What does Faulkner want to say with this piece of literature?

The short answer to the question that is the title of this post is: I don't know. What is the meaning of As I lay Dying? The book seemed to go on a certain track at the beginning when the selfish Anse and his children were bringing Addie to her grave, but then…stuff happened and I just don't know what to make of everything.

So, to start answering this question, I might as well try to find some motifs. Certain characters repeat certain phrases a lot. A lot. Take Vardaman, who completely obsesses over the fact that his mother is a fish. That's right - he continues with this understanding through to the end of the book, and by the last 30 pages it just seems like jargon, because he doesn't seem to be saying much about it. Anse is also constantly mentioning that he promised Addie he's get her to Tennessee. This seems like motivation, however. Cash almost doesn't comment on anything other than the coffin, which seems to show more of who he is. So this basically isn't giving me any answers.

I could think about the ending for each character. Addie goes through probably the most lively experience of her life when she's dead. I mean, being swept away by water in a stream and having your corpse rot in a coffin for nearly two weeks before being buried is much more lively than baking or working on a farm. Cash is possibly disabled for the rest of his life. Anse has a new wife and new teeth. He can now eat. Funnily enough, Anse has rid himself of a disability while Cash gained one. Dewey Dell will probably be shunned from her family because of her pregnancy, but we don't actually know, because no one else knows of it when the book ends. Vardman is pretty consistent a character, but he's also young and is mostly there to give a different perspective on the situation at hand, I do think. Jewel actually grows up a little in my opinion. He did, after all, sacrifice his horse to receive money to buy new mules to transport the wagon. He's still impulsive and inconsiderate, though, as he verbally attacks a man when entering Jefferson.

Darl is…well, how to phrase this…completely insane!! I don't know what to think about this. He literally just turned a corner into Crazyland and "set fire to [a barn]" (232). Oddly enough, this was an act of vengeance for his brother having to sell his horse, one of Jewel's selfless moments, and the two almost switch places with Jewel kind of, sort of, but not really entirely being helpful and a team player, and Darl being destructive and compulsive. Many have throughout the story hinted at downright stated that Darl is different from everyone else, as he is secluded in his own little world. Proving his insanity, Darl narrates about himself in the third person at the end of the novel: "They pulled two seats together so Darl could sit by the window to laugh" (254). He doesn't even live inside himself anymore. Maybe this is how Addie stole a child from Anse. He's clearly headed to a mental asylum, dead. Dead to himself, dead to society, dead to his family.

So what is the meaning as a whole? It would make sense for it to center around death. It could have to do with secrets. It could have to do with caring for others. But then again, I don't really know what this book is about. I don't quite understand the ending, and there are many loose ends that allow for many interpretations. But as almost everyone changes drastically in the end or reveals some giant secret to us, the readers, I can say that the conclusion I've come to isn't completely farfetched.

Perhaps best put: Death is a state of being during which people cannot or do not communicate with others thereby resulting in a misperception of who people truly are.