What happens in Chapter 51 of As I Lay Dying?
Vardaman sets out to discover where "they" spend the night and notices something unusual. People begin to wonder where Darl has gone. They bring her back under the apple tree. Vardaman remembers the red barn sinking, its red pieces swirling against the night sky and stars. Cash lies awake, sweating, with his leg and foot blackened from something applied to them. Dewey Dell offers him water. Pa insists they need to break it off. Mr. Gillespie asks why it was applied; Pa explains he was trying to help and that Darl did it. They use a flat iron and hammer to crack it while Dewey Dell holds the lamp. Mr. Gillespie cautions that it will take the skin off too and questions why no one greased Cash's leg first. Cash falls asleep as they break it off; his leg starts to bleed. Jewel is face down, suffering from a burned back. Dewey Dell applies a mixture of butter and soot, turning his back black. Vardaman tells Jewel his back looks like a black person's, just like Cash's foot. Dewey Dell sends Vardaman to bed. Vardaman mentions that Darl is under the apple tree with her, lying on her to keep the cat away. Moonlight dapples Darl, but still stays on her. Vardaman tells Darl not to cry because Jewel got her out. He remembers the barn swirling up, making stars run backward, which hurt his heart like the train did. He says he saw something that Dewey Dell has told him to keep secret.
Analysis
The chapter is told from Vardaman's perspective, a child whose thinking is more associative and dreamlike than logical. He shifts effortlessly between what he sees now — like Cash's leg being freed from something and Jewel's burned back being treated — and images that he recalls or imagines, such as the barn breaking apart in red fragments against the stars. This blending of time is key to how Vardaman processes everything that has occurred: the barn's destruction, the train, and the body beneath the apple tree merge together without a clear timeline.
The repeated question "Where is Darl?" acts as a refrain, asked by unnamed voices, while Vardaman provides his own answer: Darl is under the apple tree with her, lying on her to keep the cat away. This reflects a child's struggle to understand something he can't fully grasp — death and Darl's sorrow. The moonlight, still illuminating her yet dappling Darl, creates a striking visual contrast between the living and the dead.
Vardaman often likens blackened skin to that of a nigger's — first with Cash's foot, then Jewel's back — using the same simile twice, which shows his childish literalness and the racial language surrounding him. The mixture of butter and soot, intended to draw out the fire, literalizes the chapter's themes of harm and the attempts to heal.
The chapter finishes with Vardaman's secret: he witnessed something that Dewey Dell has told him not to reveal. The narrative keeps this moment hidden, leaving the reader with the same uncertainty that clouds Vardaman's understanding.
Key quotes from Chapter 51
“The barn was still red, but it wasn’t a barn now. It was sunk down, and the red went swirling up.”
Early in the chapter, Vardaman recalls the barn's destruction in dreamlike imagery.
“He is out there under the apple tree with her, lying on her. He is there so the cat won’t come back.”
Vardaman answers the repeated question of where Darl is, imagining Darl guarding the body.
“When I went to find where they stay at night, I saw something that Dewey Dell says I mustn’t never tell nobody.”
The chapter's final line, in which Vardaman refers to a secret he is forbidden to share.
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