As I Lay Dying Ch. 15: Vardaman Fears the

Summary

Are you going to nail her up in it, Cash? Cash? Cash? Vardaman asks while Pa walks around and his shadow walks around over Cash going up and down above the saw at the bleeding plank. Vardaman remembers the crib door too heavy for him, the rat breathing up all the air, and the coffin feels like that same shut place where you cannot breathe.

His mind jumps to the store window, the red train on the track, Dewey Dell's gone bananas and Pa saying flour and sugar and coffee cost too much because he is a country boy. Why ain't I a town boy, pa? But the saw sounds like it is asleep and Vardaman keeps circling the same fear. It was not her. I was there. I saw. She went away when the other one laid down in her bed and drew the quilt up. She went farther than town, farther than rabbits and possums.

If Cash nails the box up, she is not a rabbit and she cannot breathe, so it must not be her they bury. Then it wasn't and she was, and now it is and she wasn't: the fish chopped up and bleeding in the kitchen pan, waiting to be cooked and et, while she will be him and pa and Cash and Dewey Dell and there will be nothing in the box. He can get Vernon, who was there and seen it, and with both of them it will be and then it will not be. Who answers when a child keeps asking about nails and air while the saw never stops?

In this chapter: Terms Characters Key Quotes Modern Story

Why This Matters

Answer the Breathing Fear First

Has a child ever asked you something about death that sounded strange, about nails, air, or the wrong body in the box, while grown-ups kept explaining what the funeral was for? Vardaman begs Cash not to nail her shut because the coffin feels like the crib where a rat breathed up all the air, and the fish in the pan has traded places with his mother in his mind.

This week, if a child fixates on a closed box or sealed room, answer whether breath could reach them before you explain tradition.

Coming Up in Chapter 16

Rain sets in near midnight and Vernon Tull wakes to knocking low on the door. Vardaman stands there soaked to the knees after walking four miles in mud and says, You mind that ere fish, while Cora decides Addie Bundren is gone at last.

Lessons

What this chapter proves — the patterns beneath the scene

All lessons

In this chapter: Reading Competing Perspectives · Surviving Chaos You Did Not Create.

The cards below name the patterns this chapter proves — carry them with you into Faulkner's voices.

Reading Competing Perspectives

Fifty-Nine Versions of the Same Corpse

Vardaman asks Cash not to nail the box shut. He remembers air stolen in a crib by a rat. The woman in the bed was not his mother — the real one went away like a rabbit. If they nail it, she cannot breathe. Darl's grammar lesson meets a child's literal terror.

Key Insight

A child's was-and-is logic is a perspective, not a mistake. It names what adults handle with saws and supper orders: the dead body is unbearable if it stays sealed.

“Are you going to nail it?”

Full analysis

Surviving Chaos You Did Not Create

The Brother Who Saw Too Clearly

Vardaman loops on one question: will Cash nail her shut? The coffin feels like the crib where a rat stole the air. He says the woman in the bed was not his mother. Pa walks in circles while Cash saws the bleeding plank. The youngest Bundren is trying to breathe inside a disaster he did not design.

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Original text

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Chapter 15

Vardaman Fears the Coffin

Vardaman (2) When they get it finished they are going to put her in it and then for a long time I couldn't say it. I saw the dark stand up and go whirling away and I said "Are you going to nail her up in it, Cash? Cash? Cash?" I got shut up in the crib the new door it was too heavy for me it went shut I couldn't breathe because the rat was breathing up all the air. I said "Are you going to nail it shut, Cash? Nail it? Nail it?" Pa walks around. His shadow…

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Critical Thinking Exercise

10 minutes

Answer the Breathing Fear First

Vardaman asks Cash three times: Are you going to nail her up in it? He links the coffin to the crib door and insists it was not my mother in the bed. Remember or imagine a child asking whether someone can breathe in a casket or closed space. Write their literal words, then write one sentence that answers the breathing fear before any explanation of ceremony.

Consider:

•Is the fear about air, being trapped, or the wrong person in the box?
•What did adults say instead of answering the literal question?
•What one sentence would have helped first?

Journaling Prompt

Write about a closed door or box that once felt like it would run out of air. What did it represent to you then?

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Vardaman Fears the Coffin

Summary