Our storytellers are no longer people verbally telling us a story. Instead, they are the authors of the past and present. They take us through a journey the main characters take. A lot of authors keep something the same in most of the novels. William Faulkner is no exception. Of his nineteen novels published, fourteen have one thing in common. They are all set in the imagined Mississippi County of “Yoknapatawpha,” based on Faulkner’s home county of Lafayette. In most of these novels, the characters are recurring. Although As I Lay Dying is set in the county of “Yoknapatawpha”, this is the first and only time that Faulkner uses the Bundren family as a major character in one of his novels. Faulkner’s decision of not incorporating his signature style gives the novel its own different meaning. In the novel, Faulkner incorporates the classic trope of an …show more content…
However, the quest the Bundrens undertake is pointless at best, inspired by a bitter woman’s desire for revenge, and most of them only go on it for selfish reasons, none the less; this subversion of the trope resonates with a Modernist view that the old, traditional ways are no longer relevant or useful.
At the start of the novel, the family’s tribute to Addie’s impending death resembles the start of a typical epic journey. They are presented as doing what Addie asked Anse, her husband, to do for her once she died. Thus, when Darl and Jewel were trying to convince Anse to let them go into town to earn $3, Anse says how he “know her” and “promised her [he’d] keep the team here and ready, and she’s counting on it” (Faulkner 17). As they continue talking, Jewel gets upset on Cash building Addie’s coffin in front of