As I Lay Dying is told in individual sections, so that the narration of the story shifts from one character to another. While most sections are narrated by members of the Bundren family, the few that are told by neighbors and other observers offer a glimpse of the family from an outsider's perspective. Each narrator — family members and outsiders alike — is believable but at the same time unreliable, forcing readers to decide for themselves what is reality and what is not.
As the novel begins, Addie Bundren lays dying in her bedroom while her son Cash builds her coffin. Addie's ineffectual husband, Anse, is arranging to have her buried in Jefferson, a town forty miles away, because Addie has requested this last wish. Anse's motivating reason to go to Jefferson, however, is to get fitted for new teeth and, if possible, find a new wife. Two other sons, Darl and Jewel, struggle both with their mother's death and their own mental health. Darl is perceptive and insightful but taunts others mercilessly, while Jewel knows how to express love and affection only through violence, because his mother sought violence when she conceived him during an affair with a preacher.
