As I Lay Dying1 Essay

As I Lay Dying1 Essay
As I Lay Dying1 William Faulkner uses language in a unique way in his novel As I Lay Dying. Language is a form of expression to show thoughts
and emotions. Faulkner uses it to convey the individual characters' thoughts and feelings. He also uses it to draw a line between language and true
expression. He shows the limitations of language and the difference between language and words.
As I Lay Dying covers the story of a family as they journey to bury the mother, Addie, in her hometown after her death. They all go through the same
situations but each experience different emotions and thoughts. They express these through the language they use. What each character says as well as
how he/she says it lets the reader see the...show more content...
Cash uses language the most when Darl is taken away and he becomes the new authority or narrator. He can easily express what he thinks now. Jewel
doesn't see language as anything more than a way to communicate. He follows more along the lines of his mother by acting on his thoughts and
feelings. Vardaman's language is the simplest and seemingly incoherent, yet his childish thoughts come across strongly. Vardaman sees his mother as a
fish due to his lack of understanding reality and metaphors.
Language is a power tool for Darl, Dewey Dell, and Cash but for their mother Addie it is a limitation. She says, "words don't ever fit even what
they are trying to say at." Addie believes that language is the experience and words will never match that. While the children feel defined by their
language, she feels defined by experiences. She makes this clear when she describes a scene with Cora Tull, "And so when Cora Tull would tell me I
was not a true mother, I would think how words go straight up in a thin line, quick and harmless, and how terribly doing goes along the earth."
The whole technique that Faulkner uses with language and his characters most fits stream of consciousness. He puts pure thought into the language.
This technique helps to fix any of the limitations that language puts on conveying thought. This shows in
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As I Lay Dying Essay
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.
The major events in the journey of the Hoovers in Little Miss Sunshine are analogous to that of the Bundrens in As I Lay Dying. In both, the cause of
the undertaking of the journey is because of a promise. In one a promise to Addie Bundren that she will be buried in Jefferson, and in the other a
promise...show more content...
Darl is "different than [the] others," as is Frank (Faulkner 21). Because of Darl's differences and his unique personality, "folks say [he] is queer
[and] lazy" and he is generally looked down upon by others (Faulkner 24). However, people simply misunderstand him and his individuality. Frank,
because of his sexuality and his attempted suicide, is also different than those around him. He is misunderstood and judged by others, even by some
within his own family. Both become outsiders in their respective families, in part because they distance themselves, and also because they are
simply different than the others in their family. They are both smarter than the people in their families, although the ways in which they are smarter
differ. Darl is smarter in that he is able to infer things that most do not notice. He somehow knows that Dewey Dell is pregnant even though she has
kept it a well protected secret, and he refers to the fact that Jewel is not their father's son despite their mother never disclosing that fact to anyone.
Frank on the other hand, is an intellectual. He is more intelligent than his family simply because he knows more and has learned more. While Darl is
an excellent archetype for Frank's character, there is a major difference between the two. Darl ends up being rejected from the family and is sent to "a
cage in Jackson where his grimed hands [lie] light in the quiet interstices" (Faulkner 254). Frank

William Faulkner's portrayal of women, Addie Bundren specifically, in As I Lay Dying presents an interesting look into the gender politics of the
south in the 1930s. Addie lies at the heart of the novel; yet despite being the heart, her presence for most of the story is as a corpse. Faulkner only
gives her one chapter to explain herself; and it is her desire to be buried in Jefferson that sets in motion everything that happens in the novel. There is
a profound tension at work between words and Truth her chapter: Addie ascribes no value to words, they are nothing more than dead sounds. And
despite her claim that words are "quick and harmless", she is tricked by them, and relies on them to take her revenge on Anse. While the word "sin"
...show more content...
When Addie has Cash, she realizes that "living [is] terrible and that this [is] the answer to it" (171). Addie has been tricked by words into the role of
wife and mother, though she asked for neither (174).
Much of the chapter focuses on Addie's meditation on the insufficiency of language: "words are no good; ...words dont ever fit even what they are
trying to say at" (171). Language is incapable of conveying Truth for Addie; words chase "at" Truth, but never succeed as they are nothing more
than "shape[s] to fill a lack" (172). "Motherhood" was invented by someone who does not have children; mothers do not care "whether there [is] a
word for it or not" (172). The implication here is that society invents simple words for complex ideas in order ensnare people with labels. to enslave
women to a word. She goes on to talk of Anse's use of the word "Love"; she does not believe that she needs to use the word with Cash, nor Cash with
her; "Let Anse use it, if her wants to" (172). Again, this statement is unable to tell the reader how Addie feels toward Cash: either she does not need
to use the word because she knows that she and Cash love each other, or she does not need to use it because she feels no love for Cash; the concept of
love is just as empty as the word.
When Addie becomes pregnant with Darl, she says that at first she

As I Lay Dying Essay example
As I Lay Dying In "As I Lay Dying" William Faulkner uses multiple points of view to explore the theme of existence as a motionless and
meaningless cycle. The cycle is motionless because it is inescapable and unchangeable. One can never leave the cycle of life and death. People
perpetuate the cycle by creating life, but in creating life they are creating death, for life irrevocably leads to death. Faulkner depicts existence as
meaningless. Nothing really changes in the story. On the surface the characters appear to change, such as Addie dying, Darl going crazy and Anse
getting a new wife, but none of these changes are really as relevant as they seem.
By using multiple points of view Faulkner lets us into each character's mind. We...show more content...
With life comes the unmistakable knowledge that death will eventually follow. People live their entire lives knowing that ultimately all they have to
look forward to is death. This makes life meaningless, since it will all be forgotten with one's death. Granted, this view could be challenged by
people who believe in an afterlife, but the only two really religious people in "As I Lay Dying," Cora and Whitfield, are portrayed as somewhat stupid
and insincere. So Faulkner apparently wants us to think that life is meaningless. For the characters in his story, life is certainly meaningless.
Addie describes the meaninglessness of life when she talks about words. "...words are no good; that words don't ever fit even what they are trying to
say at" (504). If words are meaningless, then how can life have meaning, since words are humanity's livelihood? Words are what allow
communication, and communication is what gives life meaning. Without communication life is devoid of all social aspects, and humans are social
creatures. Addie realizes the meaninglessness of life, and she knows that she is caught up in the cycle of life and death, and that there is no escape
form it. She knows that she brought her children into the same cycle that she herself is in, and that they too will live empty lives only to die.
Dewey Dell's situation is an example of how the cycle of existence is perpetuated, even against her will.

AS I Lay Dying Essay
AS I Lay Dying 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.
Darl functions as an insider that is completely aware of the severity of what is going on. Darl explains that Anse treats his family as if the were born
to serve him. "The shirt across pa's...show more content...
Darl allows the reader to understand the interpersonal relationships within the Bundren family.
On the other hand, Anse functions as an insider who is blind to his own actions but offers insight to the actions of others. Anse is upset by the fact
that people talk about Darl behind his back. "I says I got some regard for what folks say about my own flesh and blood even if you haven't, even if
I have raised such a durn parssel of boys, and when you fixes so folks can say such about you, it's a reflection on your ma, I says, not me: I am a man
and I can stand it; it's on your womenfolk, your ma and sister that you should care for, and I turned and looked back at him and him setting there,
laughing." (p.105–6) Anse thinks that Darl is the reason that people think that the family is wired. Anse blames hisluck on everyone but himself. "I
have herd men cuss their luck, and right, for they were sinful men. But I do not say it's a curse on me, because I have done no wrong to be cussed
by. I am not religious, I reckon. But peace is in my heart: I know it is. I have done things neither better or worse than them that pretend other like,
sparrow that falls. But it seems hard that a man in his need could be so flouted by a road."(p.38) Anse believes that he has done nothing wrong in his
life so therefore his bad luck must be do to the

The action of William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is simple: Addie Bundren dies; and in answer to her wishes, the body is taken for burial to
Jefferson, some forty miles away. But the weather intervenes, and floodwaters require that the cortege take detours. Some nine days pass before the
coffin, which before long clearly announces its passing to neighboring places, is finally laid to rest. These days involve battling flood water and a fire
set by one of the children, the threat of buzzards, the hazards of a broken leg, and other incidental losses and disasters.
In the end, after Addie is buried, her bereaved husband appears with the second Mrs. Bundren. She brings with her a gramophone as dowry, and the
Bundren family is once again...show more content...
But Cash, the first–born, who arrived before the dissolution of Addie's love and trust, proves a reliable, practical, and a sensible person; in a sense the
folk–hero of the novel.
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.
The rhetoric of Darl's words and the violence of his acts are a direct result of the circumstances of his birth.At this point Addie fully realizes
"how words go straight up in a thin line and how terribly doing goes along the earth, clinging to it, so that after a while the two lines are too far
apart for the same person to straddle from one to the other."(AILD pg.173) She severs all meaningful relationship with her husband, "And
then he died. He did not know he was dead."(AILD pg.174) and she has an affair with the

As I Lay Dying1 Essay

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