Cited: Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. New York; Vintage International, 1980. Print.
Cited: Faulkner, William. As I Lay Dying. New York; Vintage International, 1980. Print.
John Grady Cole makes many decisions in the book and many of them are life changing ones, if any one of his choices had been made differently the whole book would have been drastically different. John Grady Cole is the main decision maker of the group because both Rawlins and Blevins look up to him. The first decision he makes for himself is choosing to leave his home because if he hadn’t everything that follows wouldn’t have happened but he wouldn’t have been able to follow his dream. When we finally meet Blevins, Rawlins isn’t a big fan of him from the start. Later when Blevins runs away because of the lighting Rawlins finds the opportunity to leave him behind but Grady convinces him to go look for him (page 71). If they had left him behind the book would…
Vardaman Bundren is the youngest of the family, between the ages of ten and thirteen. At first, we think that Vardaman’s character is illiterate just because of his age, however, throughout the novel we learn that it is just the way he is. His character reveals that his idiotic thoughts aren’t so idiotic to himself. He is confused about many things but also has quite an imagination. William Faulkner used Vardaman’s character to write with diction that is almost impossible to read. Faulkner made him speak as a child, because that is just what he is. His sentences are usually drawn out and rarely ever make sense, but that’s…
Adding on, Addie’s and Jewel’s relationship was always very different than Addie’s relationship with her other children. Addie loved Jewel and hated her other children. It was later revealed that Jewel was not Anse’s son which is the reason why Addie loved Jewel more than the other four. She felt as if her other children belonged to Anse, and the only reason she had them was because that was her duty as a wife. With Jewel, it was a lot different. Since Anse was not Jewel’s father, he had no ownership over him. That being said, this makes us wonder if Jewel is so different than the others because he has a different father. Having a different father lead to a deeper connection between Jewel and Addie making the love he has for Addie stronger.…
William Faulkner's style in As I Lay Dying is unique from other writers because of the way in which he focuses on the inner thoughts of each character that the chapter is focusing on instead of describing what the character is thinking.The chapters that Darl is the main character are complex and hard to understand because he describes things in poetic…
In the novel As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner introduces the Bundrens, a poor southern family who sets forth on a journey on behalf of their mother, Addie Bundren, who requested to be buried in Jefferson. Although the novel appears to be optimistic it can be argued to be pessimistic in nature.…
In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying death is a very central theme as the characters are all dealing with the passing of Addie Bundren. The town doctor, Peabody, comes to see Addie just before she dies, knowing that it is too late to save her and reveals how he feels about death:…
Their numerous acts of selfishness and lack of an ethical sense are partially overshadowed by the few and rare moments of family cooperation. The first glimpse the reader has of a “functional Bundren family” occurs in the flashback about Jewel’s secret job. In noting that…
In Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, he used animals to symbolize characters. The Bundren children are obsessed with animals throughout the novel. Vardaman is convinced that his mother is a fish, Darl declares that Jewel’s mother is a horse, and Dewey Dell relates to the farm cow as another woman. After each character learns of their mother’s death they each relate an animal to situations apparent to their own lives.…
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is a novel about a series of siblings and their dying mother. Each sibling has a different view on the sense of their dying mother and even their siblings, but it tells that story through each point of view differently. These characters see themselves being a certain amount of supportive and a certain amount of helpful after their demise of their mother, Addie Bundren. You have this depiction of who they think they are versus who they really are and how the situation really is. They seem to think this journey they are partaking in, is going perfectly, when it really isn’t and the only person who sees that is Darl—and in most cases Cash as well. The question of if they ever come to a realization of this unbeautiful reality at the end of the novel. The way they are perceived throughout the novel makes one realize that they do. But, alas, it could be just the foggy glass eyed view of their understanding of reality and they don’t realize understand it to begin with.…
Gwynn, Frederick and Joseph Blotner, eds. Faulkner at the University. Charlottesville: UP of Virginia, 1995.…
A Bronzeville Mother Loiters in Mississippi, A Mississippi Mother Burns Bacon, a heart wrenching poem by Gwendolyn Brooks, is about the tragic and horrifying murder of a fourteen year old boy named Emmett Till. This poem follows the lives of the “Maid Mild” the wife and the “Fine Prince” , the husband, and how they feel after the verdict of the trial. Brooks brings together powerful allusion, poignant diction, vivid imagery and alliteration to convey the huge amount of guilt and insecurity that continuously over bares the “Maid Mild”.…
In "Annabel Lee", a young man is mourning the death of a beautiful young lady. Even though the woman had died quite some time ago, the man is still in melancholy. He misses her terribly and constantly thinks of how she was she was tragically taken from him by the angels who were jealous of their love, and by her family who didn't think the he himself was capable of bringing her to a final resting place. He loved Annabel Lee more than any other human can love another. "And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side of my darling, my life and my bride, in her sepulcher there by the sea, in her tomb by the side of the sea." This quote shows how much this man loved her, by sleeping next to the tomb every night.…
Not only does Darl understand Jewel's feelings for Addie, but he also realizes that Jewel is the "cross" that Addie bears. Consequently, Darl's descriptions or observations of Jewel are full of symbolic, wooden imagery. Darl has penetrated Jewel's inner consciousness and sees the motives behind each of Jewel's actions. The tension mounts steadily between Darl and Jewel as Darl projects himself into the consciousness of Jewel and knows instinctively each of Jewel's motivations, and yet refuses to act. The tension suddenly increases after Jewel sells his horse, and it culminates when, at the end, Jewel violently attacks Darl.…
By explaining her upbringing by a stern father and her slow journey through a secluded life to her death, Faulkner shows how…
“The past is never dead. It's not even past” (Requiem 73). What Faulkner meant by this is that people are always living in the past. Old experiences shape one’s actions in the present and continuously impact one’s everyday life. This is true of Faulkner’s character from As I Lay Dying, Darl Bundren. An essential member of the Bundren family, Darl is the second oldest and narrates nineteen out of the fifty-nine fragmented chapters in the novel. His voice is critical in understanding and gaining insight into the characters’ lives. Besides having the most speaking parts in the novel, Darl proves different from the rest of his family in a variety of ways, including his sophisticated speech, his suspicious insight, and his apparent insanity. The…