As I Lay Dying Content (First post)

As I Lay Dying follows a rural family (it seems most of the characters are members of the Burden family anyway; I believe we hear from the perspective of the Tulls) immediately before and in the wake of the death of the mother, Addie Burden. I'm a little bit confused about some of the characters;
I think that Cora is Ms. Tull and that her and her husband are family friends. I think Cora acts as an interesting narrator because she seems to be a very morally righteous but also kind person. I believe that Vardaman, the little boy, is also Vernon. I would also like to see more about the past of the family which I'm a bit afraid may not be delved into as much if the story sticks to just narrating the events after Addie's death; I believe Cora talked about Anse (Addie's husband) being morally degenerate in some way (she described Vernon's appearance as revealing the hand of God on Anse) and I would like to see where this conflict comes from.

I would also like to see more to differentiate Darl and the other brothers. Cora describes him as being more soft, loving, tender, etc... but I feel as if what I have read hasn't really made him seem terribly different from the others. I believe she also described Cash as having been the child who got spoiled and turned out badly because of it (I feel like it was Cash who she described this as...), and would like to see more evidence of this too. The problem is that Faulkner's writing seems to primarily be made up of dialogue or unbiased imagery of the scenes; despite the fact that the chapters are from the first person perspective for different characters, the result is that we get very little intent or emotional feeling from what is going on. Other than dialogue either saying bad things about people or dialogue that is obviously emotionally charge, we get little context by which we can judge individuals. I would say the exception to this is Cora, who seems more likely to think judgmentally in her chapters.

I also don't really know who Jewel, Dewey, or Peabody are and I don't know where to fit them in the greater context of the story...

I also keep seeing the fish motif coming back, and am curious if this fits in with any religious themes the book will deal with (death is often a religious topic, Cora seems religious, and I believe Jesus created extra food out of fish to feed the hungry; I feel as though Addie's character wills steadily take on more Jesus-y tones as the story progresses, but we'll have to see. I think Vardaman's one sentence chapter "My mother is a fish" might be influencing my opinions a little more than it should).