As I Lay Dying Lesson Plan

As the novel progresses, buzzards overhead become more numerous and noticeable. What sort of symbolic role do they play?

At this point in the novel, Addie's body has begun to stink, and the smell brings fat buzzards to the wagon. Students should have an easy time creating a link between buzzards, who feast on the flesh of dead animals, and the dead body in the wagon. Throughout As I Lay Dying, the buzzards become more numerous and increase in size - try to point the class to passages where Faulkner mentions how fat the birds are.

The buzzards serve as a constant reminder of mortality and death: they follow the Bundrens from the moment of Addie's death all the way to...