William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

As I stroll through the halls and rooms of Rowan Oak, I notice more than I ever have before. This beautiful white structure was the home of the Southern literary novelist William Faulkner. Since I live so close to Oxford, Ms, I have been here near a dozen times for various school functions. Embarrassingly though, even though I have always lived in Mississippi, I had never read one of Faulkner’s works until now. From the moment I started reading Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, I gained a deeper understanding of Faulkner’s true identity, which manifests itself in his writing style. In As I Lay Dying, Faulkner uses many different literary techniques in order to effectively communicate his message to the audience. The most prominent artistic style

Through redundant wording that limits itself to a restricted vocabulary, Faulkner endeavors to demonstrate to the reader the Bundren family’s narrow knowledge and oftentimes erratic thought-processes. One particularly clear example of this technique can be found in the youngest son Vardaman’s description of the incident of his mother’s coffin being lost in the river. Vardaman recounts, “… Darl jumped going under he went under and Cash hollering to catch her and I hollering running and hollering and Dewey Dell hollering at me Vardaman you vardaman you vardaman…” (Faulkner 150). In this text, the reader receives a glimpse into the mind of Vardaman. Vardaman’s limited vocabulary can be attributed to either his young age or his lack of education, but either way, the reader understands that Vardaman does not have a full grasp on the world. Faulkner also uses repetition to demonstrate a character’s emotions. One instance of this can be found in the mother Addie’s description of her life with Anse and her children. She reflects, “Sometimes I thought that I could not bear it, lying in bed at night, with the wild geese going north and their honking coming faint and high and wild out of the wild darkness…” (Faulkner 170). In this passage, Faulkner uses the word “wild” three times. If the language itself does not provide enough indication of Addie’s mental anguish, the

By allowing characters from both inside and outside the Bundren family provide their perspectives on the events in the novel, the reader engages with the text in order to decipher the truth. The audience can also interpret the personality and emotions of a character through the character’s repetitive dialogue, and the novel’s flashbacks allow the reader to perceive of past events to better understand the current plot. Reading and dissecting As I Lay Dying has assisted me in understanding Faulkner as an author and individual. The words written on the walls of Rowan Oak do not seem as absurd as they did before reading Faulkner’ work. Now those words seem like they spawn from a talented writer in the makings of another magnificent