Addie is actually the perfect character to try and describe the lack or void of words and meanings. The very fact that she is dead and is talking about this void from the dead is important. In a way she is speaking from a void between life and death. Morna Flaum expresses this idea in her article, “Elucidating Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying.” “Her condition of deadness, speaking from the void between is and not-is makes her the perfect vehicle for Faulkner to describe the indescribable, approach the unapproachable, express the inexpressible, as he so gracefully does, does-not. The placement of Addie’s chapter in the middle of her long journey from deathbed to grave is also significant.” Flaum goes on to say that this placement of Addie’s chapter …show more content…
between life and death can be compared to that of mythology. Only after Addie has crossed the river is she able to speak. This river represents the river Styx in Greek mythology. One can only pass the river Styx by paying the price of passage to Charon. The Bundrens pay the price with two mules and the breaking of Cash’s leg. Faulkner actually took the title of this novel from Homer’s The Odyssey. Agamemnon says to Odysseus “As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I descended into Hades." The characters themselves lack communication with each other and have an inability to explain their needs. However, Darl understand everyone's motives and feelings and likes to take advantage of this. Darl figures out that Jewel is not Anse’s son through his analytical skills. He realizes that Jewel’s emotions he conveys toward his horse are an accurate representation of his unexpressed love towards Addie. Thus why Darl says Jewel’s mother is a horse. Darl is jealous of Jewel for being Addie’s favorite and receiving all of her love. He makes fun of Jewel for not having a father and constantly taunts him. At the beginning of the novel when the two of them went on an errand, Darl kept saying to Jewel that Addie was going to die. Tension between Jewel and Darl is constantly building until the end of the novel when Jewel attacks Darl. Darl and Jewel are like two sides of the same coin. Jewel expresses himself through actions and not words, while Darl is poetic and prefers words and thoughts to actions. The reason Addie favored Jewel to the other children is because he favored action and not words like Darl. Addie had a dislike of words, because of their subjectability. Jewel and Darl are the only characters in the book that do not really have ulterior motives behind taking Addie’s body to Jefferson to be buried. Fulfilling his mother’s wish to be buried in Jefferson is Jewel’s only way to mourn her death, especially since he was not by her side when she died. Dewey Dell is another character that Darl figures out and taunts her for her secret.
This relationship is very similar to that of Jewel and Darl. Darl discovers that Dewey Dell is pregnant out of wedlock. None of the other family members know this. Her motive behind going to Jefferson was to get an abortion. This is due to the fact that her baby’s father left her, fear for her father’s rejection due to southern values and religion, and also due to the fact that she ( like everyone else in the family) can not and does not communicate with the other family members. They are all selfish and isolated. Once again Darl does not take any action over discovering her secret, but just continually taunts her over this. This causes tension to continually build until the end of the novel where Darl is being taken away to the insane asylum and Dewey Dell attacks him violently. It is also safe to assume that Dewey Dell is the one who turned Darl into the officials over burning down the barn. Only Vardaman and her knew about what he did. She wanted him out of her life for torturing her, because she did not want anyone to find out her secret. Even though everyone was going to find out sooner or later since she fails to get an
abortion. It could be said that Darl taunts Dewey Dell and Jewel to try and make them deal with their issues. Darl wants Jewel to become a real part of the family, to stop acting like an outsider and to communicate with words. He wants the family to be more like a real family. Darl seems to care for the betterment of the family. He puts Cash’s broken leg in a cast because he was actually trying to help. Later on in the story Jewel gets in some conflict with a town person and Darl stands up for Jewel. When the man thinks Jewel did something offensive to him Darl says, “Wait, I say. ‘He don’t mean nothing. He’s sick; got burned in a fire last night, and he ain’t himself” (230). This shows that Darl cares for his brother to some extent. Darl is the key to trying to hold this family together. He uses his omniscience and abilities to see through other’s perspective to take matters into his own hands. Everything Darl does is for what he thinks is best for the family. Darl burns down the barn to put an end to the mad journey to bury Addie in Jefferson and out of respect for his deceased mother. Trotting her body around for ten days after she died is not right. Her body is rotting, smells terrible, and bad things keep happening to the family. Darl can see that everyone just wants to go to Jefferson for their own reasons and that means he must see Anse’s motives of wanting a new wife and teeth, too. Burning down the barn and cremating his mother inside of it, would put an end to this trip to Jefferson and Anse would not be able to get what he wanted. By the end of the book Anse is the only one that gets what he wants, while everyone else loses something in return. Jewel has to give up his horse, because Anse sold it to continue their trip. Dewey Dell has her abortion money stolen by Anse, does not get her abortion, and is raped in the process. Vardaman does not get the toy he wanted and loses his innocence. Anse steals Cash’s money for the graphophone and loses his leg. Lastly Darl loses his family and is taken to an insane asylum. Darl does not have any conflict with Cash nor Vardaman. This is due to that neither of their motives for going to Jefferson are really bad enough to be angry at them over and he is on a completely different level intellectually from them. Darl is clearly the most intelligent and educated of the Bundrens and it is not close. Cash wants to go to Jefferson to get a graphophone and Vardaman just wants a toy from the toy store. Neither of these characters are bad people and can be seen as the most family-like members of the family. Vardaman is just an innocent child who knows nothing of the world. Cash seems like a legitimately good guy even though he does not seem very smart. Though, Cash does say that there is no such thing as crazy or sane, it all just depends on who is looking. This pointing out that sanity is in the eyes of the interpreter reinforces the fact that words and actions are not constant in their meaning, but depends on what the person interpreting them thinks. He also understands why Darl burned down the barn, but that does not justify burning down someone else's property. This makes Cash conflicted over the issue. He does not think that anyone has the right to say if someone is sane or crazy, but he sticks to the fact that it was not right for Darl to burn down another man’s property. When Darl is being taken away by the authorities Cash tells Darl that this is what is best for him. Perhaps Darl being taken to an insane asylum is what is best for him. Being around the Bundrens is going to make him go crazy eventually. These people are so unintelligent and arguably insane themselves. However, Darl did not actually go insane. If he had you would be able to see that he did through the progression of his monologues. He has the most chapters as the narrator so it would be easy to see his progression towards insanity, yet there is none. The chapter immediately after Darl does the most “insane” act of the book in burning down the barn to cremate his mother, Darl is the only person sane enough to stop Jewel from getting into a fight. He uses his intelligence to talk the situation down. It may seem to the reader that Darl did go insane at the end because of his laughing and his last monologue, but with proper interpretation you can see this to not be true. The reason behind Darl’s laughter at the end likely was due to the sheer insanity of the situation itself, that he; the lone sane and intellectual one of the family, is being taken away for being insane. He also realizes what everyone else actually thinks of him. What else could he do but laugh? He cannot argue with these people who clearly do not understand his thinking or what sanity is. Darl likely wanted to get away from his family at this point. He sees their selfishness and stupidity, both of the reasons why they were sending him away. It is ironic and arguably funny that the only sane character in the book is taken away because he is “insane.” The arguably best evidence against Darl being sane is the last monologue of Darl in which he refers to himself in third person. When Darl is referring to himself this way he is actually putting himself in the eyes of the other family members and seeing what they actually thought of him. He is coming to understand their hatred and jealousy towards him for being far superior to them. Through a complete analysis of As I Lay Dying readers can see that Faulkner wrote the theme of word effectiveness into his novel through the use of symbolism, imagery, and internal monologues. Readers get to witness Faulkner, Addie and other characters struggle to express what they are thinking or feeling with words. They can also see that the only way any of the characters actually understand any of the other characters in through Darl’s omniscience. Darl tries to use this “power” to control the situations that arise, but is ultimately misunderstood as insane. Readers however, get to see into Darl’s thoughts and actions through his internal monologues to determine that he is not actually insane. Neither language nor sanity are concrete in their meanings and leave room for interpretation.
In As I Lay Dying (1930), Faulkner creates the deceitful, insensitive character, Anse Bundren, who will do anything to get what he wants, even if it means stealing and injuring his own children, symbolizing the avarice and apathy that can result from a world of non education, poverty, and overall suffering.
“God’s will be done, now I can get teeth,” Anse says after Addie’s death. To some people, it may seem weird that someone wants new teeth, and to others, it might make them wonder if he’s sad about his wife’s death. Anse Bundren, a middle-aged man, has a reputation of being a lazy and selfish person. But how does that play a role in As I Lay Dying? How has Anse’s relationship with his family, his wife, and himself affect the outcome of the story? Another thing about Anse is his view of Addie’s death. How has Anse Bundren become dead in the story, but is really still alive?
Darl, the second child of Anse and Addie Bundren is the most prolific voice in the novel As I Lay Dying, by William Faulkner. Darl Bundren, the next eldest of the Bundren children, delivers the largest number of interior monologues in the novel. An extremely sensitive and articulate young man, he is heartbroken by the death of his mother and the plight of his family's burial journey. Darl seemed to possess a gift of clairvoyance, which allowed him to narrate; for instance, the scene of Addie's death. Even though he and Jewel were away at the time. Similarly, he knew Dewey Dell was pregnant because he had seen her with Lafe, and he also knew that Jewel was illegitimate. Nevertheless, he was regarded as strange. Cora Tull says, he was "the one that folks says is queer, lazy, pottering about the place no better than Anse." Out of jealousy, he constantly taunted Jewel, Addie's favorite child. Except for Jewel, he alone among the Bundrens had no hidden motive for wanting to go to Jefferson.
Dewey Dell’s conflict Dewey Dell is the fourth child, and the only daughter, of Anse and Addie Bundren in As I Lay Dying. “Dewey Dell monologues are characterized with unarticulated wishes, powerful but poorly misunderstood emotions, and weakness.” From the dialogue, Darl said to Dewel Dell that Addie is going to die and she will die before they get back from the lumber job. Based on the story As I Lay Dying, does Dewey Dell hates Darl or she doesn’t? If yes, what is the reason?
Metamorphosis William Faulkner in his book, As I Lay Dying, portrays a Mississippi family who goes through many hardships and struggles. Faulkner uses imagery to illustrate an array of central themes such as the conscious being or existence and poverty among many others. From the first monologue, you will find an indulgence of sensual appeal, a strong aspect of the novel. Each character grows stronger and stronger each passage. One of the themes in As I Lay Dying is human relations to nature.
People tend to isolate women and young girls in this time especially if they had rebelled. Dewey Dell has got herself caught in a situation she does not now how to get out of. Dewey feels she has no one else to turn to because of her loneliness so she begins to turn to men. Dewey thought that the men she was surrounding herself with truly loved her and could make her feel happy and not alone. Love is a vicious force in Dewey life (Kincaid). Dewey finds herself getting farther away from humanity. Dewey does not understand the depth of love. Addie not showing her the love Dewey needs growing up makes her feel abandoned. Anse continues to use his children and Dewey does not have a true father figure she needs in her life. Dewey feels abandonment her whole life. She never has anyone to tell her right from wrong or to give her guidance. She does not expect men to treat her with respect because she never sees the respect that she deserved from
Billy Collins born in 1941 and wrote Introduction to Poetry in 1988. Billy Collins wrote the speaker of the poem to be a teacher who is wanting his students to read a poem. He gives some examples of how he wants his students to read a poem. The examples he used could be analyzed to mean that he wants his students to take their time, be open-minded and patient, while not over thinking it. He wants his students to use different literature tools to see who the author is, who is the poem speaker, and what the poem means to the students.
Early in the book, Faulkner Throughout the novel As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, the reader views Jewel as the most aggressive of Addie Bundren’s children. He is constantly arguing with his brothers, sister and father as they make their journey to Jefferson to bury his mother Addie, and he nearly gets in a knife fight when they reach town. Because of his angry responses and bad language it can be hard to recognize the significant impact Jewel has on his family. Jewel is courageous and sacrifices for his family even if the other Bundrens do not acknowledge or honor him for his actions. Jewel may not the most balanced son in the world, but neither are his siblings, and he shows throughout the forty-mile trip to his mother’s hometown of Jefferson that he wants to honor his mother’s wishes. Addie wanted to be buried in Jefferson, and without Jewel this would not have happened. In terms of his actions, Jewel shows that he loved his mother the most out of all her children. Cora argues that Jewel is the worst of the Bundren children though Addie also treated him as her favorite:
Ah, love. Love is so often a theme in many a well-read novel. In the story, As I Lay Dying, one very important underlying theme is not simply love, but the power to love. Some of the characters have this ability; some can only talk about it. Perhaps more than anyone, Addie and Jewel have this power- one which Jewel, by saving his mother twice, merges with his power to act. As the Bible would have it, he does "not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth" (1 John 3:18).
Folklore speculation states that the hymn “Rock of Ages” was allegedly written following a sudden and severe thunderstorm, that the author, Augustus Montague Toplady witnessed while being forced to take shelter under a rocky cliff. Although this composition was completed in 1776, it remains to be a source of inspiration for a multitude of people today. Salvation is the prime ingredient to this poetically constructed song, Toplady systematically captures biblical translations that masterfully support his concepts. The message he artistically conveys is simple, without God, more importantly, without the sacrifice of Christ Jesus, the human soul cannot be salvaged. Therefore, only by the grace of God can we enter freely
spent on false teeth to him. "I never sent for you" Anse says "I take you to
Pierce, Constance. "Being, Knowing, and Saying in the "Addie" Section of Faulkner's As I Lay Dying." Twentieth Century Literature 26.3 (1980): 294-305. JSTOR. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
In the book As I Lay Dying the author, William Faulkner, writes about a family on a quest to bury their mother/wife, Addie. Darl, a narrator and son to the mother, ends up being put into an asylum by the end of their quest for trying to burn down a barn that housed the coffin carrying Addie. It is ironic that Darl ends up in an asylum since there are multiple clues within the text that address his sanity, though it is never stated.
Life then death, life after death, or life and death, and so on. These phrases represent the varying understandings throughout the world’s cultures of the relationship between life and death and its relationship to living creatures. Throughout, it is understood that all organisms spend time on earth in a specific form and after some time that form will wear away and the physical form of that being will die--the body will no longer function and can return to the earth and nutrients from which it came. However, the disagreement lies in whether or not there is a literal end to that organism’s existence, or its being, its spirit. Both a culture’s understanding of this relationship and historic influences, cause variations of cultural attitudes toward life and death.
Funeral Blues by W. H. Auden is a short poem that illustrates the emotions that he is dealing with after the love of his life passes away. The tone of this piece evokes feelings that will differ depending on the reader; therefore, the meaning of this poem is not in any way one-dimensional, resulting in inevitable ambiguity . In order to evoke emotion from his audience, Auden uses a series of different poetic devices to express the sadness and despair of losing a loved one. This poem isn’t necessarily about finding meaning or coming to some overwhelming realization, but rather about feeling emotions and understanding the pain that the speaker is experiencing. Through the use of poetic devices such as an elegy, hyperboles, imagery, metaphors, and alliterations as well as end-rhyme, Auden has created a powerful poem that accurately depicts the emotions a person will often feel when the love of their live has passed away.