What happens in Chapter 59 of As I Lay Dying?
The final chapter is told from Cash's perspective as the Bundren family hangs around town after Addie's burial. Anse, or Pa, returns borrowed shovels to a house where a graphophone is playing music. Cash, sitting in the wagon, thinks about how great it would be to own one of those portable music machines and even considers how much they might cost on installment plans. Pa takes longer than expected, which makes Jewel impatient; he’s eager to get Cash's broken leg treated so the family can head home. When Pa finally shows up, he heads off for a shave and later spends the evening away on some unspecified "business," returning looking well-groomed and smelling of perfume. The next morning, Pa asks Cash if he has any money left; Cash replies that Peabody gave him just enough to cover the hotel bill. The family packs up and waits at a corner as instructed. Soon, Pa walks up the street carrying a grip, and the kids notice his face looks different—he has new teeth. Following him is a stout woman with bulging eyes, also carrying a grip, which turns out to hold one of the small portable graphophones Cash had been admiring. Pa introduces her to his children as "Mrs. Bundren," revealing he has remarried quite quickly. Cash finishes by thinking about how much he’ll enjoy listening to the graphophone in winter, but then adds that it’s a shame Darl can’t be around to enjoy it too—though he reflects, "This world is not his world; this life his life."
Analysis
Cash's narration wraps up the novel with a tone that's both straightforward and heartbreaking. While earlier chapters depict Cash as a man who chooses his words carefully, here his voice takes on a wry, almost dreamlike quality. His lengthy daydream about graphophones—their portability, their installment costs, and how a weary man might relax to music—serves as the chapter's central theme, and Faulkner cleverly uses it as a narrative trap. Readers follow Cash's innocent hopes, only to find out at the chapter's conclusion that the new Mrs. Bundren arrives with one of those little machines. The graphophone thus connects Cash's personal desires to Anse's strategic courtship, turning the music into both a source of comfort and a symbol of Anse's self-serving nature.
Visually, the chapter relies on a series of telling details instead of outright statements: Anse's slicked-back, scented hair; the way he carries himself; and ultimately "his face"—the new teeth that make him appear "a foot taller, kind of holding his head up, hangdog and proud too." The phrase "hangdog and proud" recurs, encapsulating Anse's blend of guilt and self-satisfaction without any commentary. Cash refrains from judging, allowing the image of Dewey Dell and Vardaman with their half-eaten bananas and agape mouths to convey shock. The chapter concludes with Cash's quietly resigned thought about Darl, adding a touch of real loss and moral sorrow beneath the darkly humorous tone of Anse's remarriage.
Key quotes from Chapter 59
“It made him look a foot taller, kind of holding his head up, hangdog and proud too”
Cash describes Anse's appearance when he walks up the street with his new teeth, just before the new Mrs. Bundren comes into view.
“This world is not his world; this life his life.”
Cash's closing reflection on Darl, after noting it is a shame Darl cannot be there to enjoy the graphophone.
“It’s Cash and Jewel and Vardaman and Dewey Dell,” pa says, kind of hangdog and proud too, with his teeth and all, even if he wouldn’t look at us. “Meet Mrs. Bundren,” he says.”
The chapter's final lines, in which Anse introduces his new wife to his children.
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