Addie's Voice In As I Lay Dying

Addie Bundren is the most confusing of all the characters in As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. From her hatred of Anse to her odd, loving relationship with Jewel, it was very difficult to get a complete grasp of who Addie really was. Some might see her as loving and loyal while others are taken aback by her actions. After much deliberation, it seems like her disturbing qualities seem to prevail over her loving ones.

William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is an adaptation of Homer’s The Odyssey, with both works chronicling the adventures of Anse Bundren and Odysseus, respectively, as they strive to complete their great journeys. The similarities between the two end there, as Faulkner’s world of Yoknapatawpha County, Mississippi, is a grim portrayal of Southern society. Anse certainly not the archetypal Greek Hero, but rather a sleazy, lazy man. This attitude infects the rest of the Bundren family as they traverse through Faulkner’s Southern Gothic South to bury their mother, Addie. Pride, defined as being satisfaction from staying true to one’s own identity and dignity, unfortunately, shares a similar fate with Addie Bundren as pride being tarnished as the Bundrens turn their backs on the very same identities they once held in high regard.

Being alive doesn’t necessarily mean one is living. It simply means to be in physical existing. To truly live is to have social impact or influence. Therefore to go through life as an outcast one may seem to be living within a stream of meaningless consciousness such as Addie and her son Darl Bundren in William Faulkner 's As I Lay Dying. Both characters merely exist right on the outskirts of the real world as they have no influence on the world around them. This fact is exemplified when the entire Bundren family goes upon an arduous three day journey to bury Addie 's corpse as according to her dying wish. Addie then begins to bound between existence and expiration. Meanwhile her logic-based son Darl struggles to compute how though Addie is dead she is the entire reason for the journey, showing influence from beyond the grave. Thus the Bundren family’s journey communicates the idea that one’s life cannot measured in length but in depth because one’s legacy will outlive one’s physical form from beyond the grave.

Character Analysis in As I Lay Dying As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner has remained a fairly controversial and intriguing novel when it comes to analysis. It’s “stream of consciousness” style, extensive amount of narrators, and fragmented format leave much available for differing analysis. With the overwhelming amount of narrators comes several pivotal characters. In turn, investigating characterization becomes a popular form of analysis for this work.

In “A Rose for Emily,” the author, Faulkner, describes the life of a women after the death of her family and the abandonment of her friends. The story is about a female named Emily whose father dies of natural causes, and she is left with little money except for her house and an African American manservant. The manservant is a very loyal person who stays by Emily’s side till her own death. This story is depicted from the neighbor’s point about the lady Emily. It recounts her life as she lived it from an external perspective.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner follows the Bundren family on their arduous journey to fulfill their dying mother's wish: to be buried with her family. Faulkner utilizes fifteen narrators, including Vardaman, the confused child, Addie, the dying mother, and objective characters such as the Tull family, to recount the details of the family's quest. Although death is a meaningful and somber topic, Faulkner reveals his opinion that death is an escape from the difficulties of life. Despite this grim subject matter, Faulkner uses irony and humor to effectively turn the novel into a dark comedy. Faulkner illustrates this dark humor through Addie's anticipation of her death, Anse's blatant ignorance toward his dying wife, and Vardaman's amusing confusion about death.

The Nobel prize speech by William Faulkner and novel, As I Lay Dying , both enhance how the author intends to fulfill his own vision of the writer’s duty. Faulkner’s duty is to encourage writers to focus on problems that deserve attention which are not introduced in other texts. The tone of the Nobel prize speech is assertive yet grasping around the idea of the future for literature. Through both sources, Faulkner speaks not only to the writers, but the individuals that can be empowered by his words and actions. In the Nobel prize speech, Faulkner is directly speaking to writers who have a desire to follow his footsteps, which is writing. Faulkner contends writers to write about real-life problems that happen in neighborhoods and families, especially the trouble coming from the heart.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner “She would tell me what I owed to my children and to Anse and to God. I gave Anse the children. I did not ask for them. I did not even ask him for what he could have given me: not-Anse. That was my duty to him, to not ask that, and that duty I fulfilled.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner In the excerpt from William Faulkner’s Southern novel, As I Lay Dying the author structures his novel through the use of literary features such as allusion, similes a belittling yet humorous tone, concrete imagery and a stream of consciousness style in the passage. Faulkner throughout the passage not only describes Cash’s reserved character and Darls perspective imagination but he also foreshadows the struggle the Bundren’s will go through as they prepare to go on the journey of burying Addie. First, Faulkner has the speaker Darl create a gloomy mood by using similes to display the ambiance in the room. Then Faulkner alludes to the bible and uses concrete imagery to illustrate both the surroundings and Cash’s concentration and determination as he makes his mother’s coffin.

William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying follows the Bundren family on a journey while it explores the subject of heroism and discusses its subjectivity. The family travels on an expedition to bury Addie, the deceased mother of the protagonist, Darl Bundren, and his siblings. As days continue to pass, however, the journey seemed interminable. During the adventure, the family takes a stop at Gillespie’s barn for the evening. While they rest Darl sets the barn, in which the coffin sits, ablaze.

Faulkner creates the sense of autonomy in As I Lay Dying by using multiple symbols that revolve around the Bundrens. One of the most common symbols in As I Lay Dying is Addie’s coffin. According to critic Homer Pettey, her coffin is said to be the main reason and “the focus of the Bundrens' efforts, frustrations, and fixations”(3). Pettey repeats that Addie’s coffin is an object that causes the rest of the Bundren family exasperation and aggravation from its ability to throw the world into “absolute chaos”(8). Many times throughout the novel Addie’s coffin causes situations that cause the family to have great misfortunes.

From her internal thoughts and observations, the reader is given knowledge of the exact extent to which Ellie’s own mortality affects her thoughts, actions, and enjoyment of her whole life. The impact of the knowledge is best demonstrated when the reader is told, “Yet

William Faulkner’s inclusion of death reflects his writing skills. According to Larry Levinger’s article “Prophet Faulkner,” published in 2000, “William Faulkner spoke to the violence and disorder of our time.” Levinger’s article reflects the viewpoint from which most of society saw Faulkner’s writing in this era in which he was considered dark and extreme. Levinger adds “Faulkner’s characters violate the rules of decency and honor.” The indication that there is a dead body tempts our imaginations into wondering if there really

This type of writing is Porter using the stream of consciousness to exploit Granny’s delusive state. Even more damning, Porter writes at the end that Granny prayed for a sign, but nothing came and then she died. This is another example of hopelessness. In comparison, Faulkner’s story also conveys the same theme. In his story “Rose for Emily,” he begins the story with Emily’s death.

Over the course of the novel, Faulkner explores existential behaviors and questions about the meaning of life and death, as well as trying to understand the purpose an individual has in an irrational world. Characters such as Darl, Addie, and Vardaman all convey existentialistic behavior leaving them to view the world from a different perspective than other characters such as Jewel. Throughout the novel, Addie, Darl, and Vardaman all act differently than Jewel due to their existentialist ideas. Although it is important to understand the world around us, if we become submerged into our own thoughts and try to understand the complex world around us, we might lose ourselves in the process. At the heart of the entire novel is Addie Bundren, as her death and decision to be