As I Lay Dying: Styles Used By William Faulkner

As I Lay Dying: Styles Used By William Faulkner

-Darl's Section (p.128)

Most authors have certain styles that result in bringing across certain

ideas. In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner uses a subtle and discreet narrative

manner to bring forth important pieces of information that adds to the story,

and important themes. In one of the chapters narrated by Darl, this is shown

very well In this chapter Darl uses a flashback to let us get a more in-depth

look at the Bundren family; to let us see why it is so "dysfunctional." In this

chapter we learn more about the relationships within the family, and more about

Addie, about whom we previously have not learned much. We see how keen Darl's

sense of intuition is, and we learn an important family secret.

Darl is often used as an objective speaker, although he is indeed

involved with the situation he is speaking about. In this chapter he recalls

Jewel's purchase of his horse. This is a strong clue that Jewel is not Anse's

son, since Anse is extremely lazy and would never work as hard as Jewel did for

a horse. We also see the tension between Anse and Jewel. We see the lack of

respect Jewel has for Anse. It is rather ironic when Anse says "He's just lazy,

trying me" (p. 129) Since Jewel has been working really hard, and it is Anse who

is lazy. Furthering on Jewel and Anse's relationship, I feel that it is fairly

evident that Jewel knows that Anse is not his father. This is illustrated in the

following section on page 136: "Jewel looked at Pa, his eyes paler than ever.

'He won't never eat a mouthful of yours' he said. 'Not a mouthful. I'll kill him

first. Don't you never think it. Don't you never.' "The antagonism Jewel holds

toward Anse is enormous, and this scene intensifies it showing that Jewel knows

the truth or at least has a fair idea. We also see that Darl knows, and how he

knows. At the end of the chapter, he sees his mother crying over Jewel when he

is sleeping. He could see her anguish and almost feel it. His empathy and

intuition led him to discovering the truth, and he also confirms his knowledge

of Dewey Dell's pregnancy. We see the strength of his intuition and how it

affects the rest of the family. The fact that Darl knows probably heightens the

rivalry between the two brothers.

In this chapter we see the way the family was before Addie's death and