Kira

​**// As I Lay Dying //**

__Diary Entry Response__ As Vardaman to Tull's section

Dear Diary, I caught a fish today! I'm so happy I caught such a big fish! I wanted to show it to my mom, so I started carrying the fish up to the hill towards my house. But my dad was sitting outside the house talking to Tull about the trip Darl and Jewel were about to make. Obviously they were interested in their conversation, although it wasn't nearly as important as my fish, so I decided to just walk past them and go inside to show mom my fish. But my dad stopped me and told me to go clean my fish before taking it inside. He didn't like my fish, he didn't think it was very impressive. I don't understand why he didn't like my fish. And I don't see what the big deal was about taking the fish inside, I just wanted to show it to her, and cleaning it seems like such a hassle! Maybe I should just sneak the fish inside so that my dad and Tull don't see me. Nah, I shouldn't do that, I don't want to get into trouble. Well I guess I will write more later, but for now I am off to clean my fish (even though I think I really shouldn't have to...)! Bye! Vardaman [] / [|CC BY 2.0]

__Poem__ From Vardamin

My mother's body, she who just before her death became my child. The body that I saw in bookshop windows, TV screens, on every billboard, where I walked and where I fell asleep. I ate and drank from it, and grass and houses grew to cover it the body martyred, sacrificed for all the world, writhing, soil, sand, water, stone. My mother's body, light, an empty frame, though filled with liquid pain, the body that I took in hand and sailed like a great kite on wind, on water. Someone came at night, drove a harpoon into my heart, caught it like a jumping fish, and laid it on the table. ~ Tomasz Rózyck Rózycki, Tomasz. "Fishing in the Bay." //Literary Review// 52.1 (2008): 26. //ProQuest Learning: Literature//. Web. 26 Mar. 2010. .

__ Addie's Response __ Addie's response to Darl's section about carrying her coffin I can't believe that I died before Darl and Jewel got back home. I am going to miss them so much! Well at least Jewel... About three days after I died Anse, Jewel, Darl, and Cash carried me out of the house and down the hill into our wagon. It was great to see them all come together and unite, in the common action of saying goodbye to me, because they had the idea that I actually cared about them. I know that Vardaman wasn't able to help carry my coffin, but I'm sure he was close by somewhere, saying goodbye to me in his own way. Vardaman was always a very strange little kid, he was a little slow and confused most of the time, but he was usually a good kid, unless he is drilling holes in my face. Dewie Dell was probably close by too, but she hasn't been grieving because of my death, instead she has been really worried about some personal thing. That selfish girl is spending all of her time worring about something else instead of greiving my death. I'm not suprised that she is in some kind of trouble, that girl is always running her mouth, when she doesn't realise that she is doing it. Why nobody listened to Cash when he said the coffin wasn't easily balanced, I will never know. I can't beleive that they had the audacity to not make sure I was balanced, and almost drop me down the hill! Because of the unbalanced weight of the coffin and the fact that they were going down the hill made it hard for them all to keep a good hold of my coffin. Like Cash, because he still had a broken leg from falling off of the church, wasn't able to keep up with the rest of the guys. Cash had to watch someone else carry his beautiful coffin and his mother to the wagon. HA! Serves him right for not healing faster!This must have been really hard for him to do, because he was so upset by my death. I don't know why Darl let go, but he did too. Ungrateful creature... So Jewel, my sweet, darling, somewhat violent Jewel carried me almost single-handedly down the hill and into the wagon. He is the only one of them that I will miss. He was the only one I actually cared about, probably because he isn't that bumbling idiot Anse's son... I guess one of the best things about dying, is that I don't have to deal with Anse's constant whining anymore! I also won't have to deal with his constant complaining about how hard his life is, even though he never does anything! He had no right to complain, his life is so easy, he doesn't even have to work! My life was hard, I had to deal with him every day! [] / [|CC BY 2.0]

This is a picture from when the entire family is trying to get to town to bury Addie, and while they are driving Darl starts laughing because he sees Jewel riding his horse after them. Meanwhile Anse is yelling at Darl for laughing, becuase he says it is "disrespectful" to Addie.

__Extended Response__ By Vardaman from section 35 I can't belevie that Cash lost his hold on the coffin! I mean, thats our mom in there, he should have tried harder to hold on to her. I was really scared that we would lose her so I ran down the bank of the river telling them to try and catch her. I could see that Tull was debating wether or not to jump into the water, but luckily he did so that he could help Darl recatch her. I could see Darl struggling underwater. He was having problems getting around the mules. Obviously he was having a lot of trouble with the mules, because when he came back above the water, he didn't have her. I was getting so scared that we wouldn't recatch her, I wanted to cry. But instead I just kept telling them to try and catch her, as I ran down the river bank. Mommy is probably really scared floating down the river in her coffin. Even if she is a fish and can swim, she is probably really scared! This was getting out of hand, we needed to get her back! We had promised her that we would burry her in Jefferson! And if we don't get her back, then we will have no reason to go to Jefferson and see the trains, and I really want to see the trains!!! But more importantly we need to get her back and have her be safe in our wagon with us again, at least until we get to Jefferson.

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​ __Diary Entry Response __By Jewel to Addie’s section Dear Diary, That is so like my mom, to enjoy wiping all of the kids she used to teach. It doesn’t surprise me at all. And when school was out, she would just sit around hating them all? That’s probably where I get all of my god anger… HA! So she only married Anse because it was convenient! That makes a lot of sense, because I don’t know why anyone would want to marry such a lazy, dirty, good-for-nothing man like him. It’s right that she never loved him and always hated him, I would feel the same way, in fact I do feel the same way about him, and everyone for that matter! Well everyone except my horse… I always knew that I was different than everyone else in the family. I always had that feeling like I didn’t belong here. And I finally know why. I’m not really related to this family! She had me with another man! I’m not Anse’s son, I’m Whitefield’s son! It’s great finally knowing I’m not related to the bumbling oaf! I just wish she hadn’t had Dewie Dell and Vardaman to make up for her “debt to Anse”. She wasn’t in debt to him. It was great that she had a kid with someone else besides Anse! She was finally happy for once! And she thoroughly enjoyed it! She loved every second of being with Whitefield! Well I’m off to go take a ride with my horse! I will write more later. Jewel [] / [|CC BY-SA 2.0]

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This is a picture from the section when Darl thinks he hears his mom talking to him and telling him to set the barn on fire. After the barn was set of fine Jewel saves all of the livestock by getting them out of the barn, he then saves him mom by lifting her coffin and carying it outside. In this picture Jewel is putting the coffin down next to the apple tree, after taking it out of the burning barn.

__Diary Entry Response__ From Dewie Dell about section 55 Dear Diary, I'm not sure how I feel about this "Doctor MacGowan" guy. I mean, he seems like a good guy and everything. He just doesn't seem like a real doctor, the way he kept going on about how he "he knew so much more than people expect him to because he's a doctor". That just doesn't seem like something a doctor would say. But I offered him my money anyway, because I didn't know what else to do. And eventually he figured out that I wanted an abortion. Then he gave me this weird drink that smelled a lot like turpentine. He said that that was only because it was just the beginning of the treatment and that I would need to come back later to finish the treatment. I don't know what he's talking about because I expected to go in now and then be done with it. So I'm not sure if I should go back in later, because he doesn't seem like a very good doctor. I guess I have no other choice though. I need this abortion, so I need to come back in tonight. Well I'm going to go find my family again. Dewie Dell

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