As I Lay Dying

William Faulkner

Get this SparkNote to go!

Important Quotations Explained

1. That’s what they mean by the love that passeth understanding: that pride, that furious desire to hide that abject nakedness which we bring here with us, . . . carry stubbornly and furiously with us into the earth again.


2. “Jewel’s mother is a horse,” Darl said.
“Then mine can be a fish, can’t it, Darl?” I said.
. . .
“Then what is your ma, Darl?” I said.
“I haven’t got ere one,” Darl said. “Because if I had one, it is was. And if it was, it cant be is. Can it?”


3. [W]ords dont ever fit even what they are trying to say at. . . . [M]otherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn’t care whether there was a word for it or not.


4. Sometimes I think it aint none of us pure crazy and aint none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It’s like it aint so much what a fellow does, but it’s the way the majority of folks is looking at him when he does it.


5. “It’s Cash and Jewel and Vardaman and Dewey Dell,” pa says, kind of hangdog and proud too, with his teeth and all, even if he wouldn’t look at us. “Meet Mrs Bundren,” he says.


More Help

Buy the print As I Lay Dying SparkNote on BN.com

The SparkNote you can hold in your hand.

Buy the ebook of this SparkNote on BN.com

Easy to view on your iPod, phone, or ereader.

EVEN MORE HELP! ↓

Take a Study Break

Green YOUR SCHOOL!

Click here to get involved with dosomething.org!

John Krasinski's BIG MIRACLE

Click to watch the trailer and read exclusive star interviews!

Do you like Anna?

Read Dear Albert... from ANNA's perspective!

BATTLESHIP, the movie

Here's why we're super jazzed about it.


The Book

Cover image

Order As I Lay Dying at BN.com

All the words, printed on paper. Classic!

Cover image

Read What You Love, Anywhere You Like

Get Our FREE NOOK Reading Apps