As I Lay Dying Literary Analysis

In Death of a Salesman, by Arthur Miller, Willy Loman’s life seems to be slowly deteriorating. It is clear that Willy’s predicament is of his own doing, and that his own foolish pride and ignorance lead to his downfall. Willy’s self-destruction involved the uniting of several aspects of his life and his lack of grasping reality in each, consisting of, his relationship with his wife, his relationship and manner in which he brought up his children, Biff and Happy, and lastly his inability to productively earn a living and in doing so, failure to achieve his “American Dream”.

In Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, the author conveys the reader about how a person lives his life when he or she cannot live the “American Dream.” Willy Loman, the main character in the play is a confused and tragic character. He is a man who is struggling to hold onto what morality he has left in a changing society that no longer values the ideals he grew up to believe in. Even though the society he lives in can be blamed for much of his misfortune, he must also be the blame for his bad judgment, disloyalty and his foolish pride.

The book, As I Lay Dying, written by William Faulkner, tells a story of how a mother named Addie died and now the children of the family are coping with the loss of their mother and then setting off to a journey for her burial located in Jefferson. Throughout the story, each character has their way of coping with loss and by doing so, reveals more and more about themselves. Thus, there are many elements in the story that express unconscious desires or inner feelings of characters that show the psychoanalytic viewpoint in the story.

In William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, trying to find and express your identity and individuality amongst a large, dysfunctional family can prove difficult, especially with a society that forces its standards and expectations on you as well. Addie Bundren possessed qualities and viewpoints most others did not. She found words useless while actions are what held real meaning, yet her whole life had seemed to be made up of words. As her dying wish, she asked her husband to perform an action – taking her to Jefferson to be buried. Darl Bundren was considered the queer one among the family.

Throughout William Faulkner's’ novel "As I Lay Dying", he portrays a Mississippi family that goes through many different hardships and struggles such as death, poverty and existence from different character's point of view. Faulkner uses imagery to illustrate existence and poverty among these characters and how they are perceived by outsiders. From the first monologue, one can see that everything is in relation to an animal, natural force or human nature. As each character progresses, a pattern of the natural forces often becomes correlated with events throughout the novel. Although Addie Bundren dismisses the word love when used by her husband, Anse, as "just a shape to fill a lack," her other relationships are not as empty (Faulkner 172).

In his novel As I lay Dying Faulkner explores the connections between a family with a history of violence and mistrust while they attempt to fulfill the final wish of their matriarch. Throughout the story the family gradually become macabre caricatures of their former selves and attempt to improve their meager positions in society by fighting one another at every opportunity. As the journey unfolds the audience is given insight into the past of the female characters Cora Tull, Addie, and Dewey Dell who are uniquely portrayed as both victims and the perpetrators of violence in this already highly dysfunctional family unit. This archetypal characterization reinforces the themes that persist throughout the novel, and demonstrates

There are many reasons why Willy failed to reach his dream of success, for one he was lazy and weak. He never made any true effort to chase after what he wanted. It was his hope that he would be able to charm himself into a nice and well compensated job. Unfortunately for Willy success doesn’t just come from popularity or personality you have to put in work to be a successful man. He is passing his flawed perception of what being successful is onto his sons when he says

One of the defining elements of literature is its universal nature. Shared between all works, whether they be ancient epics or modern novels, is a plethora of literary techniques and themes. One such element, the theme of isolation, and in some contexts, alienation, is quite evident in the unrelated, yet equally masterful novels As I Lay Dying, 1984 and The Awakening. As one will come to see, this theme of isolation, although clearly similar, differs between, and even within, the three works.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is a novel about siblings and their dying mother, Addie. Not only that but also their each individually outlook on that death and death in general. The ability to perceive the situation differently is what is important about this novel by Faulkner. He created a different point of view from all the siblings and close neighbors as well, to create that different outlook on what they feel about the situation at hand. It is important to realize that each individual point of view indicates how they are shaped by the death of Addie, personality and situational wise.

William Faulkner began writing As I Lay Dying, his self-proclaimed “tour-de-force”, on October 25, 1929, the day after the stock markets crashed. As I Lay Dying is a piece of literature that exemplifies the beginning of the Modernism movement. At this point, traditional literary conventions and practices were boring and dated, and writers like Faulkner experimented with new writing techniques. The avant-guard methods and techniques are seen in As I Lay Dying with its fickle and sometimes vacillate plot, the constant shift in narrative voice, and ambiguous timeline, as well as in the stream of consciousness passages

"Work a lifetime to pay off a house. You finally own it, and there's nobody to live in it." Miller, Arthur. Death of a Salesman; Certain Private Conversations in Two Acts and a Requiem. New York: Viking, 1949.15. Print .These words undesirably summarize Willy Loman’s life. Throughout the play produced in the 1940s and the film created in 1985, Willy Loman slowly but surely shows his true nature as a person willing to do anything to become successful and well-known. Even though the film directed by Volker Schlondorff presents this “all American man” with the same characteristics as the unknown salesman in the play written by Arthur Miller, how the play and the film decided to emphasize

People say that “no one is perfect.” In the book As I, Lay Dying by William Faulkner is about the Bundren family making Addie Bundren wish come true by burying her besides her family in Jefferson, Mississippi. Even though they did what they were told for their mother, they didn't really go for that reason. For instance, Anse Bundren going to Jefferson to but a new set of teeth was one of the reasons they went to Jefferson. This question self-interest vs. heroism. In this book, 1920ssuffering is also part of this family weakness. At that the 1920s, there were difficulties from them. Obstacle after obstacle, each and one of the family members is forced to give

In believing that being well liked is the key they misconstrue the true meaning of success, which is achieved through hard work and dedication. Ben, Willy’s brother, had a completely different mindset and actually became successful. The interaction between Willy and his brother shows Willy’s signs of envy but he never changed his tactics. Willy’s character signifies that a few people can’t achieve the “rags to riches” version of the American Dream. It also shows how stuck in his ways Willy, people, can be.

Death of a salesman portrays a truthful and relatable meaning in regard to values, dreams, and success. Which makes this play shockingly real. As people grow older they began to analyze their memories and learnings in hopes that the next generation takes their experiences with them. Willy Loman takes his own life experiences and pushes them on his son. He does this in hopes that his son turns out just like him. I have reviewed each character and their relationships to each other. I will analyze the characters Willy Loman, Biff Loman, Howard Wagner, and Charley in detail along with the background of the play.

“Death of a Salesman,” written by Arthur Miller, takes place during the 1950s. As my mother says about my her mother, it was the time when many families, including my grandmother, wanted to keep up with the Joneses. They wanted new everything, from a new house and vehicle to whatever the next door neighbor had. However, new and nice things did not come easy for some people as easy as it did for others, such as my grandmother. Willy Loman likes to stay in a fantasy world rather than the real world, eventually leading to his lack of self-awareness. He is always thinking about the past then coming back to the present time. Willy, a man who is surrounded by doubts and failures, as well as, exaggerates on his stories and has frequent contradictions, is unable to keep up with the current fantasy or truth.