The motif of death in the novel As I Lay Dying? As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner

's darkly
comic novel, , all of the action of the narrative finds its focal point in
the death of Addie Bundren.  Thus, the motif of death is recurrent throughout the
novel. 

Death becomes both a physical
presence 

Most of the action of Faulkner's plot revolves
around the building of the casket for the dying Addie and the journey of transporting her body
to Jefferson where she can be buried with her family members.  So much a spiritual and physical
presence is the dead Addie Bundren that her children become confused about the meanings of their
own existences as well as the meaning of death.  For instance, the smallest boy, Vardaman,
drills holes in his mother's casket so that she can breathe, but when the casket slips off the
wagon as the family attempts to cross the flooded river, Vardaman becomes confused and imagines,
"My mother is a fish."

Dewey Dell feels that her mother has died
"too soon" because she is not ready to take her place as a mother.  Instead, she seeks
an abortion, she seeks death.

Jewel grabs his mother's casket as it slides
from the wagon and "rides it," clinging to it.  It is almost as though the dead Addie
and Jewel's horse, which he also loves, are similar.  Again, there is a confusion in the meaning
of death for one of Addie's children. 

Death as a relief from
suffering

Dewey Dell seeks an abortion, a death, as a relief
from her worry of having a baby.

Darl Bundren participates in the journey to
Jefferson with his mother's remains, but he is embarrassed by his family who drags his mother
all over the county.  So, he burns down Gillespie's barn in which his mother's casket is put out
of the rain in order to end the embarrassing affair.  Dewey Dell has him committed to an insane
asylum and Darl laughs on the train, talking about himself in the third person as though he is
gone or like the dead.

Dr. Peabody furthers the motif of death as a cure for
the suffering life brings when he says,

"God
Almighty, why didn't Anse carry you to the nearest sawmill and stick your leg in the saw?  That
would have cured it.  Then you all could have stuck his head into the saw and cured a whole
family."

With her own narration which reveals how
her life has been a death venture, Addie describes how she has despised her husband and borne
him the last two children to make up for her love child, Jewel.  For Addie, death is certainly a
respite from her life of suffering.  As she dies, she tells the children, "You will all
have to look out for Pa the best you can."

Certainly, mortality is not
glorified in Faulkner's novel; rather, it is treated in a narrative that verges onas the
dysfunctional family of Bundren carry more than the burden of their mother's casket.