Symbolism of the River in the death of Addie As I Lay Dying Symbolism of the River in the death of Addie

Yocona River Bridge, early 1900s This covered bridge over the Yocona River, photographed in the early 1900s, was one of several covered bridges in Lafayette County. Old maps depict the slow, muddy river as the "Yockney-patafa" River, from which Faulkner derived the name of his fictional county. A mule-drawn team such as the one depicted brings to mind the ill-fated crossing of the flooded Yoknapatawpha River in Faulkner's novel As I Lay Dying.

Crossing the River The river crossing occurs just prior to Addie's only section in the novel. How is the river crossing significant to each of the characters involved?

Questions for reflection How does the description of the river and the river crossing relate to the method of narration? How could this scene function as a metaphor for the difficulty in telling a story?

River as metaphor What does the image of the river say about the emotions of the scene?

Look to the text: Refer to Darl's section (just before Vardaman's description of the river crossing): “Before us the thick dark current runs. It talks up to us in a murmur become ceaseless and myriad, the yellow surface dimpled monstrously into fading swirls traveling along the surface for an instant, silent, impermanent and profoundly significant, as though just beneath the surface something huge and alive waked for a moment of lazy alertness out of and into light slumber again…”

Activity: (in groups of 3 or 4) Compare the four different perspectives prominent in the description of the crossing: Darl, Tull, Vardaman, and Cash. How does each of these four narrators describe the river? What is the relationship between the way they see the world, the images they attach themselves to, and the way they describe the river crossing?