In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner uses wood as a symbol to demonstrate the degree to which each character grows and changes over the course of the novel. On one hand, wood can be seen as a representation of rigidity and a refusal to change. On the other hand, due to the fact that wood exists in many different forms – as a vertically oriented tree or as horizontally oriented planks – it is also used to outline the distinction between horizontal and vertical movement. Whereas horizontal motion represents progress, vertical orientation signifies fixation to one place and retaining a connection to one’s background. Anse is a character associated solely with vertical orientation, preventing him from experiencing any significant change. Jewel …show more content…
Jewel and his horse are consistently described as having wooden qualities: “Jewel sits on his horse like they were both made out of wood, looking straight ahead” (122). The numerous descriptions of Jewel’s “wooden face” and “wooden eyes” suggest a sense of hollowness and rigidity in Jewel’s character. This image of Jewel riding in on his horse is reminiscent of many statues depicting men on their horses, demonstrating that like these statues, Jewel is frozen in time. Here, Jewel is completely vertical – he exhibits no horizontal motion whatsoever, even his eyes are “looking straight ahead,” unmoving. Unlike other statues, which are often made of bronze, marble, or a different durable material, Jewel is made from wood, which can easily be disintegrated by the elements over time. The fact that Jewel is made from wood rather than a sturdier, more permanent material suggests Faulkner’s view that this rigidity will prove ineffective in the long-term – it will ultimately lead to the Bundrens’ downfall. After Jewel sacrifices his horse in order to purchase a new team of mules, Darl describes Jewel’s return to the family: “He is coming up the road behind us, wooden-backed, wooden-faced, moving only from his hips down. He comes up without a word, with his pale rigid eyes in his high sullen face, and gets into the wagon” (209). Unlike in the previous image, Jewel is now described as having some horizontal motion – he is walking towards the family. However, the fact that Jewel is “moving only from the hips down” suggests a lack of consistency within Jewel’s character; while his legs and everything below his hips are able to move horizontally, his head and his “pale rigid eyes” remain frozen and fixed. Even if Jewel is able to physically move
It’s once brilliant green began to darken and dull and now looked nothing more than a burnished rock. The Jester’s eyes grew wide and horrified he tossed the necklace away from his hand. “The queen,” he whispered. Urgently the Jester raced toward a wall and grabbed a cord hanging from the ceiling and yanked it down. With a muffled flapping sound, the red, velvet, curtain beside it tumbled to the ground and revealed a decorative bronze sculpture.
Lastly, Oates depicts one of the trees as being partly dead. This relates to Judd’s idea that everyone is partly dead. The imagery used in this passage reflects Judd’s thoughts and further characterizes him by creating a feeling of gloominess towards
Betrayal is defined as, “an act of deliberate disloyalty" (vocabulary.com). In William Faulkner’s book, As I Lay Dying, there is a lot of betrayal between the Bundren family. From, Addie having an affair to most of her family travelling to Jefferson for selfish reasons. The Bundren family is a lying and selfish family. Most of the characters betray Addie specifically in many ways.
Then we can take a look at Cora Tull who can be seen as deeply religious, and is the wealthier neighbor of the Bundrens. Cora Tull can also be seen as being the most vocal in her disapproval in some of the actions that the Bundrens take especially the certain actions that Addie takes right before she dies. As Addie is dying, Cora criticizes her for favoring Jewel, “the one she labored so to bear and coddled and petted so” (21). According to Cora, Jewel frequently had “tantrums” and “sulking spells” and invented “devilment to devil her” (21). Cora is judgmental of Addie’s perceived favoritism of Jewel because in her mind, Jewel does not behave correctly.
The narrative, As I Lay Dying, develops a reading of the Bundren family. Each of the family members including the mother that is dead, narrate about themselves in relevance to the entire family. By writing about relatable problems for the audience to relate to, Faulkner discusses the loss of the mother, Addie. Dealing with a significant family loss, Anse, already justifies that Faulkner is fulfilling his own vision of the writer’s duty. The author reflects on Addie, who is the mother in the entire story and
When Hera sees Echo again, she notices the ring and Evslin describes the ring as, "a large sapphire ring that burned on her finger like a fallen star"(86). The simile describing the ring briefs the reader that it was alarmingly noticeable. Comparing the ring to a fallen star also helps to add the ring's beauty and notability. A fallen star likely has astonishing looks, so it would have been impossible for Hera to overlook the ring. The ring is also described to burn on Echo's finger, this hyperbole further helps how greatly the ring stood
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.
By allowing characters from both inside and outside the Bundren family provide their perspectives on the events in the novel, the reader engages with the text in order to decipher the truth. The audience can also interpret the personality and emotions of a character through the character’s repetitive dialogue, and the novel’s flashbacks allow the reader to perceive of past events to better understand the current plot. Reading and dissecting As I Lay Dying has assisted me in understanding Faulkner as an author and individual. The words written on the walls of Rowan Oak do not seem as absurd as they did before reading Faulkner’ work. Now those words seem like they spawn from a talented writer in the makings of another magnificent
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
Lee begins to capture death through imagery while the speaker talks about the lifeless garden: “The ground is old, / brown and old” (Lee 2-3). The description of the garden allows the reader to fully, and clearly picture the garden and feel the cool air. While picturing the garden one might even say they can picture the speaker 's father standing there. That is due to the sense the garden is a representation of the father himself. Once someone passes away their body becomes cold and they are usually old.
In the novel, As I lay dying by William Faulkner, the Bundren family go through a mental journey of loss and death of their mother later to go on a physical journey to bury their mother. To the conclusion of any novel, many have an opinion on what is much happy or not a happy ending. In the case of the ending to As I lay dying, include no real burial of how the mother wanted, which was the point of the physical journey in the first place, secrets comes out, one of the five the siblings gets taken away, and many are left with unfinished business, was not a happy at all for most of the characters. The novel is narrated by 15 characters that are not all part of the Bundren family but in some way connected.
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.
The agony the writer is feeling about his son 's death, as well as the hint of optimism through planting the tree is powerfully depicted through the devices of diction and imagery throughout the poem. In the first stanza the speaker describes the setting when planting the Sequoia; “Rain blacked the horizon, but cold winds kept it over the Pacific, / And the sky above us stayed the dull gray.” The speaker uses a lexicon of words such as “blackened”, “cold” and “dull gray” which all introduce a harsh and sorrowful tone to the poem. Pathetic fallacy is also used through the imagery of nature;
The story A Lesson Before Dying has a vary bold title that talks about a weird subject, death. Many people are scared of death and have a hard time understanding it. Because people see death in a sad way this book has a sad mood throughout it. Death, it is something that happens to every living thing, it is just a fact of life.
Norwegian Wood is about a story of a person called Toru, a peaceful, independent Japanese undergrad, who begins to fall in love with Naoko after Kizuki (Naoko's sweetheart and Toru's closest companion) commits suicide. While it would appear to be actually remedial for Toru and Naoko to swing to each other for comfort despite such catastrophe, Naoko is overpowered with her life's weights and Kizuki grief and hence rejects Toru's friendship for the isolation she finds inside of her own contracting and separated world. Additionally lamenting for Kizuki while becoming lonelier. The rejected Toru reluctantly contacts Midori, a candid and sexually confident young lady who is everything that Naoko can't be (Murakami 13).