As I Lay Dying: An Analysis

“As I Lay Dying” is a fictional story told by a multitude of characters about a woman named Addie, a shy, somewhat stubborn, frail mother whom the story revolves around, being brought to her final resting place by her compassionate family, the Bundrens; fulfilling her last wish. The story occurred in the state of Mississippi on a small countryside. Anse, Addie’s spiritual yet clumsy husband, guaranteed her desire would be fulfilled; whether she is dead or alive. Addie’s family wasn’t entirely prepared to transport her; three dollars were still needed, and until someone earned that money, relationships with one another were getting worse. Sadly, Addie died before her expedition began. When this happened, some of the characters experienced change. Vardaman, one of the children, became convinced that his “real mother” was a fish that got killed; even though Vardaman was the one assigned by Anse to clean out the fish! Dewey Dell, a secretly pregnant teenager, attempted to use this opportunity …show more content…
I am convinced that this was the author’s intent because of the descriptive amount of suffering each character dealt with individually. I did enjoy seeing how every person had a unique way of talking through each chapter. William Faulkner demonstrated the emotions of every character brilliantly by having descriptions of present feelings. At the same time, I did not take pleasure in the amount of swearing there was when there were external conflicts, even though most of these characters were identified as Christians! I did notice that Darl narrated most of the chapters throughout the book, and I disliked how other characters did not have the same amount of pages to share their point of view. The book was somewhat engaging, the plot did become confusing whenever it was told from someone who was not a main character or when a period of time