As I Lay Dying Poverty Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Section.Paragraph) Every "section" is marked by a shift in narrative point of view.

Quote #7

And that may have been when I first found it out, that Addie Bundren should be hiding anything she did, who had tried to teach us that deceit was such that, in a world where it was, nothing else could be very bad or very important, not even poverty.

Addie’s principles prove to be hypocritical, like so many other characters in the novel.

Quote #8

"I got the money to pay you," she said.
< br> "Is it your own, or did he act enough of a man to give you the money?"

"He give it to me. Ten dollars. He said that would be enough."

"A thousand dollars wouldn’t be enough in my store and ten cents wouldn’t be enough," I said. "You take my advice and go home and tell you pa or your brothers if you have any or the first man you come to in the road." (45.28-31)

Like Anse, Moseley cares more about principles than money.

Quote #9

"God knows," pa says. "I wouldn’t be beholden, God knows." (46.3)

Pa insists that only someone inside the family dig the grave for Addie, so that he doesn’t become beholden to any man. Ironically, he’s hurting his own family and forcing them all to make sacrifices for him (Cash and his broken leg, Dewey Dell and her abortion money, etc.).