As I Lay Dying

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

CHAPTERS 1-20

Reading Check

1. What is Cash building for his mother?

2. Where does the family plan to take Addie to bury her body?

3. What secret is Dewey Dell attempting to hide?

4. What dead animal is Vardaman associated with in these chapters?

5. What beloved animal is Jewel most associated with in these chapters?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. What sound does “Chuck Chuck Chuck” describe, and how does it add to the sense of anticipation among the characters?

2. Why do Darl and Jewel go to town, and what event does this make them miss?

3. Who does Dewey Dell discover hiding in the cow stalls, and why is this person there? 

4. What is Dewey Dell thinking about when she says that Peabody “could do so much for me if he just would” in Chapter 14? 

5. How does Cash feel about his handiwork when it is done? How does the reader know?

Paired Resources

“International Team Collaborating to Digitize Faulkner’s World”

• This article from UVAToday explains the painstaking detail that renowned Faulkner scholars must take to recreate Faulkner’s fictional Yoknapatawpha County, where this novel takes place.