As I Lay Dying

Idea of family vs. the reality of the family P 66 (bottom) on identity sheet, feminism

10/27/2010 10:19:00 AM

We are all engaged in the task of stripping away our false selves that have been put on us by our family

Addie has been entirely consumed by her family No man can look at the sun or death directly Woman is supposed to be submissive to family P 1 central thread of coherence in novel relationship between Jewel and Darl One whom mother devoutly loves, one whom Addie says herself she has annihilated Jewel is taller than all of them

P 4 image of leapfrog, Darl passes Jewel who is walking ahead, sets up competitive nature between the two for the rest of the book P 15 Jewel is embodiment of male principle, man of few words Possessiveness of mother, he knows hes been loved Hes bitter toward siblings bc they dont treat her properly P 16 Darls response to that possessiveness He knows he has never been loved/wanted He knows Jewel is mothers favorite His purpose is to break up connection between mother and son He scheme is that when she dies, her favorite son will not be there o In South, it is VERY important that the family all attend the funeral

He convinces stupid father that they need 3 dollars for funeral, so hell take Jewel to cut lumber, so he wont be there for the death of Addie P 17 they need Anses permission (dad) Hes hesitant Jewel responds to his mothers condition with denial (ma aint that sick) Jewel tells blatant lie they will be back by tomorrow sundown, theres no way, but dad aggress

P 27 Dewey Dells monologue Asks why Darl is taking Jewel, above anyone else Jewel has to be there The boys are on the road now Darl asks Jewel, do you know shes going to die? Darl is alienating his brother Jewel and sister Dewey Dell hes figured out his sister is pregnant o He withholds his support from family o She asks, are you going to tell pa? are you going to kill him?

o He obviously wont tell pa, but nevertheless withholds his support Goes back to torturing Jewel Do you know Addie Bundron is going to die? (he doesnt call her mother, hes never had a mother) P 47 Darls monologue Darl has superb clairvoyance, he knows exactly how each of his family will react to mothers death (happens here) P 48 mother dies, her eyes burn, then go out Dewey Dell begins to scream, shake her, the two boys are still gone Shift to where boys are Darl takes great pleasure in announcing his mothers death to Jewel (Darl is just sitting there, watching Jewel fix the axel)

P 50 bottom problem of being female As soon as mother dies, Dewey Dell has to assume role of mother, pa says she has to get up and make food Discrepancy between the unified idea of family vs. the secret individual motives of each character Dewey Dell wants to go to town and get an abortion Cash wants to get a music machine Jewel seems to be the one with the purest motive, to fulfill mothers wish o He does however share the advantage of eating the bananas (?)

P 94 Darls scheme has succeeded Jewel was not there when Addie died, he now continues to torture his brother with mothers death I cannot love my mother because I have no mother He has made a mistake he thought that he had won battle over Jewel, bc Addie should have already been buried before they got back, but when they get back, he finds that they were waiting for them to bury her o Then he realizes they werent waiting for them, they were waiting for Jewel o He has lost the sibling rivalry P 132 Jewel starts disappearing every night, Cash assumes that he is having a love affair Turns out its not a woman, its a horse Jewel bought it with his own money Then mother told him he couldnt ride it (?) She cried openly, not hiding her face Ppl never cry openly, they hide it It is here that Darl divines that Jewel has a different father This information gives Darl more to torture Jewel with P 212 who is your father Jewel? Goddamn you, goddamn you P 224 Darl makes two attempts to stop the funeral journey

 Way to get rid of his mothers coffin (theyre in the river) Jewel is the one that saves his mothers coffin Darl also burns down the barn, Jewel runs in and saves the coffin Darl is crying, Bernbau (?) doesnt understand him, why are you crying Jewel got her out (that is why hes crying, bc Jewel got her out) Affect of losing sibling rivalry= loss of identity for Darl He has always wanted to be wanted by mother, but he has never had that, sense of absence of identity o When you are emptied for sleep what are you? I dont know what I am, Jewel knows what he is

o If you subtract family identity, what do you have? According to T.S. Eliot, you have a hollow man There is one human bond that Darl sustains relationship with older brother Cash P 142 brothers are close in age, have to step in and become head of house P 232 last and only relationship is broken, after Darl burns down the barn, they cant afford it, so they must declare Darl insane Either send Darl to Jackson (insane asylum) P 234 Darl speaks up for Cash, says they should take Cash to the doctor Peabody, wants to delay the burial P 237 moment of betrayal, Cash is lying flat on his back with a broken leg, he takes note of Darl and Dewey Dell, Dewey Dell jumps up on him (to restrain him?), I thought you would have told me He sees through everyone, except for this conspiracy, he overlooks Cash, never thinks that Cash would betray him bc they are so close

Cash wants him to go to insane asylum, Darl cant believe it As result, Darl divides into two halves Darl has gone to Jackson, to insane asylum P 254 Darl is laughing. Why? 1. Something he saw when he was fighting in France, something he saw on a French postcard, a woman with a pig with two backs and no legs, is this why youre laughing, yes, hes laughing at the ridiculousness of sex, the whole procreation of life is perverse, see what it makes, the Bundron family

2. He sees his family eating bananas, the whole idea of family is ridiculous capture/betrayal of Darl through objective perspective Bundrons have no choice, even so, the objective view is incensed Idea of family transcends the reality

Ex. British Empire, Conrad says its a mistake to look at idea too closely, youve got to have an idea to live by This is a tragedy Loneliness, tragedy Darl must spend the rest of his life behind bars, but this must happen in order for family to reconstruct itself, which it does after he gets sent away

Anse actually acquires a new life P 249 Dewey Dell goes into store to find something for abortion, she finds out shes been tricked, it wont work Darl is my brother my brother is going to Jackson Idea of family transcending all of the dysfunction, all the chaos

Origin of novel He could picture/hear a character saying these words Wasp code dont show your emotions in front of other people Addies staring at the doctor bc the appearance of the doctor means that she only has moments to live P 148 scene of river crossing, they might have made it except for the log Why does Darl refer to Jesus? Log happens to have a beard at the top P 219 the coffin is compared to Cubistic thing (where did Darl learn about Cubism? He must have picked it up in France)

Literary Cubism look at things from variety of angles, this is what Faulkner is doing Where does family get money for hotel Peabody (Cash got money from him) anse actually learns something, he finally gets a haircut

10/27/2010 10:19:00 AM

10/27/2010 10:19:00 AM