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27. Darl
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in As I Lay Dying, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Self-Interest Versus Heroic Duty
Mortality and the Nature of Existence
Family, Birth, and Death
Religion and Faith
Language versus Action
Summary
Analysis
Anse complains about how hard his life is as a farmer and laments that "nowhere in this sinful world can a honest, hardworking man profit." He hopes for a reward in heaven, where all men are equal.
Again, Anse demonstrates his self-interest and his tendency to see himself as a victim for things that go wrong for him. His obsession with receiving a "profit" or "reward" point to the fact that he is not actually concerned with fulfilling a "sacred promise" to Addie, but with himself.
Themes
Literary Devices
The Bundrens drive along all day until dusk, when they reach the house of Samson, a farmer who lives on the way to Jefferson. The Bundrens learn the unfortunate fact that another local bridge has been submerged from recent rains, but reminds himself that he is a chosen man of God. Despite the unfortunate situation, Anse takes solace in the fact that he will be getting new teeth upon arrival in Jefferson.
The news of the sunken bridge foreshadows future catastrophe for the Bundrens, which will make their journey far more ridiculous and less heroic than even before. Anse's statement that he is a chosen man of God speaks to the theme of inauthentic religious beliefs spouted by many of the characters throughout the novel, which Addie specifically criticizes in her section (section 40).
Themes
