As I Lay Dying Section 51 - 59
Vardaman
Jewel sustains a serious burn to his back, and Cash’s leg continues to deteriorate. His feet turn completely black, and Vardaman notes the similar appearance of Cash’s leg and Jewel’s medicine-covered back. Anse breaks Cash’s cast, and he refuses to complain about seeing a doctor. They realize that Darl has disappeared, but Vardaman finds him crying next to Addie’s coffin. He comforts the weeping Darl and thinks about what he had seen the previous night while looking for the buzzards, but Dewey Dell had told him never to speak of it.
Darl
Cash’s leg has visibly turned terrifying as it continues to have cement shards stuck to the skin of his legs as they approach Jefferson, and Dewey Dell argues with Anse as she wishes for him to stop the wagon once before they reach Jefferson. Anse reluctantly halts the wagon, and Dewey goes behind some bushes. She returns wearing her Sunday clothes with stockings and a necklace. Anse berates her and they continue on their way.
They come across a group of men on the road, and one of them makes a crude remark about the pungent smell of the wagon that Jewel happens to overhear. He berates the men with abusive words, and one of them pulls out a knife to fight Jewel, but Darl intervenes and explains that Jewel did not mean the words he had used. They continue on their journey but Jewel refuses to sit with his family and rides outside the wagon.
Cash
He begins by explaining that Darl was taken to a mental institute in Jackson, and the family had had no choice in the matter. They could have either given him up or faced a lawsuit from the farmer whose barn Darl had burned. He feels pity for his brother and thinks that Jewel’s criticism has been too harsh on Darl. He begins to question Darl’s reasoning and concludes that Jewel may not have been completed in the right while saving Addie’s corpse from the water and fire since it could be that God wished for her to be put away. This leads him to wonder if Darl had been sane for wanting to burn Addie, but he still could not justify burning down Gillepsie’s farm.
The family had borrowed spades from a home in Jefferson that seemed to have a gramophone playing. He had returned with two spades and they had traveled to the graveyard, though Anse offered to take Cash to the doctor first. Cash had refused and wished that Addie be buried before they go to the doctor. The family buried Addie, and Darl was taken into custody immediately afterward by the people from the institution. He has a laughing fit, as he begins to realize what is happening.
Peabody
The doctor sees the terrible condition of Cash’s leg and criticizes Cash for allowing his family to treat him so poorly. Cash explains that he had felt no pain and that he had only allowed them to help as he was certain they wished to help, but Peabody admonishes him for not admitting to the pain that he had most certainly felt when he had been riding with a broken leg on a wagon without springs.
Peabody criticizes Anse for being a cheapskate and a negligent father.
MacGowan
A worker in the pharmacy store of Jefferson hears about the smartly dressed country girl, Dewey Dell, who doesn’t quite explicitly state what she wants. He pretends to be the doctor and learns that she needs to have an abortion. He lies to her and convinces her that he knew the procedure but that it would cost something besides the money she had. Dewey correctly determines that he isn’t the doctor, but she still believes that he can aid her and so returns to him at night as he had suggested. He notices Vardaman sitting in the street as he brings Dewey into the store. He gives her some fake capsules and escorts her into the basement for the abortion procedure.
Vardaman
Dewey takes him on a nighttime stroll but she doesn’t let him walk where he pleases. She hauls him through the streets and refuses to listen to his request that they go over to see the toy train set. They go to the street with the Pharmacy store, and she forces him to stay outside. He thinks about Darl, and how Darl had been taken away to an institution in Jackson. He wonders whether that means that Darl continues to be his brother or not.
Dewey Dell returns after several minutes, and bitterly states that she believes the procedure was not going to work and that he had probably taken advantage of her.
Darl
Darl thinks of himself in the third person as he narrates the ordeal of being transported to Jackson on a train with the attendants. He continued to laugh hysterically throughout the process, and he then repeatedly states yes. He detaches from himself completely as he states that Darl is our brother.
Dewey Dell
Anse discovers the ten dollars that Lafe had given to Dewey Dell for the abortion, but they had remained unused after her ‘treatment’ at the local pharmacy. He demands to know how she got them, and Dewey vehemently tells him that the money belonged to Cora Tull, as she had given her cakes to sell. However, Anse remembers that the package had never contained cakes but rather her Sunday clothes, and attempts to learn yet again where she got it. Dewey continues to refuse but repeatedly states that the money did not belong to her.
Anse continues to make Dewey guilty for having money while her family struggled, and then he takes her money despite her protestations. He leaves with the money.
Cash
The Bundrens return to the house from which Anse had buried the shovels, and Jewel suggests that Vardaman return them. Anse insists upon going himself and takes a long time to return. The children grow impatient, but Cash thinks his father is too old and thus cannot always be springy. Anse eventually returns, and they make their way to Peabody’s house but Anse heads out to go for a shave. He tells his children that he has business to attend, to and meets them in the evening.
He heads out again the following morning and informs them that they would leave immediately upon reuniting. The children wait for their father to return, and eat some bananas. Anse returns with a sheepish expression, and his children immediately notice the change in his posture as he sports his new teeth. He is followed by a duck-shaped woman with hard eyes who also happens to be carrying a Gramophone. Anse introduces her simply to the children as Mrs. Bundren. Cash regrets that Darl couldn’t enjoy listening to the gramophone in the Bundren home.
Analysis
In this final section of the novel, we uncover Anse’s true motivation in coming to Jefferson. Throughout the novel, Anse has been depicted as a negligent father, a selfish man, and supremely lazy. Peabody notices Cash’s inability to voice a complaint despite being in serious pain and correctly traces it to be a problem brought on by Anse’s negligent attitude. This negligence is also highlighted in the case of the six-year-old Vardaman, who has been struggling with the death of his mother with the aid of his barely invested siblings rather than his father. Anse reveals his true intent had always been to find a replacement for his dead wife, and this stresses the notion that the family is not truly a collection of individuals but rather a collection of roles.
Dewey Dell continues to prove herself as the ultimate victim, as she unintelligently goes through with the pharmacy’s plans to take advantage of her despite having suspicions. Her desperation to be rid of her pregnancy once again reiterates the novel’s theme of childbirth is a terrible ordeal for the female.
