Nicole Beatrice
March 25th, 2015
As I Lay Dying
The main theme in As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is family. It is not a pleasant topic throughout the book. Poor or no communication creates intense barriers of misunderstanding and resentment between family member, but not particularly siblings who are rivals for their mother’s love. The family from the beginning isn 't based off love because of the sort of arranged marriage of Anse and Addie Bundren. Most of the explaining of the families dynamic is all explained in Addies one and only chapter.
To begin with she wasn’t a fit person to become a mother as she explained that as a school teacher she found joy in whipping her students. She says that her and Anse married because she had
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According to the other narrators he was an extremely lazy man who had everyone else do his work for him. He says that if he sweats he will die so his family members and neighbors. For example when the coffin fell into the river it was Cash and Jewel near death while Anse sat off to the side and watched them struggle. Same for the when the burn was on fire Jewel was the one who ran in to get the coffin. Anse is religious just like their neighbor, Cora, he tries to justify his laziness by saying that God didn’t intend men to move so much and if he did he would have built them differently. Along with being lazy he is very cheap. He didn’t want to call the family doctor, Peabody, because he didn’t pay for it and same for when Cash broke his leg he would have rather pour cement on his leg rather than taking his to the doctor. And on top of being both cheap and lazy hes selfishness. He repeatedly puts his needs before his childrens. Like when he sold Jewel’s horse and Cash’s graphophone, even Dewey Dell’s abortion. Throughout the book we guess that the reason Anse is really taking Addie to Jefferson is so he can get his new teeth that he has been wanting since the beginning.
The oldest child is Cash Bundren. He is very appreciated throughout the book and he is also ignored. The way that Cash shows love to his mother throughout the book is by creating a perfect coffin as a final gift to her. We can tell that Cash is a perfectionist every time he would
Most works of literature often use events and objects to display a deeper meaning to the current situation. In As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner, there are many references that connect the Bundren family to mythological, Biblical, and classical allusions. Faulkner’s use of various types of allusions emphasizes the characters’ behavior and relationship to each other.
The author of As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner, really contributes to the aspects of literature through his ability to tell a seemingly incredible story through only the “stream-of-consciousness” technique. Faulkner takes his insight beyond the piece, through other’s views and thoughts. Although the characters might be acting differently upon each subject or handling each action in opposite ways, the tone and theme that he uses really brings the whole piece to a perfect balance. In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner displays contradicting elements through the reactions of the family members towards the mother’s death with the use of dialogue, tone, imagery, and internal conflict.
In addition to stealing his daughter’s abortion money for his own cosmetic use, he “cherishes the fantasy of using the funeral trip to the city to buy himself new teeth (F. MacCannell,)” rather than mourn his deceased wife. In fact, it can be assumed he did not care for Addie as much as a husband should. Addie did not care much for him either, and resents him in her narrative section of the novel. “Then I believed that I would kill Anse. It was as though he had tricked me, hidden within a word like within paper and struck me in the back through it (Faulkner.)” Addie resented their marriage and her motherhood with him. “Addie finds no comfort in motherhood once it becomes repetitious…the repetition entraps her (Tredell.)” Due to this, Addie ended up having an affair and giving birth to Jewel, her prized son. This most likely did not sit well with Anse, and this contributed to the brokenness of the family way before the journey to Jefferson even began. Perhaps as an act of revenge, Anse ended up with another woman immediately following the end of the journey, which is an obvious sting in the wounds of the other family members still mourning Addie. “Anse is a totally ineffectual individual who needs someone to take care of him (L. Roberts),” and perhaps this was his way of trying to remain stable in the corrupted family, but does not realize the effects his egoism has on everyone else, not that he cares
As I Lay Dying is a book set in the early nineteen-hundreds. Each chapter alternates perspective of one of approximately 14 characters throughout the book. William Faulkner uses each character to guide you through the death of a prideful mother, Addie Bundren, and the family willing to travel for days to bury her at her parents’ graves.The Bundren family consists of Addie her husband Anse, and their children, Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, Vardaman. Darl can be understood as the most systematic character throughout the book, mainly driven by reason rather than emotion. In contrast, his brother, Jewel, is fiercely loyal to their mother, and is willing to go to unspeakable lengths to protect her, even after her death. The Bundren family has had nothing but bad luck on their trek to Addie's’ gravesite, including the death of their mules, nearly drowning in a flooded river, and their brother, Cash, on his deathbed
Anse has a hunchback and no teeth. He is very lazy and the Tulls say that he was Addie who kept him working, “She kept him at work for thirty-odd years.” Anse seems to want to honor Addie’s wish of being buried in Jefferson despite the rest of the family’s opposition. Anse didn’t send for Peabody sooner because of the money and Addie is on the brink of death when Peabody arrives. No one in the family respects Anse because he doesn’t take responsibility for his bad choices he simply says he has bad luck, “And now I got to pay for it, me without a tooth in my head.”
Beginning As I Lay Dying, I am already struggling with the dialect of the novel. This confusion is deepened because I had no prior knowledge of the characters and plot. There are many characters that Faulkner mentions in the first twenty five pages of the novels and so I was trying to connect the characters and find out who was who. Faulkner also constantly refers to Addie as “she”. This confused me at first because I didn’t know who Faulkner was referring to and how Addie was related to all of the other characters. I found that as long as I read very slowly and pay attention to detail, I can understand the language of the story better than I expected. I was able to connect all the characters and
William Faulker’s “As I Lay Dying,” tells the story of the Bundren family traveling to bury their dead mother. The Bundren’s embark on a quest through the north Mississippi countryside to take the corpse of Addie, wife and mother, back to her hometown, Jefferson, to bury her with family. Whatever dignity found in keeping a promise, to a dead wife and mother mocked by the selfish desires of each family member. Throughout the novel, every family member exhibits some degree of selfishness, but none more than Anse. Anse’s extreme selfishness and a poor example of a father are the underlying factors for the Burden family’s dysfunction.
Family loyalty plays a significant role in As I Lay Dying.” Faulkner questions the nature of family and the duties their-in”. (Course Hero) The amount of longing for a sense of safety and family to express the feeling is illusory. Addie Bundren, main character in the novel, believes that many things in the small town are falling short of ideas and emotion. Very little
Cash, the oldest of the Bundren children, must work to provide for family and therefore
As I Lay Dying, is a novel about the death of Addie Bundren and the events that follow to her burial. The story is told through fifteen different perspectives over the course of fifty-nine narrative chapters. William Faulkner gives the reader insight into what each character is thinking and their reactions to the events taking place. Each member of the Bundren family holds their own secrets that they keep from one another. These secrets eventually distance each member from one another over the duration of the novel. As I lay Dying can at times be confusing to the read due to the language Faulkner uses, the multiple view points of the same event, and the unique personalities of each character.
In As I Lay Dying, with his unique and modern writing style, Faulkner and portrays the Bundrens’ struggle to deal with a death in the family. He shows how this dysfunctional family, caged in by societal norms and their individual emotional battle, ultimately falls into an abyss of unending hopelessness and despair. Throughout the Bundrens’ journey, Faulkner uses common archetypes in order to challenge his readers’ and society’s ingrained perceptions of families and suffering and to demonstrate how both straying from these archetypes and assuming them can lead to a false sense of reality.
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is undeniably a story that encompasses almost every aspect of human emotion. When Faulkner accepted his Nobel Prize, he confronted the challenges of writing good literature by discussing a writer’s responsibility to both the preservation of mankind and the uplifting of readers. Given in the historical era of the constant fear of nuclear annihilation, Faulkner’s speech highlights the consequences of writing about fear. Faulkner suggests that a writer must forget his anxieties when writing and leave room for only the “old verities and truths of the heart…love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice.” His optimism regarding the future of mankind is evident as he reveals that the privilege of
Another extremely biased character in this novel is Jewel. Through his crass and aggressive diction, Jewel makes it apparent that he does not approve of anything his family does and that he does not particularly care for the other members of his family. He is constantly speaking harshly towards them, ordering them to “shut up” or vociferating “goddamn you” to them. He accuses his family of being buzzards because he feels that they are all waiting for and wanting Addie to die. He says that Cash’s desire for Addie to pass is more blaring than the others because he dares to build her coffin directly beneath her window. Jewel’s aggressive attitude affects the meaning of the work of a whole because he aids the reader in creating opinions about the other characters. For example, his first narration clearly showed his antipathy towards his family members and molded the reader’s opinion of Cash. Until Jewel’s narration the reader had no knowledge of the fact that Cash was constructing a coffin, nor did they know why he was doing so. However, after hearing his narration it became an obvious fact to the reader that Cash was a heartless, stony character with no affection towards his dying mother. The reader did not develop a more endearing opinion of Cash until later in the novel, when another narrator showed that it was a personal sacrifice he was making that
Fear is defined as, “an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.” Although there is good in the world, many people live their lives in fear. The fear of dying is a typical and/or normal feeling for most human beings. Dying in a nuclear explosion, that is absolutely terrifying to mankind.
Many people struggle to find an environment that makes them feel accepted for who they are. It is especially difficult when personalities are forever changing due to distressing experiences that occur in an individual's life. In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner describes how trauma degrades a person’s sense of identity making it difficult to find comfort in society.