Characters In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is an ambitious novel that changes between characters in the story. By doing this Faulkner assists to show how the characters reason and act without being limited to just one point of view. This also evolves the story by not being limited to being narrated by one character from this the reader acquire inside information from all of the characters, not just one single character and what they judge about other people are discerning. There are various notable moments in the novel that help show that the characters perceive situation differently and there are several scenes in the novel that allows it to show this by telling the same scene from different characters. The characters each describe the same event in different lengths, relationship to themselves, and how they understand symbols in the book. One example of the Bundrens’ river crossing when the novel is switching between Vernon Tull, Darl Bundren, and Vardaman Bundren.
Tull is the first person to narrate the story of the river crossing and is one of the Bundrens’ neighbors who is travelling with the family. In the previous section Tull refuses to risk sending his mules across since he doesn’t wish to lose them. …show more content…
Tull tells it as he is about to enter the water and why he doesn’t risk his mules to move across the river. Vardaman tells a simplified version of events that doesn’t include dialog between anyone. Darl puts further description into what is happening as they travel across the river, which allows the reader to have a finer understanding of what is taking place. All of these characters describe the same event the only difference is what each one of them witnessed as they crossed the river. The novel as one piece completes this a few times and this is just one example of it. Faulkner accomplishes this to show how people can understand the same situation