As I Lie Dying
The book (AILD) is about a family trying to bury their mother, Addie Bundren. As the novel opens, Addie is lying in her bed dying in her family's farmhouse in southeastern Yoknapatawpha County, while outside her oldest son, Cash, is sawing and hammering together her coffin. Her second son, Darl, convinces his brother Jewel (Addie's third son) to go with him to pick up a load of lumber. Darl's apparent goal is to make sure that Jewel, Addie's favorite son, will not be at her side when she dies. While Addie's daughter, Dewey Dell, stays with her, her youngest son, Vardaman, goes fishing and catches a very big fish (later, Vardaman begins to confuse the fish with his dead mother, ...
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passed, but finally, the family can set off on their journey to bury Addie. Years earlier, shortly after Darl was born, Addie had asked her husband to bury her in Jefferson, where her "people" were from, when she died. So to keep the promise he made to Addie, Anse sets off with his children toward Jefferson. All of the Bundrens except for Darl and Jewel have ulterior motives for wanting to go on the long journey to Jefferson. Anse, the most selfish of them, wants a new set of teeth. Cash wants a phonograph (or as he calls it, a "graphophone"), and Vardaman wants to get a toy train. Dewey Dell wants to get an abortion (with the ten dollars that Lafe, the would-be father, has given her).
Their first major hurdle in their journey is the flood-swollen Yoknapatawpha River. They go well out of their way to one bridge, which has been swept away, then return to a bridge closer to home, which is likewise damaged by the flood. They nonetheless decide to chance crossing, which turns ...
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As I Lie Dying. (2006, January 7). Retrieved November 18, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/As-I-Lie-Dying/39231
"As I Lie Dying." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 7 Jan. 2006. Web. 18 Nov. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/As-I-Lie-Dying/39231>
"As I Lie Dying." Essayworld.com. January 7, 2006. Accessed November 18, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/As-I-Lie-Dying/39231.
"As I Lie Dying." Essayworld.com. January 7, 2006. Accessed November 18, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/As-I-Lie-Dying/39231.
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