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As I Lay Dying: Character Analysis

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Being different from others is a great quality that many people have, but it isn’t always easy. Being alienated is what happens when you’re different from others. In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, he uses alienation to create this complex character, Jewel Bundren. Jewel is different from the rest of his family and is treated as different as well. One way that Faulkner uses the shifting points of view is to show how social alienation builds Jewel as a character and how Darl and Cora perceive him. Faulkner uses social alienation by incorporating strong imagery to further describe Jewel. Faulkner uses “high blooded face” and “eyes like pale wood”, in Darl’s chapter where he talks about Jewel (17-18). Faulkner puts emphasis on how Jewel
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With the exception of Anse, the end of As I Lay Dying leaves all of the Bundrens worse for wear. Darl has been exiled because he is believed to be insane. Similarly, the skin has to be removed from Cash’s leg, Jewel has lost his horse and his last connection to the family, Vardaman is more confused than ever, and Dewey Dell remains pregnant. Despite all of this, Anse’s condition is better than it has ever been. He has purchased teeth, has visited a barbershop, and has come out of all of this with a new wife.

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Jewel Bundren is an outsider in his own family. He is often described as “wooden”, cold. However, underneath that hard outer exterior is a man who loves deeply. He loves his mother unconditionally, and he loves his horse. Similarly, Stanley Kowalski is a brutish, animalistic man, who is often misunderstood and ostracized by Blanche because he is Polish.

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252 Words | 2 Pages

William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying originally takes place in the 1930’s in the fictional Mississippi county of Yoknapatawpha. Throughout the novel, though, the setting moves between the city of Jefferson and Bundren 's household. Even though the majority of the novel takes place on the outskirts of a momentous city, the region itself is found to be exceptionally rural.

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1030 Words | 5 Pages

Sasha Stephens 2-5-15 English Mrs.o The Bundren family is full with many personalities similar to most families. As I Lay Dying is the story of the Bundrens, a poor, Southern, agrarian family. The “dying” in the title refers to Addie, the matron of the family. The book opens with her vigil and ends just after her interment in the ground. Her husband and five children undertake an arduous trek from their hilltop farm to a burial plot in the town of Jefferson, Mississippi.

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860 Words | 4 Pages

Ahmed 1 Abulasrar Ahmed Professor Schnur Eng 170W 26 May 2018 Relationship in Salvage the Bone sand As I Lay Dying In Jesmyn Ward’s novel, Salvage the Bones, depicts the Batiste family, a poor, black family in southern Mississippi living in a place called the pit by the family members. The pit is reflective of the Batiste family’s life which is dysfunctional and deplorable. In addition, William Faulker’s novel, As I Lay Dying , he also manifests a dysfunctional family.

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In the novel A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest J Gaines, Grant is a main character that has a lot of influence over the people in his community. Some might even consider him a hero. I believe that Grant is a hero because he helps Jefferson become a man, changes himself for the better, and wants to continue changing the community. Over the course of the novel, Grant helps Jefferson become the man that he needs to be in order to walk to his death with honor. When Grant first begrudgingly went to visit Jefferson in prison Jefferson was in a really low state.

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Have you ever been in love? In the book Don’t Die, My Love Julie Ellis and Luke Muldenhower have been deeply in love since the sixth grade. Now juniors in high school they are still madly in love and could not live without each other. When Luke gets what he thinks is the flu it turns their lives upside down. Will they get through this tough time together?

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With the greatest number of monologues, Darl acts as a surrogate for Faulkner. His intuitive ability to penetrate the minds of others and see through their facades enables him to provide the most objective, however blunt, commentary. His sanity becomes questioned more as the novel progresses, but he still labors as a reliable narrator in how he forces his family members to see real situations. Darl’s

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Hawthorne once said, “Deception may give us what we want for the present, but will later take it away in the end.” Thus being said, it is inevitable to portray the actions of deception toward others. Many adolescents today seek pleasure in this particular behavior. The continuous cycle occurs in asking oneself, “Why do we put others down in order to put ourselves up?” In the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, selfishness and intentional dishonesty is intensely demonstrated throughout the characters.

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571 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, “The Grave Digger’s Handbook” is a motif that causes character development throughout the story causing Liesel to have the book as her only memory of her mother and brother, learning how to read and write, and it leads to stealing more books. When Liesel, her mother, and her brother, Werner were going on a train to Munich, Liesel has a dream about Adolf Hitler, The Furer, who was reciting one of his powerful speeches and when she woke up she found her brother dead. The train stops for track repairs, and Liesel's mother leaves the train carrying Werner in her arms. When Liesel’s brother was getting buried by two grave diggers, one of them, an apprentice, who drops his book and Liesel picks it up.

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Darl’s questioning of “who was [Jewel’s] father, ” once again, reveals Faulkner’s intention to perceive Darl as an all-knowing character who has the ability to deeply understand and create connections from the situations around him by using dialogue (212). Faulkner uses action to portray how abnormal Darl’s perception is. Throughout his family’s chaotic endeavor to bury Addie’s body, Darl is conveyed as a delirious and strange character. When compared to his family and other characters in the novel, Darl is portrayed as the black sheep of the family because of his odd actions and behavior.

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331 Words | 2 Pages

DocViewer Zoom Pages The use of symbolism in “As I Lay Dying” allows the reader to understand the innermost feelings of the characters, mainly the Bundren family. In William Faulkner’s, “As I Lay Dying” the use of significant symbols project the abstract ideas of the characters who do not communicate their feelings properly with one another. Addie’s coffin itself represents the unnecessary burden placed on the Bundren family.

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713 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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1117 Words | 5 Pages

In many literary classics, we see many uses of literary devices, usually to portray or enhance a theme of the book. In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, there are many themes and many devices to depict them. But the narration/POV of different characters serves to affect the reader’s perspective, especially on the theme of family and honor- or lack thereof.

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2437 Words | 10 Pages

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

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