As I Lay Dying Section 31 - 40
Tull
Vernon Tull watches the Bundrens make for the riverside with the submerged bridge and follows them with his mule. He finds the family on the side of the river, contemplating a way to cross the bridge. He dissuades them as he suggests that they wait another day until the river lowers to attempt the crossing. Jewel berates Tull for following them, and Anse insists that they need to cross to keep their word to Addie, and most of the Bundrens are in agreement. They try to get Vernon Tull’s mule to help but he refuses outright despite Jewel’s violent words. Darl taunts Tull as well, but eventually, Tull helps Anse, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman across the river while the three brothers prepare to take the wagon across.
Darl
He sees Jewel’s angry reaction as Tull refuses to let them use his mule. He recalls the time when Jewel had developed a sleep problem in his fifteenth year. He would fall asleep throughout the day during the most vigorous of chores, and Addie became concerned that he was sick. Anse refused to call a doctor because he thought Jewel was just being lazy and insisted that he do all of his chores. Addie would get the other siblings to secretly complete Jewel’s chores as she did not wish to have Jewel find out.
Darl observed that Jewel was missing from his room in the night, and shared the information with Cash. The eldest Bundren followed Jewel but did not reveal his secret to Darl even upon discovering it. Then in November, Jewel rode into the farm on a beautiful horse. Anse in particular was shocked to learn that his son could afford to buy a horse, and Cash confirms that Jewel had earned the money by plowing a farmer’s field. He had done it at night with the help of a lantern.
Addie falls to tears upon seeing Jewel on the horse, and Cash tells her to get inside out of the mud. Her tears make Jewel uncomfortable as well. Later that night, Darl finds Addie silently weeping over a sleeping Jewel, and says that it was the moment he knew it just like he had known it with Dewey Dell.
Darl
Anse and the others reach the other side with Tull’s help while the three brothers move downriver to a place in the river that can be used for crossing. Jewel remains behind the wagon on his horse while Darl and Cash ride on the wagon. Cash attempts to tell Darl to cross along with the others but he chooses to stay with his brother. The mule team for the wagon seems to be horrified, but they enter the water all the same. The crossing goes well until a log appears out of nowhere and hits the wagon. Darl can get away from the wagon in time, while Cash continues to hold onto the coffin and his toolbox.
The mule team drowns in the river as Darl escapes from the wagon.
Vardaman
Vardaman watches as Cash holds onto the coffin, and how it drags him into the water but eventually, Cash loses his grip on the coffin. Darl is coming out of the river when the coffin begins to flow away, and Vardaman rushes to him. He warns him that their mother is a fish, and Darl tries to hold onto the coffin but fails to do so.
Tull
He journeys back home and tells her all about the fiasco at the river, and she believes that it is God punishing Anse for his lack of faith in him. Tull recalls the distressed cry of Vardaman as the coffin fell into the river, but that Jewel had grabbed onto the rope that held the wagon and coffin. He kept them from being taken by the river, but Cash had sustained some injuries in the river as he had struggled to hold onto the coffin.
Darl
He recalls how Cash had been washed up on the riverside, unconscious and lying near a pool of his vomit. They had carried him away, while the others recovered the wagon along with the coffin. The only things that had been lost in the river were the tools. Jewel took it upon himself to go into the river and find all of Cash’s tools. Cash is found lying on the riverside near vomit
Jewel retrieves Cash’s tools while Cash lays unconscious, they try to wake him but he makes no response.
Cash
Cash repeats his assertion that the coffin wasn’t balanced, and recalls all the times that he had tried to explain this fact to the rest of his family.
Cora
Cora had somewhat of a close relationship with Addie, but she had always been repelled by Addie’s talk of understanding her sin. She had tried to explain to Addie that only God could judge our sins and that it was unchristian for her to do so herself. Addie however claimed that she understood her sins.
Cora thinks that Addie is referring to the love she has for Jewel over her other children, but she also believes that she has been punished by Jewel’s indifference. She tells Addie that Jewel is her sin, and Addie agrees but she stops herself from adding why. She then tells her that Jewel was both her cross and salvation as he would one day save her from water and fire.
Addie
Addie Bundren recalls the miserable days she had as a school teacher when she would sneak away to a quiet corner during the break and hate her students. She remembers catching the eye of a young Anse, who approaches her and asks to marry her right off the bat. He is extremely awkward but seems dedicated, and Addie knows of the little wealth he has in the form of land. She tells him that her ancestors were all buried in Jefferson, and agrees to marry him.
She remembers having Cash and Darl as an intrusion of her life. She suddenly lost her independence and felt little affection for Anse. Joy returned to her life in the form of an affair with the local minister Whitfield. She enjoyed her time with him, but the experience her left with a distrust of religion. Jewel was born from her union with Whitfield, and to compensate Anse, she gave him Dewey Dell and Vardaman.
Cora tries to pray for Addie as she believes that Addie has no understanding of Sin, but Addie doesn’t quite agree.
Analysis
In this section, we gain a greater insight into the disturbing dynamics of the Bundren family. This dysfunction becomes truly evident in the section with the story about Jewel’s purchase of a horse. Horses were a commodity that poor whites couldn’t generally afford at the time, and Anse even describes them as a circus animals in an earlier section. The family does not experience any significant amount of joy at this revelation, Anse’s response is anger that his son has given his labor to another farmer while eating his food. Addie’s reaction to the horse is also strange, as her tears could either stem from a sense of pride or a feeling of being betrayed by a secret by her favorite child. This account is also accompanied by prominent foreshadowing as Darl claims to gain knowledge of a secret much like the one he had found about Dewey Dell.
The theme of action over words returns in this section, through the characters of Addie and Jewel. Addie specifically asserts that words mean nothing in her narrative section. Jewel provides further reasons for why he is unlike the Bundrens as he is the only one to take action to save the coffin, and then later retrieve Cash’s tools. Addie’s narrative section further highlights the innovative narrative structure that makes As I lay Dying. The author doesn’t explain when Addie has thought these thoughts, or at which point in her life she had these recollections. This chaotic and non-linear structure of the plot makes reading this book an interactive process.
