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.
The Great Depression was a time of economic crisis around the world from the time period 1929 to World War II. To help capture the feeling in this period, John Steinbeck published The Grapes of Wrath. The main plot of of the story is about the Joads, a farming family forced from their home sent to search for work in California. Steinbeck includes a series of intercalary chapters to help paint a picture of migrant workers and the challenges they faced. In chapter 9, Steinbeck explores the emotional trials the tenants forced to endure when they are required to leave their homes and their lives, this chapter is an appeal to pathos.
The French Revolution was a time of radical and social upheaval. Conditions in France both economically and politically caused much discontent among the people of the Third Estate. Which not only included peasants but during this time was made up of everyone that wasn’t a noble or of king-like status, such as merchants, artisans, and the middle class (bourgeoisie). After the Enlightenment, the people of France began to question their government and society. Especially the people of higher class in the Third Estate.
The stasis within the social classes after the revolution was beneficial to society. “One class did not overthrow another; the poor did not supplant the rich. But social relationships-- the way people were connected to one another-- were changed, and decisively so” (Wood 132). There was a solid relationship between higher and lower classes, and that helped maintain balance within communities, which made the new country a “giant, almost continent wide republic of nearly ten million egalitarian-minded bustling citizens who not only had thrust themselves into the vanguard of history but had fundamentally altered their society and their social relationships” (132-133).
The three estates system was used to rule France in the eighteenth century. Each estate was composed of the clergy, nobles, and commoners respectively. However, this system of governance allowed the first and second estates, which comprised only 10% of the population, to outvote the third estate, which was made up of 90% of the people. By questioning the fairness of the system, the third estate was able to revolutionize and abolish the unfair system. Without the questioning of the decisions and ideas of the second and first estate, the third estate would’ve continued to be taken advantage of.
As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner “She would tell me what I owed to my children and to Anse and to God. I gave Anse the children. I did not ask for them. I did not even ask him for what he could have given me: not-Anse. That was my duty to him, to not ask that, and that duty I fulfilled.
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.
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.
Religion in As I Lay Dying The time and setting during which the novel was written are very important for understanding William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying. This novel was written in 1930 Mississippi; during this time Mississippi was very religious. Unsurprisingly, Christianity and religion also plays a big role in As I Lay Dying particularly through imagery and symbolism that connects different characters to religious figures, including Jesus Christ.
As 1919 is rolling into summer, racial tensions are getting to a boiling point. The causes of these racial tensions are white ignorance, The Great Migration, and social inequality. White ignorance has always been a major factor in African Americans not getting their rights they deserve. One part of that ignorance is that they never get to know them for whom they really are. When they see African Americans, they just assume some outrageous stereotype or just call them names.
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.
Primarily, the main reason for class divisions were to clearly define the line between the lowest and highest on the “totum pole”. Keeping things running smoothly between the variety of people that lived during that time was ideal for the royalty to have their land in control. For example, in Henry V royalty was relevant and the class system there was pretty obvious since it was present in the medival times. Having class divisions in Henry V helped define the line of respect towards the King and establish a common ground for the soldiers and the commoners. One of the different aspects of class in Henry V was the unique interactions with his soldiers.
“It’s the middle class; it’s middle Ireland, and it’s a group of people who often feel that they contribute a lot to the economy and a lot to society, but maybe they don’t get as much back for it as they should” (Leo Varadkar). The middle class of Ireland is often one of the most overlooked aspects of the Irish culture; yet, it is one of the biggest social classes in most economies. W. B.Yeats didn’t want to acknowledge them, and most of Joyce’s writings were about the middle class. These two authors had varying outlooks on the middle class. The middle class is one of the most hardworking and often taken for granted social classes.
The titled short story “A Rose for Emily” by William Faulkner is set in the post-civil war era in a southern town named Jefferson. The story discusses the themes of race and social class through the characters, Tobe and Miss Emily. Miss Emily Grierson is a distinguished woman in southern society while Tobe is her black manservant. Tobe stays with Miss Emily until her death and suddenly disappears afterwards because their relationship is a remnant of the race relationship in the antebellum South: master and slave. He no longer has any obligations to stay in Jefferson because his duty to Miss Emily is no longer needed since she died.
