife as per her wishes, yet the reader is already aware that Anse is more invested in finding the teeth than burying his wife. Furthermore, Dewey Dell attempts to resolve in herself a belief in God because she believes that her dire situation requires the benevolence of a powerful force.
Darl’s dissociation from his family becomes a little more evident in this section, as Anse catches him laughing to himself while sitting close to Addie’s coffin. The reader can hypothesize that Darl’s laughing fit is in response to his realization about the hollowness of the family’s claim that they are going to Jefferson with the chief of burying Addie. He tries to antagonize his brother Jewel, who happens to pay little attention to Darl’s words and rather focuses on physical expressions of grief.
