As I Lay Dying Existentialism Essay

Critical Analysis “Grief is life the ocean, it comes in waves, ebbing and flowing. Sometimes the water is calm, and sometimes it is overwhelming. All we can do is learn how to swim.” - Vicki Harrison. When it comes to losing a family member or friend, people tend to cope with it in many different ways.

Darl refers to his mother as “Addie” because it emphasized the disconnection there is;The unwanted and unloved emotion that he felt created a struggle of finding himself. “I don’t know what I am. I don’t know if I am or am not. ”(Faulkner 80) Addie and Anse negligence left a gaping hole in darl’s identity that was unable to be filled and caused him to have a mental breakdown. In the beginning Darl’s language is structured but then shifts to a word salad: “yes yes yes yes”(Faulkner 244) which reveals his mental state since he could no longer live with the instability he face.

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.

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.

The family's treacherous journey to Jefferson is filled with danger and excitement, yet Faulkner gives many doses of humor throughout the novel. The characters employ themselves in outrageous acts of irony, from Addie's rejection of her most devoted son, to Anse's concern with his false teeth instead of Addie's death, to Vardaman's calling his mother a fish. This irony would not have been evident if it were not for Faulkner's use of multiple narrators. Faulkner was enchanted by Freudian theories of psychology when he wrote this novel, and recounting the story through various perspectives allows the reader to understand each character's reaction. This enhanced the dark humor throughout the novel because the reader can see into each family member's thoughts on her death.

Faulkner’s choice of Vanderman, the most prominent symbol of innocence, to approach Darl allows the readers to have the perspective of an innocent child. Vanderman believed that Darl was weeping because he almost lost Addie’s coffin. However, differing viewpoints explain that Darl was weeping because his attempt at putting Addie to rest had failed. His tears are shed as an apology to Addie for his failure.

His shift into a childlike state of mind is his final attempt to grasp at a connection. In this final moment, Darl is not only mentally disconnected, but he also has no physical resemblance of his old self. Imagery is used by Faulkner to compare Darl to a rapid dog. Darl’s connection with himself has been completely severed because even though he is still connected with Vardaman, he no longer has the relationship that his identity depended on, the one between him and

Living creatures are not immortal, the fact that they are living automatically has death attached to their existence. Death looms over the human population taking many lives every day, not once failing. During the Holocaust, it came in the form of the Nazis, who used concentration camps as their factories of death. By the end of the Holocaust, 11 million were left dead by the Nazis, 6 million of them being Jewish. In the novel Night, Elie Wiesel presents an insider view of the horrific event and how death took form within it. As evidenced by the constant selections and hangings, death was always striking, but still had an air of mystery, with the Jews not fully knowing when they would be killed. Wiesel proves that mortality is simultaneously certain and uncertain by utilizing the deranged events Elie, the novel’s protagonist, faces in the Holocaust.

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. Addie’s coffin causes a huge misfortune when the Bundren’s ford a river and the current sweeps away the wagon, Addie’s coffin,

Together each writer uses setting to reveal more and more about the female protagonist’s emotional state or their conflict. The main female protagonist in each of the story/play sees themselves in many of the same aspects. In both the story/play the female-male relationship had a major impact on how the female characters actions are justified by their own standards. Faulkner uses the decaying effect of time on Miss Emily’s character which drives her to insanity.

Death is inevitable. Losing someone you love is dreadful. It was April 2016 when we were sitting at the dinner table late at night with our family friends. My mom’s phone began to ring. When I saw her reaction, I knew immediately.

Darl is an important part of As I Lay Dying, and it is clear his participation in the story is a key element in the story’s entertainment as well as literary value. Darl’s madness brings out qualities of the other characters that wouldn’t be noticeable otherwise, and he brings the story more complexity and depth through his clairvoyant

The last seven sections of William Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” tell the ending of the story, beginning as they bury Addie and ending as they are readying to head home. The sections flow together in telling the last day and their departure, concluding their journey with a clear sense of each family member and their mentality after their mother is finally put to rest.

Various religions across the world employ several different concepts that non-believers often find very strange or difficult to grasp. There is however a concept that is universally understood and somewhat accepted by the vast majority of our contemporary society. This is of course the concept of an afterlife. The afterlife can be defined as a sort of state of being where the consciousness of an individual persists even after the physical death of the body. This concept plays a central role in nearly all religions that employ it and is sometimes dependent on the existence of a God. However, not all religions that employ the concept of an afterlife revolve around the existence of a God and taking into account the primal instinct of self-preservation

LOSS, GRIEF AND HEALING As human beings, we suffer losses of many kinds and sizes in our life time. While some of these losses are small and do not hurt much, some are big and hurt deeply. Those that are accompanied by pains that are difficult to bear include the loss of a loved one through death or divorce, cheating or unfaithfulness in a trusted relationship or loss of good health when a diagnosis of a terminal illness is made. In all these instances of loss, pain and grief are experienced and an emotional wound is created which needs healing.