As I Lay Dying

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-20

Reading Check

1. What is Cash building for his mother?

2. Where does the family plan to take Addie to bury her body?

3. What secret is Dewey Dell attempting to hide?

4. What dead animal is Vardaman associated with in these chapters?

5. What beloved animal is Jewel most associated with in these chapters?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What sound does “Chuck Chuck Chuck” describe, and how does it add to the sense of anticipation among the characters?

2. Why do Darl and Jewel go to town, and what event does this make them miss?

3. Who does Dewey Dell discover hiding in the cow stalls, and why is this person there? 

4. What is Dewey Dell thinking about when she says that Peabody “could do so much for me if he just would” in Chapter 14? 

5. How does Cash feel about his handiwork when it is done? How does the reader know?

Paired Resources

“International Team Collaborating to Digitize Faulkner’s World”

• This article from UVAToday explains the painstaking detail that renowned Faulkner scholars must take to recreate Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County, where this novel takes place.
• This connects to the themes of The Development of Characters Through Differing Perspectives and The Journey to Town and Secret, Selfish Motives.
• What are the advantages of Faulkner’s approach to structure and narration in As I Lay Dying? How could Carrigan’s "Digital Yoknapatawpha” help students understand Faulkner and his characters?

“Navigating Reality: It’s All About Perspective”

• In this 7-minute video from Big Think (stop at the 4:17 mark), Daniel Schmachtenberger explains the limits of one person’s perception in understanding the nature of reality.
• This will help students understand The Development of Characters Through Differing Perspectives. 
• In what ways are the differing observations in As I Lay Dying each incomplete or unreliable? Would this novel be as effective if it were written from the point of view of a single, all-knowing narrator? 

CHAPTERS 21-40   

Reading Check

1. What does Jewel insist on taking on the trip, even though his father finds it disrespectful?

2. Which character is concerned that the coffin is not properly balanced on the wagon?

3. How do the mules die?

4. What does Jewel go to great lengths to retrieve after the accident?

5. Which part of his body does Cash injure?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What town is Dewey Dell anxious to reach, and how does its name reflect her emotional state?

2. How do the Bundrens respond to the Samsons’ hospitality?

3. What does Samson warn the Bundrens about, and how does Anse respond?

4. How did Jewel acquire the money to buy his horse?

5. Which one of Addie’s remarks makes Cora feel she has committed “sacrilege,” and how does Cora respond?

Paired Resource

“Viewing Addie Bundren Through a Feminist Lens”

• This article discusses the central chapter of the novel, Addie’s monologue from beyond the grave. It is often cited as an example of “ecriture feminine,” or a literary writing style that deviates from typical masculine purposes of language.
• This connects to the theme of Rural Women of the Twenties’ Lack of Autonomy, Duty to Family, and Exhaustion.
• What is the effect of reading a chapter written by a character who died 28 chapters prior? Why does she say she finds it hard to express herself through language?

CHAPTERS 41-59

Reading Check

1. Which character decides not to confess his extramarital affair with Addie when he learns she has died?

2. What does Vardaman notice in the skies over their heads?

3. What does Anse take away from Dewey Dell?

4. What do the Bundrens need to borrow before they can bury Addie?

5. Which new character is introduced in the last line of the novel?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Where does the family get the money to buy a new team of mules, and how does Jewel react to this agreement?

2. How is Darl punished for setting fire to Armstid’s barn?

3. Who accompanies Dewey Dell to her appointment with MacGowan, and what does she tell this person about how she thinks it went?

4. How does Peabody react to Cash’s injury, and how does he help him?

5. In what ways does Anse experience a renewal in the final chapters of the novel?

Paired Resource

Official Trailer As I Lay Dying (2013)

• This is the official trailer of the 2013 adaptation of the novel, directed by James Franco.
• This connects to the themes of The Development of Characters Through Differing Perspectives; Rural Women of the Twenties’ Lack of Autonomy, Duty to Family, and Exhaustion; and The Journey to Town and Secret, Selfish Motives.
• What would be difficult about turning As I Lay Dying into a movie? How does this trailer show the filmmakers’ attempts to address the themes of the novel?

Recommended Next Reads 

Sanctuary by William Faulkner

• This sensational novel, published a year after As I Lay Dying, tells the story of the criminal Popeye who abducts his victim Temple Drake and condemns her to the hellish world of Memphis brothels.
• Shared themes include The Journey to Town and Secret, Selfish Motives and Rural Women of the Twenties’ Lack of Autonomy, Duty to Family, and Exhaustion.
• Shared topics include the setting of Yoknapatawpha County, desperate characters, and the decline of the Old South.     
• Sanctuary on SuperSummary 

Last Orders by Graham Swift

• This Booker Prize-winning novel tells the story of a group of aging men who travel to the southeast coast of England to spread the ashes of their lost friend. The author has stated this novel was written in homage to Faulkner’s.
• Shared themes include The Development of Characters Through Differing Perspectives.
• Shared topics include a pilgrimage to bury a loved one and the impact of grief.
• Last Orders on SuperSummary