As I Lay Dying Kahla Wilson

1. Why do you believe each of the characters consistently repeats phrases over and over again?
They’re trying to get their minds off the death of Addie. When people go through a loss of a loved one, they deal with the grief differently. Jewel seemed to lock himself away, Anse goes on and on about the weather, Vardaman keeps thinking about that stupid fish, Dewey Dell keeps going about the sex she had with Lafe, and just on and on it goes, especially about the weather. The characters kept talking about how it was going to rain. It simply seemed like they were trying to get their minds off things, and so they concentrated on one thing and kept repeating it, as if to reassure themselves.

2. Why do you believe Darl sets fire to the barn?
He wants to set fire to Addie’s casket in the barn as well as the mules because taking Addie’s body to the burial place she wanted caused so much trouble to the family. It caused Cash’s broken leg, and his puking and passing out, and the death of their own mules and they had to buy more with money they didn’t have. The money they got from farm equipment and Jewel’s horse and such. Later, the burial also caused Darl’s mental illness “arrest” because he set fire to the barn, and Anse got a new wife.

3. What does Darl mean when he talks about Jewel’s mother being a horse?
Jewel seemed to be more worried and upset about a horse than his own mother’s death. He tells Vardaman that his mother is not a horse though, because Vardaman actually showed some emotion to his mother’s death. Most people would be more emotional about their mother dying than a horse, but Jewel only seemed to care about his horse and showed little if any emotion about his mother.

4. Name and explain a theme from the novel.
Family in itself is portrayed a lot in this novel. The whole book is about the family trying to bury their dead mother in the place she wanted. It shows how the family is going through such strains to fulfill this last wish. Each family member risks something or gives something to the cause. Family sticks together to fulfill the task, no matter what the cost, and the cost kept rising from Cash’s broken leg to the cost of a new team of mules.

5. Name 3 symbols or motifs from the novel.
Darl burning the barn- Darl burned the barn because it was the only way in his mind to get rid of all the troubles going on. It was because of having to bury his mother that they all had gone through so much. If they could give up or go home or if they could have simply not gone at all, none of it would have happened. It seemed like the only solution to solving the problems.
Addie didn’t want to be buried at home- this is what caused the whole book because if she would have simply wanted to be buried at her home with her children and husband in the backyard the family wouldn’t have had to go through all the trouble of burying her. Also, it seems like Addie hadn’t wanted to be buried with her husband and children because she had had an affair with the minister so she wanted her body to be in peace when she died instead of her body being around a man that she had lied to.
Vardaman’s fish- Vardaman caught a fish at the beginning of the book, and it seemed to be huge, since over and over the narrator would say that it’s as big as him. The kid was proud of the fish and wanted to show it to Addie but she was dying and Anse said to go wash it off instead because he was not impressed, showing immediately how the family was not close. If the family would have been close then the father would have been more than happy to let Vardaman show off his work to his dying mother, that or Vardaman would have been with his mother in her last days alive instead of off fishing. Vardaman also compared his mother to the fish because he chopped up the fish and it was dead. It was as if he was saying that Addie was just another fish in the sea, free and swimming until someone caught her and she put up a struggle and then killed her. Addie had been caught by Anse and he had killed her spirit, then she had struggled by sleeping with someone else and giving back to Anse then finally dying once her debt was paid off to him. She was free, then caught, struggled, then died.