As I Lay Dying

William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is an absurdist comedy that follows the Bundren family on their journey to the fictional town of Jefferson, Mississippi to bury the deceased matriarch of the family, Addie. Addie’s husband, Anse, and their five children of varying ages traverse the countryside to Jefferson to fulfill Addie’s dying wish of being buried alongside her family in town; however, each character has his or her own personal motive for going on the trip. Fifteen individual characters…

Texts portray hidden agendas through characters and actions. This is evident within William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”(1935/2004) in which characters are shown to have hidden agendas that contribute to the climax of the story. Although, the novel is centralized on the death of Annie Bundren and the burial of the family’s dead mother, the characters themselves possess their own stories. The themes prevalent within the text are the power of perceptiveness as well as Darl’s insanity versus reality…

Within As I lay Dying, we are give multiple perspectives throughout the book, with multiple characters all influenced in varying degrees by the death of Addie Bundren. However, one of the most interesting and key characters is Dewey Dell. She is the only female family character left in the novel and not only does she take care of her mother while she is on her deathbed, she is also at her side when she passes away. Now that her mother is gone, Dewey Dell must take on all her mother's duties and…

By analyzing the quote by critic Roland Barthes stating “Literature is the question, minus the answer,” we can apply this ideal to the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. We can observe the characters in the novel and analyze the ways they cope with their dead mother. Faulkner introduces the question of how one should grieve with death? Literature proposes many questions, but the reader must decipher the answer. Many of the characters in the book portray different ways of dealing with…

In the novel “As I Lay Dying”, by author William Faulkner, each character possesses a vital role. The majority of the actions revolve around a single character, Addie Bundren. Addie, who is undoubtedly the main character, is a mother and a wife. Addie is a mother to her five children; Cash, Dewey Dell, Darl, Jewel and Vardaman. She is also wife to Anse Bundren. Although she died fairly early into the novel, Addie’s relevance to the plot remains. Initially in the introduction of the novel, Mrs.…

Faulkner’s southern gothic novel, As I Lay Dying, has a uniqueness to it that is demonstrated in the way he chooses to tell this story. The Bundren Family, the family whom the story centers around, make up the majority of the stories narration with a few chapters in the point of view of outsiders. The story centers around the journey the Bundren Family takes to Jefferson to bury Addie Bundren, the mother of the family. The story is narrated by fifteen different people, seven of which are…

action done and every word spoken or written no matter how obviously. From birth, the world surrounding a person sends them small messages of how to act and how to speak. This concept is usually apparent in the written works produced by man. As I Lay Dying reflects the society that surrounded the author and points out several factors from that time in history. The novel reflects the social issues and concerns of the time such as female rights and poverty. William Faulkner uses his setting and…

The novel As I Lay Dying was written in 1930 by William Faulkner. It is narrated by fifteen different characters. Perhaps the most widely hated of all characters in this novel is Anse Bundren. Darl, one of Anses sons, says that “Pa’s feet are badly splayed, his toes cramped and bent and warped, with no toenail at all on his little toes, from working so hard in the wet homemade shoes when he was a boy.” (11). He is very lazy. Darl says, “I have never seen a sweat stain on his shirt. He was sick…

As I Lay Dying By William Faulkner, is a novel about the short time leading up to, and the aftermath of the death of a dear mother, mistress, and neighbor. Addie Bundren was the (unwanted) mother to Darl, Cash, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman Bundren, and also the mother to the bastard child Jewel. Directly following her death, by Addie’s previously arranged request, the entire family sets off on a quest to bury Addie, in a town named Jefferson, so she can be laid to rest aside her mother and father.…

On surface level, Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is about the Bundren family’s quest to fulfil the wish of Addie Bundren to be buried in Jefferson, Mississippi. The journey itself may seem like an act of true heroism, to honour Addie Bundren with her last wish. The simple definition of heroism according to the Merriam-Webster dictionary is to exhibit “great courage”. In this regard, the Bundren’s do indeed exhibit this “great courage” in enduring the plethora of obstacles thrown at them en route to…