Study Like a Boss
Key Facts Full title: As I lay Dying Author: William Faulkner Genre: Satire, rural comedy, tragedy, Southern Gothic Narrator: First person narration, split between fifteen different characters The Movie: As I Lay Dying is a 2013 American film, directed by and starring James Franco. The movie is largely based on the William Faulkner novel of the same name, originally published … Read more
Despite having gained minimal traction at the time of original publication, As I lay Dying has come to be regarded as William Falkner’s most prominent novels. Critics and readers alike were confused and put off by the books controversial subject matter, however, modern day readers and commentators have grown to appreciate the strong characters, abstract tone and striking … Read more
Addie Bundren, the wife and matriarch of an impoverished southern family, has fallen deathly ill. Her family believes that she is soon to pass. Her eldest son, Cash, begins to use his impressive carpentry skill to build a coffin for his mother right outside her bedroom window. Despite their mothers declining health, Darl and Jewel … Read more
Quotes That’s what they mean by the love that passeth understanding: that pride, that furious desire to hide that abject nakedness which we bring here with us, . . . carry stubbornly and furiously with us into the earth again. At the end of Section 11, these are the thoughts that Peabody has about the soon to pass, … Read more
Themes and Symbols The Ephemerality of Existence and Identity: Addie Bundren’s death prompts several characters to explore existence and identity. Vardaman is confused and horrified by the transformation of a fish he has caught and cleaned into pieces of what is no longer a fish, and associates that image with the transformation of his mother from … Read more
Character Analysis Addie Bundren: Addie is the wife of Anse, and the mother of the Bundren family. Her children are Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell and Vardaman. Addie, while the protagonist of the novel, is largely absent. Her death spurns the action of the novel. She is a retired schoolteacher, whose sad and loveless life has caused … Read more
I have both negative and positive things to say about William Faulkners novel As I Lay Dying. In the book Faulkner uses a very unique approach for narration. He has very strong sentences and vocabulary, but the story itself was too strange and warped for my enjoyment. Nevertheless there is a vibe given off in … Read more
The action of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying is simple: Addie Bundren dies; and in answer to her wishes, the body is taken for burial to Jefferson, some forty miles away. But the weather intervenes, and floodwaters require that the cortege take detours. Some nine days pass before the coffin, which before long clearly … Read more
Addie Bundren conjures up the central darkness derived from her death and directly or indirectly causes actions in which each Bundren character takes advantage of Addie. With the character’s actions revolving around her death, William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying reveals the truth about the people who surround a person may take advantage of him … Read more
Addie Bundren conjures up the central darkness derived from her death and directly or indirectly causes actions in which each Bundren character takes advantage of Addie. With the character’s actions revolving around her death, William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying reveals the truth about the people who surround a person may take advantage of him … Read more
Faulkner identifies some 600 inhabitants of Yoknapatawpha by name, often obviously delighting in the play of their names on the ear. Lump Snopes and Temple Drake are more obvious examples, but they alert us to Faulkner’s use of names in general. Helen Lang Leath has called attention to the significance of names in As I … Read more
Fulfilling a promise they had made to their mother, Addie, Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman, in William Faulkners As I Lay Dying, journey across the Mississippi countryside to bring her body to be buried in Jefferson, alongside her immediate family. Each one, in turn, narrates the events of this excursion as they are … Read more
William Faulkner was born in New Albany, Mississippi where he became a high school drop out and was forced to work with grandfather at a bank. In 1925 Faulkner moved to New Orleans and worked as a journalist, here he met the American Sherwood Andersen, a famous short-story writer. Anderson convinced Faulkner that writing about … Read more
In one of William Faulkner’s greatest novels, As I lay Dying, the character’s selfishness is revealed. As I Lay Dying is a detailed account of the Bundren’s family trek across Mississippi to bury Addie, their wife and mother. As Addie is dying, all the characters go through a different state of emotions, all of which … Read more