Story Skeleton—As I Lay Dying

Story structure relates to the psychological appeal of narrative, that which engages readers and builds in them a sense of anticipation—a desire to know what happens next. This blog series is meant to demonstrate the universality of story structure with plot breakdowns of award-winning and classic novels. 

A Tapestry of Unreliable Narrators

William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying has long been hailed as a cornerstone of American literature, both for its innovative narrative style and poetic prose. The novel, set in the Deep South, tells the story of the Bundren family's journey to fulfill their matriarch Addie's dying wish to be buried in Jefferson, Mississippi. This seemingly straightforward plot serves as the backdrop for a rich ensemble of character voices and perspectives. In fact, the plot’s simplicity counterbalances the complexity of perspective and unreliable narration. 

The story begins with Addie Bundren's impending death and her request to be buried far from her home. As the family embarks on their journey to honour this wish, they encounter numerous obstacles, both physical and emotional. The journey itself is a crucible that reveals the complex inner lives of this family, especially that of the enigmatic Darl whose perspective dominates the novel. Darl's existential musings and eventual descent into madness provide a dark counterpoint to the dysfunctional family's saga. 

Much of the novel unfolds in stream-of-consciousness monologues rather than action-based scenes and dialogue. While this storytelling method could reduce the amount of direct “experience” in which the reader is immersed, Faulkner's approach allows us to examine the events of the narrative from multiple perspectives. As such, the experience comes through in layers. Plus, Faulkner’s prose is immersive in its own right. The result is a story as much about the unreliability of perception as it is about the events themselves. 

Much has already been written about stream of consciousness and unreliable narration in As I Lay Dying, specifically about how the various focal characters offer conflicting accounts of each other, but there is another powerful tool in Faulkner’s toolbox that often goes unexamined: how each character is defined by their individual narrative trajectories. There is the overarching trajectory—the family’s journey to Jefferson—but each character also has their own narrative goal that sets them apart in the Bundren family tableau. Therein lies the power of Faulkner’s characterization. 

Plot Points

When Addie Bundren requests to be buried in her hometown of Jefferson, her family must undertake a challenging journey to honour her wishes, with each member driven by personal motives and desires that complicate their shared mission. In fact, the story’s stakes come more from the individual character goals than the family’s goal. If they decided against taking Addie’s body to Jefferson, their neighbours might look down upon them, but they already do, yet they would also understand since the river crossing is treacherous at this time of year and the Bundrens have little money. Only three of them are driven to complete the mission for Addie’s sake: Jewel, Cash, and (at least initially) Darl. But let’s set the individual goals aside for now while we examine the main trajectory.

Stasis and Inciting Incident

The story begins after the inciting incident has taken place. Addie Bundren is dying, and she has made her final wishes known: she wants to be buried in Jefferson. This crystallizes a narrative goal for the rest of the family: once she dies, they must honour her wishes. But the goal is actually more complex than that. In honouring her wishes, they are coming to terms with her death, each in their own way. For this reason, the inciting incident is her request, not her death. Each family member will approach this quest differently, and that quest begins as she lays dying. 

The stasis, for the family and for each individual, is the status quo before the disruption. This is something we learn about as the story unfolds, in part from Addie’s intuitive son Darl, but also from Addie herself. The novel isn’t always linear; it’s not until a later chapter that we get some cold hard truth about Mom and her relationship with the rest of them. Motherhood wasn’t what she’d hoped for. She resented her husband Anse. She cheated on him with a local holy man and thereby had her son Jewel. And then she bore Anse two more children out of a sense of duty but not love. Of all the children, Jewel is the one she loved most, in part because he was born of her defiance of a social order which she held in contempt.

Initial Rising Action

In many narratives, the rising action begins after the point of no return. However, in As I Lay Dying, the family must wait for Addie to die before they can set out on their journey, so the Bundrens have the opportunity to begin their emotional journey before the physical one. 

The father, Anse, is self-serving. Even before Addie dies, he demonstrates his lack of empathy by sending his sons (Darl and Jewel) on a delivery job that will net them a whopping $3, and quite probably deny them the chance to be present for their mother’s final moments. Darl is Anse’s foil: he cares deeply, and though he begrudgingly agrees to the delivery, he agonizes over his absence at his mother’s deathbed. Meanwhile, the eldest son, Cash, demonstrates his commitment to hard work and duty by building his mother’s coffin. Jewel, the third son, is angry that Cash is building a coffin in Addie’s sight, which demonstrates his fierce loyalty to his mother and his unwillingness to accept her coming death. Dewey Dell, the only girl, eagerly anticipates her mother’s death, since the trip to Jefferson is an opportunity for her to get an abortion. And Vardaman, the youngest (his age isn’t revealed, but probably five or six), struggles to make sense of the entire scenario. 

Point of No Return

This plot point arrives with Addie’s death. The family is now committed to fulfilling her final wish. 

Rising Action Continues

As they prepare to depart, interpersonal conflict reveals more about the characters:

• Cash insists on bringing his carpentry tools, and he’s frustrated that the coffin hasn’t been properly balanced on the wagon. This is another demonstration of his commitment to duty and hard work.
• Jewel doesn’t want to ride on the wagon with the others; he insists on riding his own horse. This reinforces his pride and his separation from the others. (We never get Jewel’s perspective; his character is revealed only through his coldness and occasional surges of emotion. Thus the reader is as alienated from him as his family members.)
• Even though Jewel rides off in anger, Darl declares that Jewel will follow them once he has had a chance to cool off, which he does. This is a clue to Darl’s role as the heart of the family: he sees their truths and negotiates for their unity.
• When Jewel does return, he storms past them on his horse, which throws up mud that lands on the coffin. In response, Cash wipes off the mud and tries to clean the stain. Again, we see Jewel’s single-minded determination to escort his mother to Jefferson while maintaining distance from the others, and Cash’s focus on duty, his role as carpenter, and the coffin an embodiment of his dedication.
• When they arrive at a washed-out bridge, they must decide how to proceed. Anse, while bemoaning his fate as a poor, hardworking farmer, stands around indecisively while his sons are forced to come up with a plan. As with the earlier conflict when he sends Darl and Jewel on an ill-timed delivery run for $3, Anse demonstrates that he is weak and ineffectual.

Midpoint

They cross the river, and it goes badly. Both of their mules drown. They nearly lose the coffin and Cash’s tools, and Cash breaks his leg. This incident significantly complicates their path forward. They no longer have a team to pull the wagon, and they don’t have enough money for Cash to visit a doctor. It is also around this point in the story where Darl intuits that Jewel has a different father. 

Rising Action Continues

In his first true causal action of the story, Anse turns down an offer to borrow some horses and instead trades Jewel’s horse for a new team to pull the wagon. Jewel is infuriated. He worked long and hard to buy his steed, and again it seems like he will run off, but he doesn’t. He remains committed to the journey for his mother’s sake. 

Cash’s leg is causing him tremendous pain, so they come up with the terrible idea of securing the break with cement. 

Dewey Dell visits a pharmacist and asks about medicine for an abortion, but she’s turned away. 

All Is Lost (and yet more rising action)

Darl is struggling. His mental health is declining. In part this is because of his earlier realization that Jewel was the product of their mother’s adultery, and at this point he lets Jewel know, which goes about as well as you might expect. Darl is also struggling because his mother’s body is in a horrific state of decay; the stench is all around them. He sees this as an affront to her dignity, or perhaps more to the family’s dignity. He is, after all, the empath in their midst. He decides to take matters into his own hands and sets fire to the barn that houses the coffin, in the hope that the fire will consume coffin and corpse, thereby ending their miserable journey. 

This is the “all-is-lost” moment in terms of the family’s overarching quest, since it’s the point in the story when they are brought closest to failure. However, it’s admittedly an atypical all-is-lost moment since Darl, as the principal POV character, drives the action. For Darl, the barn burning is more of a tragic climax—tragic because he doesn’t succeed. Jewel runs into the burning barn and, in a heroic feat of strength, rescues the coffin. Darl’s failure to burn Addie’s body is also a failure to bring the family back into equilibrium. That’s because Vardaman witnesses Darl’s arson and tells Dewey Dell, and then someone (presumably Dewey Dell) tells the barn owner that her brother was responsible. 

Following the barn incident, Darl makes one last attempt to pull the family together. He intervenes when Jewel almost gets himself stabbed, and he insists on a doctor for Cash as his brother’s foot has started to turn black. However, the arson must be answered for, and Darl’s grip on reality is deteriorating, so the family conspires to have him committed.

Resurgence and Climax

In having Darl committed, the family is able to rebound from the all-is-lost moment. Darl is fingered for the arson and is punished accordingly. This betrayal also removes a destabilizing force, at least from the perspectives of Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Anse. Of course, from Darl’s perspective, he was trying his best to be a force for equilibrium—this is a great example of how divergent their perspectives really are. 

Jewel is furious about Darl’s suggestion, whether or not he knows it’s the truth, that he has a different father than the other siblings. It could be that Addie told him, but it could also be that she merely favoured him, which set him apart from his siblings. She named him Jewel, after all. He has also, presumably, written off his brother for attempting to burn their mother’s corpse. 

Dewey Dell’s issue with Darl is that he can see through her—he knew immediately that she was pregnant, even though she hadn’t told anyone. Like Jewel, she seeks to be separate from the rest. Darl threatens that isolation with his insights; he sees what she would keep hidden. 

Ultimately, Jewel and Dewey Dell are both happy to see Darl locked up. And as for Anse, Darl is a convenient sacrifice to sort out the trouble with the destroyed barn. Cash’s betrayal comes with the most sting. He doesn’t have an issue with Darl, but since he is all about duty, he supports the status quo. 

With Darl out of the way, Anse borrows some shovels (it doesn’t say from whom, but presumably an old acquaintance), and finally they are able to bury Addie in Jefferson as she requested. The quest is fulfilled, at least for Jewel and Cash. Jewel was bound by honour to see Addie to her final rest, while Cash was bound by duty.

Resolution

Two more quests are wrapped up after Addie is in the ground. First, Dewey tries again to obtain medicine for an abortion, but she is tricked and sexually assaulted by the pharmacist’s assistant. Hers is a tragic resolution: she betrayed her brother so she could keep her secret, but now nothing will hide the truth growing in her womb. 

Afterward, Anse takes the $10 she had saved for her abortion. With this money, he heads into town and achieves what he really wanted out of this trip to Jefferson. He wasn’t all that concerned about laying Addie to rest. Right from the start, he had his sights on a set of dentures and a replacement wife. And with Dewey Dell’s $10 in hand, that’s exactly what he does. He buys himself a set of teeth, and when he returns, he also has a new wife with him—apparently the person he borrowed shovels from was something more than a mere acquaintance. 

Each Character Has a Different Narrative Goal

The Bundren family is on a quest to bury Addie in Jefferson, but they each have different reasons for doing so, or at least different approaches to the journey. The voyage gives the story a through-line plot, while the character goals add narrative depth at the level of characterization and theme.

Anse

As mentioned above, Anse’s main motivation for the trip is to buy a set of dentures and find a new wife. He also wants to maintain appearances with the neighbours by burying Addie and fulfilling her dying wish, but it’s not for love or duty. The journey is more of a convenience for his actual goal. Anse is self-serving and opportunistic. He’s also lazy, and therein lie the stakes for his personal quest: he needs a wife to manage the household for him.

Jewel and Cash

Both brothers are committed to their mother’s dying wish; Jewel because he takes pride in the fact that Addie loved him above the rest and Cash because he is devoted to duty and the status quo. The stakes for them are deeply personal. Succeeding in their quest means holding true to who they are. If they fail Addie, they will have failed themselves.

Dewey Dell

The sister has three significant moments of causal action that relate to her goal of obtaining an abortion: her two pharmacy visits, and her act of betraying Darl. Ultimately, she wants her secret kept. She doesn’t seem to care much that her mother is dying. In the beginning, she wishes it along, if only to arrive in Jefferson sooner, which is where she will be able to petition a pharmacist for help.

Vardaman

The youngest sibling is in a constant state of trying to understand what is happening, from his mother’s death to the nature of being (something he discusses in perplexing terms with Darl) to Darl’s eventual descent into madness.

Darl

Up until the final section, Darl is the primary narrator. He is at once intuitive, intelligent, and confused as he tries his best to make sense of the world and of his family members. His goal is to hold the family together emotionally. Thematically, Darl represents the family’s emotional core. He sees the truth in each of them, which makes him the most caring and compassionate of the characters, but in the end his insights lead to his mental breakdown. 

Every other member of the Bundren family is on this quest for self-serving reasons. The irony is that they are all isolated from each other by these selfish pursuits, even Cash’s desire to prove his dutifulness, such that he is willing to betray his brother—duty for duty’s sake. And aside from Cash, we’ve got Jewel who is the embodiment of his mother’s pride, Anse who is a self-serving fool, Dewey Dell the self-isolated betrayer, and Vardaman who is too young to understand, and perhaps too impressionable to escape the dysfunction all around him. As such, Darl’s goal is a hopeless one. In the end, seeing the truth about his family is his undoing. They are too full of contradiction and hypocrisy to be redeemable, and so he is more alone than any of them. This is not just the culmination of Darl’s arc, but also the revelation of Faulkner’s chosen narrative style: we see these characters’ failings through his eyes, but also through the unreliable narration of each of them and the people they meet along the way.

What’s in a Name?

As I Lay Dying is a novel rich with hidden meanings and subtle symbolism. While the story was written in the stream-of-consciousness tradition of Joyce and Woolf, it is far from a random or unstructured narrative. Faulkner imbues his characters and their surroundings with significant clues that illuminate the deeper themes of the novel. One of the most compelling examples of this is the symbolism found in the characters' names.

• Bundren, the family name, is more or less a reconfiguration of burden.
• Addie, or Adelaide, means “a noble kind,” and she certainly demands a sort of nobility in her request to be buried far from home.
• Jewel is, of course, Addie’s Jewel. He represents all that is precious to her—her defining act of independence in what she otherwise saw as a life of subordination.
• Cash also means value, but the everyday value of hard work, as opposed to a precious stone that contains value in and of itself.
• Anse, some have argued, might be a reference to anserous, which means goose-like or stupid.
• Vardaman might refer to verdant, as in green or growing, or it might be a play on vard/ward, which is Scottish for an underage orphan.
• Dewey suggests morning dew, which could refer to her innocence and fertility, and Dell suggests a small, secluded valley, symbolic of her isolation and the secret she seeks to keep hidden.
• Darl is short for darling. He is the honest heart within a rotting whole. 

Why is As I Lay Dying a Classic?

There’s a lot going on in this novel. Especially impressive is that Faulkner wrote As I Lay Dying in six weeks, with no revisions—by hand and, apparently, on onionskin paper. This novel, among the others he wrote, netted him the Nobel Prize for Literature. So clearly there are some brains behind the page. There is also a tremendous amount of poetry in the prose, especially in Darl’s monologues and his conversations with Vardaman. 

That being said, this book isn’t an easy read. The current Goodreads rating is 3.7/5. Many readers love the novel to pieces, but others are frustrated by what they describe as needless obfuscation. Faulkner doesn’t make clarity a priority, especially with so many contradictory perspectives and a nonlinear presentation. Still, for those who take the time to get immersed in the unusual voice and style, there is a lot to appreciate here: 

“In a strange room you must empty yourself for sleep. And before you are emptied for sleep, what are you. And when you are emptied for sleep, you are not. And when you are filled with sleep, you never were. I don't know what I am. I don't know if I am or not. Jewel knows he is, because he does not know that he does not know whether he is or not. He cannot empty himself for sleep because he is not what he is and he is what he is not. Beyond the unlamped wall I can hear the rain shaping the wagon that is ours, the load that is no longer theirs that felled and sawed it nor yet theirs that bought it and which is not ours either, lie on our wagon though it does, since only the wind and the rain shape it only to Jewel and me, that are not asleep. And since sleep is is-not and rain and wind are was, it is not. Yet the wagon is, because when the wagon is was, Addie Bundren will not be. And Jewel is, so Addie Bundren must be. And then I must be, or I could not empty myself for sleep in a strange room.” 

In Conclusion 

As I Lay Dying is a fantastic case study of multi-layered structure and unreliable narration, with each character's journey providing a different thematic angle on the Bundren family's quest to bury Addie. The novel's intricate use of language and symbolism challenges readers to consider the complexity of perception and reality. Faulkner's innovative approach to storytelling not only deepens our understanding of the characters but also underscores the novel's exploration of isolation, empathy, selfishness, and the human condition.

David Griffin Brown is an award-winning short fiction writer and co-author of Immersion and Emotion: The Two Pillars of Storytelling. He holds a BA in anthropology from UVic and an MFA in creative writing from UBC, and his writing has been published in literary magazines such as the Malahat Review and Grain. In 2022, he was the recipient of a New Artist grant from the Canada Council for the Arts. David founded Darling Axe Editing in 2018, and as part of his Book Broker interview series, he has compiled querying advice from over 100 literary agents. He lives in Victoria, Canada, on the traditional territory of the Songhees and Esquimalt Nations.