Could someone help me with "As I Lay Dying"?

Question

So I'm reading "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner and the novel is very very confusing to me.The quote that confuses me the most would be "Jewel's mother is a horse" What does this mean? Also could someone tell me some of the themes of the book so I could gain a better perspective? I have about 50 pages left to read, so I hope it all pieces together!

Answer 1

one of the main the themes of the book is that every character is isolated from the others and they do communicate on any great level with each other. Although the reader knows the thoughts and emotions of the characters none of the characters convey these thoughts and emotions to each other as a result misunderstandings result. Alienation are also common themes with the darnell family being isolated from each other and from their neighbours who cannot understand them. Death is another common theme which takes many forms in the novel such as investigating living in a deadened state and the unsettling and moving  attempts at defining the nature of death. Questions of identity are recurring themes such as the nature of self-identity and how fragile it is an example being when darl says "i dont know what  i am" expressing  the differences between him and jewel.  because of the lack of love from his mother darl is isolated not only from himself but others as well. By recording both  darls descent into insanity and the bundrens journey themes of sanity and insanity are explored. Two major themes in the novel are love and passion with the destinies and relationships of the characters relying heavily on love and passion. The inability of the characters to communicate with each other has the limitation of language as another theme and by contrasting the characters attempts at expressing themselves with their thoughts Faulkner is commenting on how tenuous language is. (hope this helps you understand it better). As for "Jewell`s mother is a horse" the quote is comparing the love that jewell has for his mother as being equal in intensity to the love he has for his horse.  

Answer 2

Here are a few links that should help you with it.