As I Lay Dying - Blog 1

                In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, the Bundrens are a poor family preparing for the death of the mother, Addie. She is already on her deathbed at the start of the novel, being attended to by her daughter, Dewey Dell, and her neighbors Vernon and Cora Tull. On the bed, Addie watches her oldest son, Cash, build her own coffin. In addition to demanding a homemade coffin, Addie made her husband, Anse, promise to bury her across the state in Jefferson. This journey across Mississippi will be the major obstacle throughout the novel. Anse is a helpless and lazy man – he says he will die if he sweats from working too hard – who agreed to send his sons to town in order to earn three dollars instead of staying with their dying mother. The sons are named Darl and Jewel and they are not very fond of each other. Jewel is hotheaded and stubborn while Darl seems like the most logical person in the family. Darl even knows he will miss his mother’s death by going to town for three dollars, but he brings Jewel along to help him load the wagon anyway. Vardaman is the youngest son and he does not seem able to understand what is happening to his mother. The Bundren family is highly dysfunctional; making the journey to Jefferson will be difficult with all of the different personalities.

The point of view is central to the development of the plot. There are numerous narrators throughout the novel; the perspective changes every chapter. Since no character is completely unbiased, Faulkner gives the reader the task of separating true events from embellishments. Also, the entire novel uses stream of consciousness, meaning the narrator simply pours whatever is going on in his/her mind onto the page. This leads to many random and scattered thoughts, which makes the novel very confusing. For example, after Anse asks Darl, “Where’s Jewel?” Darl muses for nearly a page about drinking water from a cedar bucket before answering Anse. Stream of consciousness is a challenging point of view for a novel to be in. Another example is a chapter narrated by Dewey Dell. At first, she is talking about cotton picking with her boyfriend Lafe, when she subtly begins talking about losing her virginity to Lafe and becoming pregnant. It is obvious she is distraught by her pregnancy, but the only other people who know are Lafe and Darl. Darl did not even have to say anything for Dewey Dell to know that Darl knew. Since the Bundrens are poor, they are uneducated, which makes many passages nearly incomprehensible.

However, this unique point of view gives the reader the most insight into what each character is truly thinking and feeling. Jewel is the only Bundren who disapproves of Cash building the coffin right in front of Addie. Jewel dislikes Cash for being a show off and wishes he could be alone with his mother alone for her final days. This temporary insight into Jewel’s thoughts enhances the meaning of the story because it seems that Jewel is the only Bundren who actually cares about his mother’s feelings. Everyone else simply follows what she says or what they think she wants them to do. Anse almost seems eager for Addie to die so he can finally go to town and get new teeth.

Even though this story may seem a simple journey from one point to another, Faulkner makes it original through the point of view. Although it is difficult to read, switching narrators every chapter allows the greatest possible insight into all of the characters’ minds.