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Symbols In Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

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Symbols serve as a literary tool for writers to deliver their intended message to the audience as well as a mechanical tool used to seamlessly transition their characters along their journey and into situations which further the original message. In this sense Addie Bundren and her coffin, from Faulkner's novel "As I Lay Dying," serve as an ideal symbol throughout the book delivering and cementing the theme of disunity within the Bundren family in both their motivations for bringing Addie to Jefferson as well as their resulting turmoil.

The material aspect of Addie and her coffin is a symbol of the moral divide between members of the family in their motivations for setting Addie to rest in Jefferson. On the outside we have a work handcrafted by Cash with artificial beauty in the coffin. This man-made creation represents the outward facade presented by characters in their reasons for making good on their promises such as Anse's uncharacteristic devotion to his deceased wife as well as Dewey Dell's calls for Addie to die with dignity. However, throughout the novel Faulkner is able to open the lid and reveal the decaying corpse within these characters. From Dewey Dell's goal to seek an abortion in town to Anse's goal to replace his teeth, the Bundren family's two-faced communication and dichotomy between what is said and performed results in the same decay within the familial structure. …show more content…

While Anse, Dewey Dell, and Jewel have their alternate, immoralistic, and self serving intentions. This is contrasted by Cash and Vardaman who have seemingly pure if not naive intentions which reflect the grandios shell that the other characters are performing for their own personal gain. Meanwhile Darl seres as a spectation and a passage between the character's shell and deathly

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