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As I Lay Dying Themes

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I chose to write from the perspective of Dewey Dell’s child, Elizabeth, because her pregnancy is an important theme in As I Lay Dying. In contrast to the prevalent theme of death, Dewey Dell’s pregnancy represents the theme of life. My narrative is centered on Elizabeth’s desire to know her ancestry. Her father, Lafe, is not present in her life because having sexual relations before marriage was not acceptable in the 1920s. Elizabeth is a reminder everyday to her mother of her mistake and loneliness. Dewey Dell expresses her regret through her interactions with Elizabeth. Her community has shunned her because she had a child before marriage, which causes her to resort to prostitution as a way for her to provide for her child and herself. Darl is insane in my narrative because he is sent to an insane asylum at the end of the book. Also, the relationship between Darl and Dewey Dell …show more content…

Faulkner skillfully imitates the way the mind processes visual images and puts them into words, allowing the reader to be placed inside the character’s head. The point of stream of consciousness is to take the reader through the thinking and perspectives of the character. Each character has a personalized style and language. Since Elizabeth is a child, I chose to use Faulkner’s choppy style, taking the reader step by step through her mental processes. I chose to center my narrative on specific aspects of the story that Faulkner liked to stress, such as Dewey Dell’s abortion and Darl’s insanity. These main themes help to create a stylistic continuity with the story. In addition, I used dialogue to demonstrate a flow from character to character, supported by evidence in the story. I incorporated interactions that were meaningful and strong evidence to the theme of life: a main concept of the story. Faulkner’s style, themes, and story evidence are all incorporated into my narrative to show my understanding of his

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-“So the next night, after midnight, four men crossed Miss Emily 's lawn and slunk about the house like burglars, sniffing along the base of the brickwork,” (Faulkner II). -“When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a way, people were glad,” (Faulkner II). -“The day after his death all the ladies prepared to call at the house and offer condolence and aid,” (Faulkner

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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.

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Another excerpt from the story that shows or helps develop the theme is in the

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Faulkner composites a family that is far away from perfect, instead the family members each face a tribulation that connects to the death their mother. With the supporting passages Faulkner demonstrates how the novel, As I Lay Dying fulfill his own vision of the writer’s duty, which is to express the problems by appealing to pathos, introducing relatable problems, and discussing family dynamics. Faulkner fulfills the writer’s duty by introducing problems the writers can relate to. Faulkner inspires readers to write about, “problems of the human heart... with itself which can make good writing...because that is only worth the sweat agony” (Faulkner 14-15).

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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.

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In the novel, As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner shapes the plot based on the looming presence of the absentee protagonist, Addie Bundren. The reader’s knowledge of Addie accumulates through the monologues of other characters, so the reader gains only bits and pieces of Addie’s character. However, after her death, the reader obtains a better understanding of Addie’s voice through her own monologue and as a result, is characterized as cold and selfish. Through the use of similes and interior monologue, Faulkner shows Addie’s tendency to detach herself from the people in her life, which relates to the novel’s overall theme of solitude as Addie adheres to her father’s philosophy that the reason for living is no more than “to get ready to stay dead a long time” (169).

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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.

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In the novel As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner portrayed the female characters as people who are always subjected by men and face numerous struggles of the everyday, rural, Southern woman in the 1930s. The three main female characters of the book are Cora, Dewey Dell Bundren, and Addie Bundren. Their lives are harder than men due to being repressed by the masculine-ruled society at the time. Both Dewey Dell and Cora resign themselves to their faith, but Addie broke the social norms of this era and paved her path by doing so.

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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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William Faulkner is a complex writer who knows how to set a great pace in his stories. He is also a very flexible writer which allows the openness of many topics to write on because of his unconventional style. In his short story, "A Rose for Emily", you can interpret how times are so different from today. Although it was not during slavery times, things were not much more advance than that. The dominance of gender or social roles shown on women, particularly Miss Emily, may be seen as harsh or unfair.

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While Emily is alive the story tells the readers about how the world around Emily is changing and evolving but she refuses to keep up with the new ways. For example, in the story it talks about the town and receiving mail. The story says, “Emily refused to let them fasten metal numbers above her door and attach a mailbox.” (#) The town can see what lengths Emily went through to remain isolated from the changing world. If Faulkner had put the story in Emily’s point of view it wouldn’t have the same

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