William Faulkner 's As I Lay Dying

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.

As I Lay Dying, a novel written by William Faulkner, describes the journey that the Bundren family makes to bury their mother. Along the trip Mrs. Bundren passes away and leaves behind her 5 kids and husband. The kids all have their own serious issues, and their father, Anse, is too self absorbed to care. The children transport their mother, and the hatred they have towards one another builds up and becomes exposed. Throughout the novel, Faulkner asserts that families need an understanding of love in order to form successful relationships and meaningful bonds.

Poor or no communication creates intense barriers of misunderstanding and resentment between family members. Particularly between siblings who are rivals fighting for their mother’s love. Personal needs trump familial duties, though these selfish acts are masked with the pretense of devotion. The Bundren family’s journey to Jefferson is driven by familial duty, not by familial love.

She becomes a wife and a mother. She loves her children and they adore her. When she grows old they will take of her, and when she dies, they long for her the rest of their days. The concept of such a desired and completed journey of motherhood and womanhood is dismantled in William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. On a spectrum of maternity, characters Cora Tull, Addie Bundren and her daughter Dewey Dell each represent a different degree. Cora is a dedicated mother, Addie struggles to accept the idea of motherhood, and Dewey Dell rejects the role altogether. Through these female characters, Faulkner also aims to point out the absurdity of the universal experience of womanhood.

The most significant part of As I Lay dying is located on Page 212 in the point of view from Darl, he states “Your mother was a horse, but who was your father, Jewel?” This is significant because this is Darl reveals his awareness of Addie's bad son, asking him who his father is. Darls verbal attack with Jewel, who has a history of being physical, leaves him infuriated. Jewels reaction makes Darl continue to taunt him . An exaple of Syntax is how Faulkner chooses to use italics at the end of Page 213

As I Lay Dying is an archetypal novel where the journey the characters embark on is a model for others. Little Miss Sunshine, a movie rather than a novel, takes the basics of As I Lay Dying and alters them to form a more modern version with a slightly different storyline. Little Miss Sunshine successfully interprets the journey in As I Lay Dying because aspects of both the characters and their trek emulate that of the novel As I Lay Dying.

William Faulkner in his book, As I Lay Dying, portrays a Mississippi family which goes through many hardships and struggles. Faulkner uses imagery to illustrate an array of central themes such as the conscious being or existence and poverty among many others. From the first monologue, you will find an indulgence of sensual appeal, a strong aspect of the novel. Each character grows stronger and stronger each passage. One of the themes in As I Lay Dying is a human's relations to nature. Faulkner uses imagery to produce a sense of relation between animals and humans.

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.

William Faulkner’s use of interior monologue in as As I Lay Dying allows the reader to experience the story from more then one persons perspective. Through the thoughts of Darl Bundren the reader comes to understand what is going on within the family. On the other hand Anse Bundren allows the reader to get a different perspective on the family. The reader gets the perspective of an outsider through Cora Tull’s narration. The make up of these characters as well as others allows the reader to see all sides of the story.

Cash's birth was the dividing line in Addie's relationship with her husband. She now knew "that we had had to use one another by words like spiders dangling by their mouths from a beam."(AILD pg.172). But she is further embittered in the second birth: "Then I found that I had Darl... It was as though Anse had tricked me, hidden within a word like within a paper screen and struck me in the back through it".(AILD pg.172) Her bitterness over the trick is translated into hostility for Darl, who becomes the most vocal, the most strangely upset, and eventually destructive member of the family. His acts and his words are both desperate stratagems to assert himself as a member of the human race and of the family.

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

One of the many issues addressed by literary works is that of isolation. Namely, one finds the separation of one character from another, and the resulting sense of solitude, to be a recurring theme in certain works. Such works include the unrelated, yet equally masterful novels, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, 1984 by George Orwell and The Awakening by Kate Chopin. This theme, however universal as it may be, differs between each novel both in its appearance and its purpose. As I Lay Dying mainly utilizes isolation in order to emphasize the distance between the members of the Bundren family, and of course between said members and those outside of the family.

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.

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.

The modern world is in the midst of reconstructing gender roles; debates about contraception, reproductive freedom, and female inequality are contentious and common. The majority now challenges the long established assertion that women’s bodies are the eminent domain of patriarchal control. In the past, a woman’s inability to control her reproductive choices could come with ruinous consequences. Proponents of patriarchal control argue against reproductive independence with rhetoric from religious texts and with anecdotes of ‘better days,’ when women were subservient. Often, literature about childbearing fails to acknowledge the possibility of women being uninterested in fulfilling the role of motherhood.