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Of Addie Bundren In William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

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William Faulkner As I Lay Dying The two most conspicuous characters in the introductory parts of the story are Addie and Darl Bundren. Addie Bundren is the mother to Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman, and is married to Anse, the patriarch of the family. She was once a schoolteacher, and the author depicts her life as filled with bitterness towards other people and deficient of love. No wonder, she grows to despise her husband, and her death triggers mixed reactions from her children as well as her husband. Despite her apparent lack of affection especially to her husband, she still treasures her favorite son, Jewel, who ends up being one of the key defenders of her coffin against attacks by his siblings. Furthermore, Addie’s character
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He is the only child who has all of Addie Bundren’s affection, as a result of this; he is envied by Darl and pushed away by Anse. Addie Bundren adored Jewel because he was the only child who did not belong to her wretched husband Anse. Jewel was her love child, she cared for him more than she did for her other children and even breast-fed him longer than she did with Cash and Darl. However, Addie’s love was not enough to shroud Jewel from Anse’s hate and Darl’s envy, and eventually Jewel becomes a hardened, distant

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924 Words | 4 Pages

However, Darl constantly expresses his love for her. This doesn’t matter to Addie though. Jewel is her favorite child despite the affection she receives from Darl. After calling his own mother a fish and realizing that Jewel’s mother is a horse, Vardaman asks “Then what is your ma, Darl?” Darl responds with “I haven’t got ere one.”

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Addie Bundren is the most confusing of all the characters in As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner. From her hatred of Anse to her odd, loving relationship with Jewel, it was very difficult to get a complete grasp of who Addie really was. Some might see her as loving and loyal while others are taken aback by her actions. After much deliberation, it seems like her disturbing qualities seem to prevail over her loving ones. One of the biggest themes in the book is selfishness.

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As I Lay Dying was a novel written by William Faulkner and published in 1930. It tells the story of the Burnden family facing the death of their mother and their journey they make to bury her. It is narrated by fifteen different characters. This chapter 51 is narrated by Darl, who we can considered to be the main narrator of the whole novel.

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Unlike most novels, identifying a single main character in As I Lay Dying is difficult, since the novel does not have a single narrator and follows an entire family’s journey. The novel surrounds mainly seven characters: Addie, Anse, Cash, Jewel, Dewey Dell, Darl and Vardaman Bundren. Each of these character narrates several sections in the novel, and all show important information and accounts of what happens. The entire family not only advances the main plot of burying Addie, but has their own subplots that are equally if not more important to them. For example, Dewey Dell not only travels with the family to bury Addie, but along the way seeks out a doctor to help her get an abortion.

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163 Words | 1 Pages

In Darl’s excerpt from As I Lay Dying, Darl’s description of the events and the people surrounding the death of Addie seem quite accurate. Darl chooses to include in his excerpt Jewel’s walk and his drinking from the gourd as well as Cash’s building of Addie’s coffin. Darl seems to the most reliable narrator simply because he describes the scene and what others are doing rather than focusing on his own thoughts or actions. From Darl’s excerpt, reader can tell that others are affected and involved in the passing of Addie. Unlike Darl, Cash’s excerpt is very a methodical list of how to make a coffin.

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1616 Words | 7 Pages

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.

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1584 Words | 7 Pages

Janie’s relation with Joes till his death is another step to realize the real meaning of domination and liberation. The moment that Janie kills her third husband Tea Cake is a must in the novel. Although Tea Cake liberated Janie from two different kinds of domination for a period of time but he turns to practice another kind of domination through his physical abuse and his jealousy; so his murder is a momentary freedom for Janie. Janie in her development and growth contends to replace the old culture concept that places women’s wishes on material and economic demands by love and affection.

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560 Words | 3 Pages

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.

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998 Words | 4 Pages

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and Ernest J. Gaines’ A Lesson Before Dying, while completely different in terms of plot and writing style, are both prominent american literary works. The similarities that they do share are the key reasons why the novels are such enduring works. Their novels both contain a number of similar themes, impressive uses of the different figurative elements, and (arguably the most important similarity) well-written characters that are dynamic and unique. Hurston and Gaines' characters Janie and Jefferson, through their evolving relationships and the personal growth they illustrate throughout their stories, describe the necessity of adversity and human connections in order to achieve self respect.

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Insanity gradually takes over the mind until there is nothing left of the original person. As I lay Dying by William Faulkner, a story as the title suggests that focuses on death. In this case, the death the story could relate to is a person’s physical death or psychologically downfall. Darl became mentally unstable due to the war, slowly the insanity that was present grew to overtake him, and his insanity intensified as the family desecrated the dead body.

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186 Words | 1 Pages

Jewel was Addie’s favorite but never actually showed his love for her back when she was alive. Cora believed that Jewel was God's punishment to Addie due to her favoring him and him not loving her. Through the novel we learn that Jewel deeply does loves his mother. In

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764 Words | 4 Pages

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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From the Suffragette movement of the early 20th century to modern day Women’s Marches, it is evident that women have continuously fought against the expectations and limitations placed on them by society. Throughout William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, female characters also grapple with gender standards, and either abide by or reject them. Characters such as Dewey Dell and Cora Tull follow female expectations since Dewey Dell allows men to control her and Cora fulfills the expected role of being a caretaker for her husband and children. Addie Bundren meanwhile does not obey societal expectations, which is apparent since she has her own desires and rejects the homemaker role given to women during this time.

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2627 Words | 11 Pages

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.

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