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William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

975 Words4 Pages

Characterization can make or break any piece of work depending on how interactive it is with the reader, taking writing to another level creating personal connections and emotions as stated simply “taking the reader to heart.” Characters represent imaginative figures that can be incorporated into the reader’s life, sharing connections with each other to better understand and feel the writing, rather than just read it. Characters often times help us discover the author’s tone and his/her views to get ourselves deeply into the book. There are many factors that are involved with successful characterization, but emotion may be the biggest one. Emotion helps the author get to the character’s feelings and thoughts therefore “taking the reader to …show more content…

The book is surrounded by Addie Bundren’s death which develops most of the characters in the story. Again, the story is created around the idea of poverty, as the Bundren’s are not as well set as most. After the death of the mother, Addie Bundren the family begins the journey to the central town of Jefferson, tackling many complications, and dilemmas. Throughout the book, Addie is referred to as dead, meaning she is not facing what the Bundren family is currently facing, but the identity that she possessed as being “Mrs.Bundren” is taken from her as Anse, the father introduces his new wife late in the book. How quickly can one’s identity be taken? The idea that one’s identity can be taken so easily leads to the idea that any identity is equally out of balance or instable. Before Addie died, her mindset of “words being just words” is shown throughout the book as the lack of communication between the characters lead them to be so called “unstable.” Family is one of the biggest themes within the novel, and the lack of communication between the characters creates tense barriers between the different mindsets between the families. This quote from Chapter 5 "It was her wish," pa says.”You got no affection nor gentleness for her. You never had" shows us that the dead of Addie only brought the family closer physically, not emotionally where they struggle as everyone feels differently within and find it difficult to communicate these emotions with everyone. This is where the author calls out to the reader, as the general theme of family and relationship not only allow the reader to connect his history to the book, but also understand the characters deeper as well as interpret their feelings of their

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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.

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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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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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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.

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