Darl's Monologue

The rain had just stopped pouring, and we had all gathered in a park nearby, as a makeshift memorial for Johnny. It wasn’t really a funeral, we didn’t have the budget for that, and it wasn’t like his parents cared enough to give him a proper goodbye.

When Dewey Dell first comes to mind, she is first characterized as feeble-minded. Throughout the book, whenever Dewey Dell would talk, it could be seen that she still had a young mind and she was very slow when it came down to everyday things in life. For example, “He is a big tub of guts and I am a little tub of guts and if there is not any room for anything else important in a big tub of guts, how can it be room in a little tub of guts”(Faulkner, 58). Although this quote is a mouth full, it represents how Dewey sees things or how she is able to express them. With this quote, it becomes evident that she is pregnant, but the way she talks and thinks brings realization that she is not ready for the child.

Illegitimate child, Jewel has a different father than the rest of his siblings and Darl believes that “[he] cannot love [his] mother because [he has] no mother. Jewel’s mother is a horse” (Faulkner 95). Both Darl and Jewel have the same mother, but because Addie cheated and Darl is full of anger, he blames Jewel, the product of the affair. Not only does this worsen their relationship, but it makes it difficult for them to properly grieve. Faulkner defends the idea that placing blame on others within your family will only complicate situations more and restrict the ability for connections to flourish. While Dewey Dell, the only daughter, does not blame Darl for knowing about her pregnancy, but she does despise him for having knowledge of it and once said she had thoughts where “[she] killed Darl” (Faulkner 121). Struggling to feel a sense of belonging, Dewey Dell looks for anyone to be the victim of her anger and embarrassment. She resents her brother and breaks a possible alliance with him; meanwhile, Faulkner uses this situation to point out that one must take responsibility when one does something wrong in order for love to shine through the tough moments in life.

I kept writing. It was hard, but I could get everything off of my chest. I could explain to people what had happened to me. I could tell my English teacher. It was a little hard, but I didn’t cry. I couldn’t cry. Greasers didn’t cry.

“How come y’all ain’t scared of us like you were Dally?” Johnny said. He had that scared look in his eyes, that told me he’d been badly hurt, but I could only tell because I had that same look for weeks after my mother died. I sighed, “You two are too sweet to scare anyone. First of all, you didn’t join in Dallas’s dirty talk, and you made him leave us alone. And when we asked you to sit up here with us, you didn't act like it was an invitation to make out for the night. Besides that, I’ve heard about Dallas Winston, and he looked as hard as nails and twice as tough. And you two don’t look mean.”

Addie remains subject to patriarchal society throughout the ordeal of childbirth, as she realizes that she could use her experience of childbirth to break free of this society because motherhood produces a split in her identity. Addie believes that “when he was born I knew that motherhood 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” (171-172), speaking of her first child, Cash. Addie believes that language was a male construction due to the fact that it was “invented” by someone who does not experience childbirth. There is clear ambivalence here for Addie as she feels content about motherhood realizing that motherhood does not need a word, it is just an imprudent emotion. However, she also sentiments irritability due tothe fact that the word “motherhood” is construction of male language. An epiphany for Addie occurs here on her sudden insight on motherhood and its outcomes. Something that is owned by women is still being controlled by men’s language. However, she still does not speak to Dewey Dell about these realizations. That is when readers notice Dewey Dell is oblivious to the fact that motherhood is nourishing from her own hands. Regarding to the pregnancy as an impediment, Dewey Dell desires to abort

I’m ready to fight i tried telling myself, but I’m not until I turn on my music but now I think that it is distracting me. Let's do this, it’s now or never. “For Skyrim” I yell.

The first person that Dewey Dell betrays is her brother Darl. Dewey Dell and Darl were very close according to their brother Cash before Dewey Dell became pregnant. Cash says, “And then I always kind of had an idea that him and Dewey Dell kind of knowed things betwixt them” (Faulkner 237). Although Cash believes that they were close before, their relationship changed. Darl towards the end of the book burns Samson’s barn with his mother’s coffin in it. Dewey Dell knows that he did this. When they get to the town of Jefferson to bury their mother, Dewey Dell turns in her brother Darl to the police. “. . . but when them fellows told him what they wanted and that they had come to get him and he throwed back, she jumped on him like a wild cat . . .”(Faulkner 237). Dewey Dell not only turns Darl in, but she helps the police tackle him to the ground. This is a major relationship change from what Cash had expressed. She betrays Darl by telling the police. She could have kept it to herself and not told anyone, but instead she decides to notify the police of his wrong doings.

Cash seems to think that Dewey Dell has a connection with Darl because they share a knowingness. Although, it becomes clear, after she is the first to jump on him when being taken away to Jackson, that she isn’t partial to Darl because he knows her secret. Dewey Dell’s secret is also the reason that she wants to go to Jefferson. She finds herself pregnant and seeks out an abortion. Dewey Dell pregnancy causes her to hide other things from her family as a result, when Anse ask her if she got the money in a wrongful way, her reply is that it isn’t hers. She also told everyone the package was Cora Tull’s cakes to sell, when it was her Sunday clothes. While Dewey Dell may seem selfish throughout the story, as the sole girl she has to take care of everyone and her situation doesn’t allow her much time to even grieve Addie. This is displayed when Dewey Dell thinks, “I heard that my mother is dead. I wish I had time to let her die.”

Hello my name is Madelyn Johnson, I attend Bartels Middle School and am a 11 years old. I have played ball ever since I was little and fell in love with it instantly. I would watch the Brewers all the time and they give me motivation. I really appreciate how many of the activities are involved around children. I wish I could go to more games in the summer.

good-byes to their mother because of this. When they got back, Addie was already dead. Undoubtedly, Anse took the money and put it towards his teeth.

Faulkner’s use of southern gothic writing style helps the reader build a mental depiction of Miss Emily. When the town sent their ambassadors to discuss the taxes that were owed, Faulkner described Miss Emily as “bloated, like a body long submerged in motionless water” (2182). This description gives the reader the sense that the character is not well. Faulkner’s description that Miss Emily looked bloated achieves the desired effect on the reader to show how hideous she appears. This graphic description, combined with the author’s depressing description of the parlor (2182), makes the reader think of death. The reader gets the sense of being in a funeral parlor which helps to strengthen Faulkner’s narrative.

After waiting ten days to begin the treacherous journey, the Bundrens still rationalized going to Jefferson to bury Addie. Tull explains that Anse “promised her” that she could be buried there and that “she wanted it. She come from there. Her mind was set on it” (Faulkner 89). While it seems logical that a man would want to fulfill his wife’s dying wish, the conditions of reaching Jefferson

Addie Bundren in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying Woman is the source and sustainer of virtue and also a prime source of evil. She can be either; because she is, as man is not, always a little beyond good and evil. With her powerful natural drive and her instinct for the concrete and personal, she does not need to agonize over her decisions. There is no code for her to master, no initiation for her to undergo.

Dewey Dell has an errand to fulfill from when they initially set out to Jefferson: to terminate a pregnancy. This too, however, is driven by Anse, at least in part. She is afraid of what her family will do if they find out: “She just keeps saying Are you going to tell pa? Are you going to kill him?” (Darl, 710). Darl suspects that she wants Addie to die specifically so she can get to town. The “Are you going to tell pa?” is instrumental in Dewey Dell’s motivations. She doesn’t want anything to happen to Lafe and she doesn’t want anything to happen to