Authors would write about these values to preserve them. This way, these values were not forgotten if values from the North did come to the South.
Techniques that came from the Southern Renaissance were modernistic in technique. Complex narrative writing techniques emerged from this movement such as stream of consciousness. Many novels in this movement focused on self-consciousness and identity, a major theme in As I Lay Dying. Another major theme from this movement was irony. Irony emerged as a major part of Southern Gothic literature due to the wealthy South prior to the Civil War.
A major theme of the Southern Renaissance was Southern Gothic. Southern Gothic was very grotesque in nature. This was due to the state of the South after the Civil War. This included violence, macabre, social issues, and …show more content…
The novel shows human nature’s reaction to life and death in multiple ways by using different characters from the Bundren family. All of these characters react differently to Addie’s death in ways that accurately reflect human nature. For example, Darl is jealous for Addie’s love for Jewel instead of him. Darl’s reaction displayed that some reaction to death may be jealousy and confusion. Jewel reacts to Addie’s death by blaming the family for her death instead of believing it was her illness. This displays denial and how the human can deny someone’s death. Dewey Dell tries to exploit her mother’s death to travel to Jefferson and get an abortion. This could show the very nature of greed in humans.
Faulkner was born in Mississippi, where almost all of his work took place, including As I Lay Dying. This makes sense due to the social issues that take place in the novel involving identity and women in the South. All of his work that took place in Mississippi was about life in northern Mississippi, specifically Oxford.
Faulkner changed the form of Southern novels by playing a crucial role in the Southern Renaissance. His novels displayed the South’s issues and criticized the state of the region. A major role was As I Lay Dying with its social and moral issues.
Faulkner dropped out of high school to pursue writing and started writing poetry. Soon after, he returned to Oxford, Mississippi to write novels.