Addie's Voice In As I Lay Dying

Darl then questions the consistency of his being; to be able to assure of his identity, there must be a certain consistency that is maintained for a certain length of time. The verb to be now carries multiple functions; it is not a word that promises one’s existence but a word that endangers one’s identity. Even if anything “was” present in the past, it does not guarantee its presence at present; rather, it stresses the discontinuity of one’s being from the past to the present. The verb to be also connects the beings not as a marker of equivalence between beings but as a connective chain between existences; Jewel’s being is connected to Addie’s being, which again is connected to Darl’s being, and that is how he is able to have a self to empty

The novel written by Alan Hollinghurst is told over many decades, from the beginning to the end of the 1900’s. The story follows a series of events that come to pass after the seemingly mundane visit of Cecil Valance to George Sawle’s home, to visit his family in the ‘Two Acres’ estate. The first chapters presents the two main characters of the book: Cecil Valance and Daphne Sawle, the younger sister of his lover George. In the first chapter, Cecil is portrayed through the thoughts of Daphne that he immediately impacts, similarly to the way he impact her life.

Imagine stepping up on a stage in front of the whole city, and learning that being assigned the most rare assignment in the city, is an honor, but learning it involves pain. Would people classify it as an honor, or a punishment? It is an honor for Jonas to be chosen as the Receiver because he learns things he has never known before, the community realizes Jonas has a very honorable assignment, and it’s very rare and honorable. Jonas learns things he has never known. For example, on page 115 in The Giver, “By now Jonas had experienced countless bits of happiness, things he hadn’t known before.”

Throughout As I Lay Dying, it is evident that Darl Bundren has an advanced understanding of the members of his family. Given Darl’s almost omniscient knowledge of matters his siblings and parents would rather keep hidden, the quote explains how fortunate it is that the Bundren family’s shameful secrets have been buried. Darl knows that the things he knows about his family members could potentially be very hurtful to them and those around them, which is why he never tells; because the truth is hidden, it cannot hurt anyone. The most potentially damaging thing that Darl knows is his father’s dishonesty.

Literary Analysis The Quest for Independence Has one ever wonder what makes the world’s greatest novels so hard to put down? The ones that make one gasp aloud and bite one’s nails frantically; great novels that leave you on the edge of your seat, like, Romeo and Juliet, The Notebook, and even the Titanic. In each of these novels, they display a story of, the search for independence. In the novel, by Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God the protagonist, Janie Woods, begins her search for independence through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trails and purpose.

The short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is a story full of imaginative symbolism and descriptive settings. However, without the narrator’s unique point of view and how it affects her perception of her environment, the story would fail to inform the reader of the narrator’s emotional plummet. The gothic function of the short story is to allow the reader to be with the narrator as she gradually loses her sanity and the point of view of the narrator is key in ensuring the reader has an understanding of the narrator’s emotional and mental state throughout the story. It’s clear from the beginning of the story that the narrator’s point of view greatly differs from that of her husband’s and other family in her life.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner is about the Bundren family of six on their journey to Jackson to bury the matriarch of the family, Addie Bundren. The family consists of Anse Bundren, the patriarch of the family, Cash, the oldest son who makes Addie’s coffin, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman. Faulkner writes this novel with fifteen different viewpoints, each chapter narrated by one character, including Addie, who expresses her thoughts after her death. The characters’ chapters, except for Darl’s, are all jumbled and hard to read due to the absence of an objective narrator. Instead of being presented with a framework of events, the jumble of images, memories, and unexplained allusions by the alternating narrators, force the readers to take the pieces each character gives

One of the few things that are certain in life is that it eventually comes to an end, and this is a constant truth which applies to every person from every corner of the earth. Therefore, it is only natural that most authors have used the theme of death in their literary works. Beowulf’s heroic sacrifice, Hamlet’s philosophic pondering on the after-world, Poe’s attraction to the ominous and mysterious side of un-being, all show different aspects of this multi-faceted subject. In Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying”, death itself can be considered to be the protagonist, and even in the mind of a child, Vardaman, who cannot fully understand it yet, it remains an obsessive and haunting thought.

To speak is to befoul, and thus the only pure word in As I Lay Dying, and the synecdoche for Faulkner’s impeccable language, is the blank space at the centre of Addie’s section. Similarly, in the novel the thick sound of adzing is performed by the irregular. Darl Bundren says: A good carpenter. Addie Bundren could not want a better one, a better box to lie in. It will give her confidence and comfort.

The Fly - Katherine Mansfield Kathleen Mansfield, who later adopted the pen name, “Katherine Mansfield” was a New Zealandish writer, born on the 14th October 1888, in Wellington. By the time of her death, at age 34 in 1933, she had achieved a reputation as one of the greats. In this specific extract from, she introduces two main characters in the winter of their existence, who have a simple conversation in, “The boss’s”, office in a post war atmosphere. Throughout the extract, they touch on the general themes of ailment, loss and death.