From Darl and Jewel’s arrival at home to Darl’s departure
Darl
Darl Bundren describes walking with his brother Jewel
across a field toward their house. They pass a dilapidated cotton
house, which Darl walks around but Jewel walks straight through,
entering and leaving through the building’s large, open windows.
They then reach the foot of a bluff, where Vernon Tull, the Bundrens’
wealthier neighbor, has stacked two chairs on his wagon. At the
top of the bluff, Darl and Jewel’s older brother, Cash, is dutifully
fitting boards together for a coffin for their mother, Addie. Darl
walks past Cash and enters the house.
Cora
The narrative perspective shifts to that of Tull’s wife,
Cora, who is thinking about some cakes that she was recently hired
to make, only to see the order cancelled after she had baked them.
Cora’s daughter, Kate, rails against the injustice of this turn
of events, while Cora takes it in stride. Addie lies nearby, frail
and silent, hardly breathing, as Cora’s other daughter, Eula, watches
over her. Outside, the sound of Cash’s sawing continues. Cora recalls
Addie’s talent for baking cakes. Addie appears to be either asleep
or watching Cash’s efforts through the window. Darl passes through
the hall without a word and heads for the back of the house.
Darl
Darl encounters his father, Anse, and their neighbor,
Vernon Tull, sitting on the back porch. Anse asks after Jewel. Darl
takes a drink of water, thinking about what a simple pleasure it
is to do so, and remembers sneaking out at night to drink water
as a child. Darl answers Anse’s question, informing his father that
Jewel is attending to the horses. In the barn, Jewel struggles violently
to mount a horse, before finally leaping onto its back and riding
it down and up a hill. When he gets back to the barn, Jewel dismounts
and feeds the horse.
Jewel
Jewel thinks with bitterness and resentment about Cash’s
insistence on constructing Addie’s coffin right outside her window.
He is angry with the other members of his family for allowing Cash
to proceed in this way. He expresses a wish to be alone with his
mother in her final days.
Darl
Darl talks about how he and Jewel are making preparations
for a delivery trip they are running for Tull, who is going to pay
them three dollars. Anse is hesitant to let them go, as he is worried
that Addie will die before Darl and Jewel return with the team of
horses. Tull reassures them about Addie, and Jewel lashes out at
him for his intrusiveness. Jewel then proceeds to voice his anger
toward Cash and the rest of the family for their seeming eagerness
to hurry Addie to her end. Anse responds by applauding the family’s
fortitude in following Addie’s last wishes. Finally, Anse agrees
to let the boys make the trip, on the condition that they return
by the next day at sundown. As Darl enters the house, he reflects
on how voices travel in the hallway: “they sound as though they
were speaking out of the air about your head.”
Cora
Cora watches Darl enter the house and is touched by the
emotion with which he bids Addie farewell. She contrasts Darl’s
sweetness with Anse’s and Jewel’s callousness. As Darl stands in
the doorway, Dewey Dell, his sister, asks him what he wants. He
ignores her and instead stares at his mother, “his heart too full
for words.”
