Symbolism In As I Lay Dying

It was extremely sad to see Margaret’s parents make her communicate with the coffin salesman. This is something a young child should not even be exposed to but Margaret is forced to buy her brothers coffin because her parents cannot do it on their own.

Her rejoinder that he is "sneering" makes him upbraid and half-threaten her and ask why he cannot talk about "his own" dead child. This provokes her longest speech, briefly interrupted by his comment that he feels so "cursed" that he should laugh. The essence of her complaint is that he does not know how to speak, that she could not even recognize him when he dug the grave so energetically that he made "the gravel leap and leap," and that his voice then was too "rumbling" when he commented that foggy and rainy weather will rot good birch fences. Concluding that he cannot care, she in turn generalizes: Friends grieve for another's loss so little that they should not bother "at all," and when a person "is sick to death" he "is alone, and he dies more alone." Even when survivors attend a burial they are busy thinking of their own lives and actions. She calls the world evil and adds that she will not have grief this way if she "can change it."

The Bundren family from William Faulkner's As I lay Dying are a unique family, in that they don’t fit the mold of what most would think a family should be: a unit. They disconnect as a group, often saying one thing while thinking another. While Addie’s burial is the central reason for their journey to Jefferson, some family members have motives of their own. Evident in that half of them with the exception of Darl, Cash and Jewel have other reasons than to bury Addie in Jefferson.

Poor Addie. All she wanted is to be buried away from that crazy place, from this cold house, where she spent most of her life, to Be away from a selfish husband who tortured her for all her life, and away from the children, who have always been children of Anse Bundren, not Addie’s. However, who knew that even after her death, performing her last will, all of the characters, except Darl, as for me, do not cease to torment her again and insult on the dead body of their

But I digress, I think Melanie didn't have her family's love and support, and if her father added her to his will, this was her way of knowing he actually

No mother should ever be obligated bury their child. The child should have a chance to live a life and at some point bury their own mother towards the end of her term. However, in the case of Lucinda, this unfortunate event does not hesitate her from continuing life. In fact, it encourages her to understand the meaning of life and the necessity of having to have both the valuable and the atrocious to create a balance.

In the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner each chapter is written through a different character's perspective. The book follows the Bundren's family on their journey to fulfill Addie's dying wish. There were many motifs and themes throughout the book but one of the most important ones was the use of symbolism. Cash's tools and Anse's farm equipment symbolizing their stability becomes threatened from the carelessness of the Bundren's journey. The coffin stood the burden of dysfunction the Addie's death put on the family. There were also a couple instances where Faulkner used animals to symbolize emotions and as a comparison to a couple of the characters.

Another facet of Freud’s defense mechanisms that Faulkner employs in his novel is the use of rationalization. There are several instances throughout the Bundrens’ journey where they act irrationally to fulfill Addie’s wish of being buried in Jefferson. According to Freud “rationalization is a mechanism involving post hoc logical explanations for behaviors that were actually driven by internal unconscious motives” (Friedman 49). The Bundrens did not even begin their journey to Jefferson until ten days after Addie had died. The journey to Jefferson itself was unreasonable for the Bundrens to complete. Jefferson is far away, the bridge to get there was flooded, and they are a poor family who must rely on others to help them along their journey. While Anse, Addie’s husband, does not appear to be grieving and does not mention Addie’s death, we learn that “his mind is set on taking her to Jefferson,” despite warnings of rain and a flooded bridge (Faulkner 86).

Once she started picking them up, there was rumbling coming from the ground. Soon after, the ground started splitting and creating a deep hole

"I just spent the last two hours putting the burial arrangements [together] for my daughter's funeral...President Trump, please do something...action, we need it now!" Lori Alhadeff lost a child in

Just like how Seita burying his mother’s

Many of William Faulkner’s books, especially ‘As I Lay Dying’ focused on the South in the aftermath of the Civil War. The themes of his and other Southern authors included: a common Southern history, the significance of family, a sense of community and one’s role within it, the Church and its burdens and rewards, racial tension, land and the promise it brings, one’s social class and place, and, sometimes, the use of the Southern dialect. The criticism of the novel has changed over the years with critics using everything from Psychoanalytic theory to Marxist theory to explain the importance of language and the historical content behind the novel.

William Faulkner’s novel “As I Lay Dying” is a novel that depicts the inner thoughts of fifteen narrators. The variety of narrator’s involved gives the novel a varying number of tones due to their differences in personalities, emotions and values. The novel is focused on the death of Addie and the Bundren family fulfilling her final wish of being buried in Jefferson. The novel “As I Lay Dying” was formulated in a manner to draw humor, anger and sadness from the reader at the same time. The ending of the story has a twist to it, which can cause the reader mixed emotions. The reason that is said is because it can be concluded that Anse was a selfish man that did not care about anyone than himself, for example. After burying his wife he purchased his new set of teeth and he even got himself a new wife. The twist of this event is the fact that his son Cash needed money to seek medical attention to avoid his leg from being amputated, but Anse cared more about his teeth and rather having his son losing his leg.

described by her family doctor, on the age of death she mentioned that her intention is:I keep Wishwood alive/To keep the family alive, to keep them together, (The Family Reunion .p,15)

Consequently this did not take Bohdan by surprise; calmly he replied, ‘Image the world without Mother’s, without the melodies of falling leaves, fear kissing each dream, Questions of life running free, today I give you those answers. Red roses, two dozen never seemed enough to brighten this shabby, dried up graveyard. After I put you through school, I will move the woman you know as your Mother, to a beautiful vault in Kingston, alongside my wife, the woman that gave birth to you! '