As I Lay Dying Study Guide—ADDRESS THESE IN YOUR NOTEBOOK.

ANNOTATE: ALWAYS NOTE THESE FOR THE READING:
  1. PLOT/SETTING—
  2. CHARACTER--
  3. TIME ---
  4. PLOT STRUCTURE---
  5. Font/ Gaps
  6. Answer my questions and/ or Comment on a passage

DARL (page 3)

  • Be sure you understand the physical action in the chapter.
  • Is there a tone evident? Does it reveal anything about the attitude of Darl toward Jewel? If so what? (BTW, it may not—this is not a loaded question.)

***Imagery—Whattype of imagery is associated with Jewel? What auditory imagery is present? With whom is it associated?

CORA (page 6)

  • Part of this chapter is a reflection/memory and part describes the action in the present. Smarty pants will know which is which.
  • Note one conflict between her thoughts and what she says.

***Cash is mentioned here and connected by an image. Can you place him and/or this chapter in terms of location or time? Darl also appears—how does this connect to the opening chapter in terms of the physical action?

DARL (page 10)

  • What do we learn about Anse?
  • Describe Jewel’s relationship with his horse.

JEWEL (page 14)

How does Jewel feel about his family? Treat each member specifically here.

DARL

  • What is the decision they are trying to make?
  • Who is pushing the hardest to make the three dollars?

CORA (21)

  • What are her opinions of the family members in this chapter?
  • What are her reasons?

DEWEY DELL (p. 26)This one is weird, read it at leasttwice!

Family Dysfunction--First she thinks about reasons that each family member will be too busy or self-involved to “find out”.

Lafe, her boyfriend —she remembers cotton picking when she “picked on down the row” with him and how she left it up to fate whether or not she would go to the “secret shade” with him. “…if the sack is full when we get to the woods it won’t be me.”

Darl—he knows her secret. She asked him: “Are you going to tell pa are you going to kill him?” What secret could all of this be about?

Bottom of p 27—back to the present. Darl stands at the door looking at her.

*Note: LOOK CLOSELY AT THEIR CONVERSATION! She talks to Darl. Cora must have missed this somehow…how? What does Darl seem too sure of?

TULL (29)

He’s talking to Pa (Anse). Pa Explains that Addie (Mrs. Bundren, mother, Anse’s wife) expressed a wish to be buried in Jefferson, with her family (her parents).

“It’sfixin’to rain tonight…”

Anse defends the decision to have Darl and Jewel deliver Tull’s lumber for $3—even though Tull agrees with him.

VardamanBundren—The youngest son of Addie and Anse. He arrives carrying a fish he caught that he wants to show Addie. Pa just tells him to clean it.

Tull notes Anse’s laziness. Cora, Vernon, Kate, and Eula Tull leave the Bundren’s and go home. Kate and Eula point out that once Addie dies the boys—Darl and Jewel—can get married (no, not to each other). Kate thinks Jewel is hot.

  • What do we learn about Vardaman here?
  • What does Tull say about women?

ANSE (35)

Characterize his world view—his beliefs about God and his contempt for the road.

Complains about everything. Thinks the road that was put in front of his house does nothing but bring trouble. Notes that the road makes Darl have “eyes full of the land all the time.”

Thinks about Addie’s illness and talking to Dr. Peabody who wishes he would have been called sooner.

Vardaman shows up with the fish—it is a bloody mess because he has chopped it up improperly. Because he is a little kid. Anse makes him wash his hands.

DARL (39)

Darl is on the road with Jewel. He is being antagonistic (look it up) and repeating a cryptic (look it up) comment about Addie.

  • Where are they and what time of day is it?
  • What seems to be his attitude toward Jewel and Dewey Dell? What words from her chapter does he repeat and reply to?

PEABODY (41)

Pretty normal thoughts—Anse etc. He is at the Bundrens’. He contemplates death.

Addie starts to die and calls out the name of one of her boys...(which one?)

DARL 47

  1. Where is Darl (physically)? What does this tell us about Darl?
  2. STOP. Until you figure out number one, you cannot understand the second half of number two. Do what you can—skip that part if you must.
  3. How does Cash perceive his mother’s face in the window? (“composite” is important to know…) What does this add to our understanding of what Darl is doing here?
  4. Just before dying, who does Addie want to see? Addie calls out whose name?
  5. Look at the three sections in italics. What do they seem to have in common? One does not seem to fit the logic. Why? Explain what is happening in the other two as well.
  6. Characterize the reactions to Addie’s death from Cash, Dewey Dell, Vardaman, and Anse.
  7. What happens just before and after the second italics passage? What does Dewey Dell do in this chapter? What does she think in this chapter.
  8. Why do you think there are italics? (use evidence)
  9. Who leaves the room/ house? By the end of the chapter? (can you relate this to the italics?)
  10. What are Anse’s last words?
  11. Look back at page 27, “And so it was because…” What might this mean now that you have read this chapter?

***WHERE IS HE? WHAT IS STRANGE ABOUT THIS CHAPTER?

VARDAMAN

  • Who does Vardaman blame for his mother’s death? Why does he blame him/her?
  • Why might Vardaman be thinking about the fish and his mother at the same time