Abstract In this article, the writer discusses that the Bundren family in William Faulkner's 'As I Lay Dying', all have their different reactions and coping mechanisms after the death of Addie Bundren, the mother of the family. The writer points out that each of these coping mechanisms represents different levels of success, as well as different levels of symbolic ties to dealing with the slow death of the rural South. The writer maintains that through Faulkner's portrayal of what methods are successful and which are not, the author of the book makes a statement on how Southerners should enter into the new modern world, while leaving their older traditions behind. The writer maintains that the characters of the novel and their methods of dealing with their mother's death prove to have different levels of success and failure. The writer concludes that this story also serves as an allegory for how the rural South can survive outside of it's past.
From the Paper "Cash did love his mother very much, but as his lack of intense inner monologue in the book shows that he was a man of very little words. Cash's method of coping with death also proves to be successful, in the idea that he cares but still can manage to partake in necessary tasks. Many would not be able to make a coffin for their own mother, but Cash knows what needs to be done, and does it. His simple nature both in his character and in how he copes with death shows that he will live beyond the end of this book. This is also a successful method Faulkner proposes Southerners to live beyond the death of the old South. By internalize the grief of its death, Southerners would prove to be very successful in a modern world. This would allow them to still feel the pain of their past, but also to focus on the necessities of their future. Action and necessity prove to be one of the most successful methods for entering into a new modern South."
How Faulkner's novel, "As I Lay Dying", is an excellent example of modernism and encompasses many of the stylistic and rhetorical devices that modernists employed to distinguish themselves from more traditional realistic literature.
1,096 words (approx. 4.4 pages), 1 source, 1999, $ 38.95
From the Paper " William Faulkner's novel, As I Lay Dying, published in 1930, is an excellent example of modernism and encompasses many of the stylistic and rhetorical devices that modernists employed to distinguish themselves from more traditional realistic literature. Some of the modernist stylistic traits of the novel include fragmentation, multiple narrators, stream-of-consciousness technique, a sense of reality that goes beyond literary conventions, and Freudian symbolism. Furthermore, the narration mixes up chronology so that the plot line is not linear but is, instead, confusing. Revelations occur, embedded within the narrative, which in traditional novels would have been much easier to decode or decipher. There is no one omniscient narrator who the reader can trust, so the reader must make judgments about the reliability of each of the characters and understand that each character is operating, perhaps, at differing levels of awareness and consciousness."
Tags: fragmentation, realism, modernist, literature
Abstract This paper takes a look at the different family members, their individual relationships, and how a death in the family forever changes them in the novel "As I Lay Dying."
From the paper:
"Self-interest is what drives the characters in this novel, and self-interest is what destroys them as moral human beings. This aspect is what turned this story into a tragedy. There is a decent level of intellect within the minds of certain characters, but they are still nothing more and nothing less than a poor, southern, white trash family. That is all they will ever be, for their own selfishness and arrogance is what keeps them from evolving as human beings."
Abstract This paper compares and contrasts the idea of a 'journey' or 'quest' in the novels "As I Lay Dying" by William Faulkner and "Young Goodman Brown" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. The author examines the different characters in both stories in order to show how the theme of a 'journey' or 'quest' runs through both of these novels.
From the Paper "Their first obstacle in the journey is a flood-swollen river, which they cross after looking for alternatives. Their mules are drowned, Cash's leg is broken, and Addie's coffin is nearly swept downstream in the process. Jewel manages to hold on to the coffin out of sheer will. The ever-scheming Anse figures out a way to get some new mules, at the expense of Cash and Jewel. He trades Cash's eight dollars that he'd hoped to use to buy the phonograph, and Jewel's prized horse, for a new set of mules, and the Bundrens are on their way."
From the Paper "Addie's chapter, in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, shows us the undiluted innerworkings of the consciousness of the mother and the core of the Bundren family. The chapter and the dry, angry, miserable, cynical tone of the woman gives the reader to knowledge of what has brought and held this unhappy family together as well as what will tear it apart once the children have finished carting Addie's rotting body to Jefferson.
Just as Addie had infected her children with a set of perceptions in which they have become imprisoned, Addie herself is prisoner to the perception left her by her father: "I could just remember how ny father used to say that the reason for living was to get ready to stay dead a long time" (169). Addie, of course, is in the last stages of dying as she mediates on her entire life in this chapter. She is haunted by the lifelessness ..."
Abstract Mistrustful of language, of rhetoric, Addie has lived and dies through accomplishment. Anger, hatred, jealousy, loyalty, reverence, fear-- Faulkner creates a panorama as he presents the characters dramatically. Faulkner seems to have intended to expose the Bundren family to the two greatest disasters known to man: flood and fire. This read of the novel establishes Addie imperatively at its center. Cash's birth was the dividing line in Addie's relationship with her husband. Jewel lives in the terms of Addie's being.
Abstract This paper outlines the ineffectual management of a family and impossibility of a stable, nuclear family while lacking bonds necessary for good relations such as love, loyalty and trust. The model family used to prove the thesis is the Bundren family from William Faulkner's "As I Lay Dying."
From the Paper "There are several intangible bonds that hold a family together. These bonds - which range from loyalty to love - act as the glue that solidifies and maintains the complex structure of the people and emotions that partake in a family. In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, the Bundren Family lacks several of these essential ties. The mother does not love her children, the husband is selfish, the daughter is secretive, and the sons each have their own ulterior motives. Such characteristics make the existence of a functional family nearly impossible. As demonstrated in As I Lay Dying, upholding a cohesive household demands love, altruism, and honesty, without which a family cannot be properly maintained."
Abstract This paper explores the theme about the search for structure and meaning in world that seems to have neither, in William Faulkner's novel, "As I Lay Dying". The paper also explores the more obvious theme about death and dying and explains that Faulkner explores these themes through the various perspectives and subjective thoughts of the characters in the novel.
From the Paper "As mentioned, the search for identity is emphasized by the central theme of death and dying. The proximity of death and dying throughout the novel (Addie's slowly decaying corpse) emphasizes the search for meaning in the face of death. It also reminds us that we are in a continual process of dying. The novel also plays on various underlying metaphorical connotations. This is alluded to by Vardaman's attempt to understand his mother's death. He cannot conceive of her death rationally and sees her as a "Fish" which he has eaten. This image also has ironic connotations of resurrection and rebirth which underpins much of the central meaning of the work. In this regard some critics ( Swiggart P. 1962) view the novel in a mock- heroic light. From this perspective the book has the outward appearance of a heroic journey to bury the mother. There are also heroic characteristics to the novel in that the family faces dangers such as floods and fire. However the heroic is undercut by the often petty and selfish motives of the family."
