As I Lay Dying Symbolism

As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, is a story about the Bundren family’s journey to bury Mrs. Bundren. Most of the family, however, has another reason to go to where Mrs. Bundren is being buried. The book itself is not meant to be taken seriously; Faulkner intended the book to be somewhat humorous. Because of the conflict between how the book is written and the book’s story, many scenes in the book that normally would be taken extremely seriously are now not as serious due to the book’s ‘dark humor.’ The comic aspects of the book tone down the grotesque scenes in the book. Three examples of these modified scenes include Cash’s broken leg, Anse’s teeth, and Vardaman’s understanding of death. One example of the comic aspects of the book
A main character in a book suffering a major injury would usually justify including a section dedicated to that injury, how it occurred, and how it is effecting the character. In As I Lay Dying, however, the first mention of Cash’s broken leg was from Vardaman, who after saying that continued to talk about something else. By briefly mentioning it, Cash’s leg does not seem to be important; the way Cash’s leg was introduced ‘toned down’ the severity of the situation to the reader. The same leg that was broken had been broken previously. This fact was mentioned by a few other Bundren’s, his doctor even went as far as saying he was lucky to break the same leg. After a while, Anse decided to buy cement to set Cash’s leg with; while they did have good intentions, this only made Cash’s leg worse. While Cash claimed that “it never bothered [him]] much” (Faulkner, 240), Dr. Peabody had to remove “sixty-odd square inches of skin to get that concrete off” (Faulkner, 240). Cash had to live with a short leg for the rest of his life because of Anse’s poor decision. Physical aspects of the trip were not the only things modified by the book’s
While Vardaman’s age was never specified, one can assume that he is very young by the way that he spoke. Vardaman did not fully understand exactly what death was, so “he is profoundly confused when he first intimately confronts the problems and mysteries of death” (Watkins, 70). Vardaman caught a fish the day Addie died, and since he had no idea as to what death was, he tries to relate the two. This odd relationship lead to somewhat humorous monologues from Vardaman where he tried to figure out why “[his] mother is a fish” (Faulkner, 84). Because no one in the Bundren family took the time to explain death, Vardaman, he had to try and figure it out himself; Vardaman more than likely stayed confused for a long time. In conclusion, Vardaman could not understand death, and because of that he gives humorous dialogue as to his