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William Faulkner
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Jewel goes on toward the barn, wooden-backed, entering the lot without looking back. Dewey Dell carries the basket on one arm and something wrapped square in a newspaper. Her face is calm and sullen, her eyes brooding and alert; within them Darl can see Peabody's back like two round peas in two thimbles. She climbs in beside Vardaman, her leg long beneath her tightening dress, that lever which moves the world, one of that caliper which measures the length and breadth of life.
Then Jewel enters the barn. He has not looked back. It ain't right, Pa says. It's little enough for him to do for her. Go on, Cash says. Leave him stay if he wants. He'll catch us, Darl says. He'll cut across and meet us at Tull's lane. Pa calls the spotted horse a deliberate flouting of her and of me, wilder than a cattymount.
The wagon moves. The mules' ears begin to bob. Behind them, above the house, motionless in tall and soaring circles, the buzzards diminish and disappear. The Jefferson trip has started with Addie in the box, Jewel in the barn, Dewey Dell's parcel on her lap, and the birds still circling the place they left. What do you miss when the wheels turn and nobody looks back at what stayed behind?
Have you ever left a hard day together while someone important wasn't in the main car and something ominous stayed behind? Darl watches Jewel enter the barn without looking back while Dewey Dell boards with a wrapped parcel and buzzards circle the house above them.
This week, when a group finally rolls out, look once at who is missing, what they are carrying, and what stayed circling over the place you left before you call the send-off successful.
Anse scolds Darl for laughing on the wagon seat with Addie's coffin at his feet while Jewel rides the spotted horse up toward Tull's lane. Anse says such conduct reflects on Addie and Dewey Dell, not on him, and asks the Lord to pardon what He sent.
What this chapter proves — the pattern beneath the scene
In this chapter, the lesson is Holding Absurd Commitments — The Box Must Reach Jefferson.
The card below names the pattern this chapter proves — carry it with you into Faulkner's voices.
Holding Absurd Commitments
The burial trip finally rolls. Jewel enters the barn without looking back. Anse calls his absence a flouting of Addie. Cash says leave him. The mules' ears bob and the wagon leaves while buzzards hang motionless above the empty house.
Key Insight
The vow departs on schedule even when a brother refuses the script and the sky already marks what the box will become.
“The wagon moves”Explore full theme analysis
Chapter 25
Darl (9) He goes on toward the barn, entering the lot, wooden-backed. Dewey Dell carries the basket on one arm, in the other hand something wrapped square in a newspaper. Her face is calm and sullen, her eyes brooding and alert; within them I can see Peabody's back like two round peas in two thimbles: perhaps in Peabody's back two of those worms which work surreptitious and steady through you and out the other side and you waking suddenly from sleep or from waking, with on your face an expression sudden, intent, and concerned. She sets the basket into the…
Public-domain chapter text, formatted for reading.
Jewel enters the barn without looking back. Dewey Dell boards with a basket and a newspaper parcel. Darl says he'll cut across and meet them at Tull's lane. The wagon moves while buzzards diminish above the house. Write about a group departure where someone important was not in the main vehicle when things finally started. Who was missing, what were they carrying, and what omen stayed behind?
Finish Darl's line: The wagon moved, but ___ was still ___, and I knew they would ___.
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Other theme-by-theme analyses from this book.
Everyone Acts, Nobody Stops the Wagon
Follow Cash sawing, Jewel riding, Dewey Dell scheming, and Vardaman drilling while no one can say stop.
Fifty-Nine Versions of the Same Corpse
Hold fifty-nine monologues that never add up to one account, from Cora's cakes to Darl's arithmetic of sight.
Deep diving the literary elements.
Guides, life skills, and the full library.More ways to read As I Lay Dying: guides, life skills, and the wider library.
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