How many people are dead? Maybe we don't yet have an answer...

Perhaps it shouldn't be too surprising that a book called As I Lay Dying includes images of death and deals with the subject, but the number of possibly dead people is larger than one would expect from the singular pronoun in the title. Death is one of the more common motifs in this reading section.

One image of death is when Vardaman, Jewel and Darl's little brother, is told by his father to clean a fish. The fish "slides out of his hands, smearing wet dirt onto him, and flops down, dirtying itself again, gap mouthed, goggle-eyed, hiding into the dust like it was ashamed of being dead…" (31). Vardaman is a young a boy, which I will prove later, and it would not be unlikely that this is his first encounter with death in his life. He would therefore view death as shameful, like the fish was, and perhaps also uncleanly. It's as if the fish has lost all its dignity in its death and Vardaman is could potentially hold this connection with death later on in his life.

Addie Bundren actually dies in this section. At the end of her life, Addie sits up in her bed and yells "'You, Cash!' …her voice harsh, strong, and unimpaired" (48). It is interesting that her voice should be unimpaired when she's literally two seconds away from death. This raises a couple of questions, the most pressing one being How alive was she during her life? As we in our class have read in Song of Solomon, people who are alive aren't necessarily living. I wonder if this could be the case with Addie, too. Why did she then make that choice if it was a decision? Is this why she wants to be buried in Tennessee; did she feel more alive at her old home? Regardless, she seems to be very strong in these final moments, despite a lack of physical health, which indicates a great deal of endurance in life and a strong personality. This would contrast Rudy in Song of Solomon who was complacent and quiet, unable to show her true feelings to anyone. Hopefully answers will arrive later.

It also becomes clear during Addie's death that Vardaman is young because he is peers "from behind pa's leg…" (49). He is clearly traumatized by this experience as he runs away to a barn, where a cow "nudges [him], snuffling. [The cow] moans deep inside, her mouth closed" (55). This cow appears to be attempting to comfort Vardaman, but could in fact also be a symbol. It is through this cow that Dewey Dell, a sister, finally finds Vardaman to bring him to supper. The cow cannot communicate well with either person, but can even so bring Vardaman and Dewey Dell together. It understands them on an emotional and deep level that the Brunden family as a whole seems to be lacking according to Cora, which I covered in my last post.

This link between quietness and emotional understanding may also be evident in Darl. As I mentioned in my previous post, Cora thinks that Addie and Darl are the only two people in their family who can truly love and they do this even without speech. According to Tull, however, "the matter with dark [is] he just thinks by himself too much" (71). Tull also recognizes Darl's quiet behavior but views this much more negatively. Darl has not given too much away about himself yet, but the views that Cora and Tull hold of him, quiet, loving, and lonesome, combined with cow's role in unifying role between Dewey Dell and Vardaman, may prove the cow to be a metaphor for how Darl is: lonesome, but emotionally considerate of others. This may seem like a long stretch at the moment, but in the Bundren's disconnected lives and inherently greedy nature, Darl may prove to be the unifying person that can put them all past this.

Not even Anse is particularly close to Addie. When Anse "touches the quilt as he saw Dewey Dell do, trying to smooth it up to the chin, but disarranging it instead" (52) it becomes all the more apparent that the two lack a personal connection and Anse cannot treat others gently. Knowing that Cora thinks that Jewel is like his father, I simply put all the more hope that Darl will grow and help end this negative way of thinking his family holds.

Faulkner's craft is starting to come together a bit, with motifs starting to appear, death and family connections, as well as the possible use of metaphors for certain characters in the novel, not to mention the stream of consciousness method to allow multiple character's views. It will be interesting to see how the family member's reactions to Addie's death will develop in the coming pages. Questions are just burning to be answered.