Essay Comparing The Waste Land 'And As I Lay Dying'

Faulkner’s utilization of multiple narrators and multiple viewpoints to develop and establish the story is similar to Eliot’s “The Waste Land”. I felt that by having multiple narrators, it allows the author to give more depth to the story and allows for deeper character development. In “The Waste Land” the multiple voices let Eliot portray the situation in that place was universal, all the voices had little or no hope and were suffering even if they didn’t know it. The same was true of in “As I Lay Dying”. We are allowed into each character to see what they’re doing, saying and thinking. In turn, we see the Bundren’s journey and in a more complete way. In Darl’s last part we see that he has lost his mind through his thoughts, we don’t have to rely on Cash’s account of when he is taken away. Both “The Waste Land” and “As I Lay Dying” could have been told from a single perspective, but the fullness and authenticity of the story would have been lost with such a narrow view.

In the poor south allowances are made to the Bundren’s that would not be extended in an urban setting. The fact that the Bundren’s are of a lower class, backward, and rural, makes their behavior, although disturbing to others, plausible. Class and the judgment that goes along with it have been themes in most of the readings we have done. To the opposite, in “A Lost Lady” Carter portrayed the higher rural class and the unachievable and unwanted expectation placed on Mrs. Forrester by others. Mrs. Forrester actions after Mr. Forrester’s death cause her to be judged and dismissed as less a person, so too are the Bundren’s. Their Journey and it trials seem to fit with what people expect form them. Anse’s eternal pessimism only add to his image and social