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"When coping with a death, you may go through all kinds of emotions. You may be sad, worried, or scared. You might be shocked, unprepared, or confused. You might be feeling angry, cheated, relieved, guilty, exhausted, or just plain empty."

Grief is an emotional, physical, or spiritual ramifications experienced after the loss of something precious. This website focuses of humans' reactions to grief and how to cope with sudden loss. This website is catered to the teenage audience and perspective. The website gives a general overview of the ways grief can manifest in daily life and ways to cope with it. The website emphasizes the importance of confronting and dealing with grief. This relates to the different ways grief appears in each character of As I Lay Dying and the inability of them to deal with the death of Addie.

"Adding to a child's shock and confusion at the death of a brother, sister, or parent is the unavailability of other family members, who may be so shaken by grief that they are not able to cope with the normal responsibility of childcare."

"Parents should be aware of normal childhood responses to a death in the family, as well as signs when a child is having difficulty coping with grief. It is normal during the weeks following the death for some children to feel immediate grief or persist in the belief that the family member is still alive. However, long-term denial of the death or avoidance of grief can be emotionally unhealthy and can later lead to more severe problems."

This article explains how children react and deal with grief over the loss of a loved one. This article relates to the confusion and angst Vardaman experiences after the death of Addie. Vardaman experiences shock and confusion over the substantial matter of death and how it applies to his newly deceased mother. No one in the family bothers to explain to him the finality and irreversibility of death. Without guidance, the Bundren family leaves Vardaman to stumble around and form false conclusion such as the belief Peabody killed Addie.

This article discusses the importance of outward expression after the loss of a family member, despite how close they were. This display of emotion helps one to deal with the loss, lessening the probability that it will later turn into a mental illness. Following Addie's death, with the exception of a few silent tears shed by Vardaman, and Jewel's anger outbursts, very little display of emotion is held, thus explaining the family's worsening state.

This site discusses the grief process of young children. In a normal situation, kids are typically suppose to do a lot of questioning to somehow rationalize the situation. In AILD, however, we see that Vardaman is unable to ask these questions, which is detrimental to his growing process. 

This NYTimes article discusses how people cope with death through various means of art and communication--specifically writing. The authors interviewed in this article explained how this form of communication was the only way they could understand what happened, thus saving them from the insanity of being lost. The Bundren family copes with Addie's death in no communicative way. As this important outlet does not exist within the household, it may well explain the strewed psychological states of many of the characters.