1. Why does Faulkner use so many individual narrators? 2. What is gained by using so many separate narrators? 3. Why are many scenes narrated by people outside the Bundren Family? 4. Why does Jewel narrate only one short section? 5. Why does Vardaman confuse his mother with a fish? […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essays Faulkner’s Style and Imagery
Faulkner’s style in this novel varies according to the character who is narrating the section. The subtle variations in the style are one of the notable achievements of this novel. There is not a glaring and abrupt change from section to section; there is still the continuity of the same […]
Read more Critical Essays Faulkner’s Style and ImageryCritical Essays Darl and Addie Bundren: A General Interpretation
(The following is a condensation of the article “The Individual and the Family: Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying,” by James L. Roberts, which appeared in The Arizona Quarterly 16.1 (Spring 1960): 26-38, and is reprinted with permission.) One key to a basic interpretation [of As I Lay Dying] lies in […]
Read more Critical Essays Darl and Addie Bundren: A General InterpretationCritical Essays Addie Bundren and the Birth of Her Children
Addie Bundren’s attitude at the time of the birth of each of her children is reflected in the personality and actions of the child. Addie herself was born an isolated and lonely soul, openly unloved by her family and rather strongly affected by the nihilistic philosophy of her father, who […]
Read more Critical Essays Addie Bundren and the Birth of Her ChildrenWilliam Faulkner Biography
Among Faulkner’s total body of works, As I Lay Dying stands as a companion piece to The Sound and the Fury, the novel published the year preceding the publication of As I Lay Dying. The earlier novel is a criticism and condemnation of the so-called “aristocracy” of the South; the […]
Read more William Faulkner BiographyCharacter Analysis Vardaman
Vardaman’s age is never given in the novel. He is younger than Dewey Dell, who is seventeen. Most readers seem to think of Vardaman as being between twelve and fourteen, but other readers choose to view him as a much younger boy of six or seven. There is evidence to […]
Read more Character Analysis VardamanCharacter Analysis Dewey Dell
Dewey Dell, who was born to negate another child, approaches life negatively — that is, she refuses to assume any responsibility for her pregnancy or for her mother’s funeral. Because of her pregnancy, she is interested only in getting to the druggist in town. When something interrupts the journey, it […]
Read more Character Analysis Dewey DellCharacter Analysis Jewel
Jewel seems to have the most violent nature of all the Bundrens. However, Jewel is not a Bundren since his father was the preacher Whitfield. Jewel was conceived at a time when Addie was searching for some violent act that would give to her a sense of awareness. Her relations […]
Read more Character Analysis JewelCharacter Analysis Cash
Cash is the oldest son. He is the one whom Addie refers to when she says that she robbed Anse of one son. Cash was born at a time when his mother had just discovered that words are meaningless and that only through acts can people achieve an awareness of […]
Read more Character Analysis CashCharacter Analysis Anse Bundren
Once when he was very young, Anse got sick from too much heat. Ever since then he tells people that if he sweats he will die. Therefore, he uses this as an excuse for not having to do any work. Instead, he sits on the porch, uttering platitudes and thinking […]
Read more Character Analysis Anse Bundren