As I Lay Dying Literary Analysis

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William Faulkner’s 1930 novel, As I Lay Dying, tells the story of a mother’s death and the different grievances her family members go through along their journey to get her buried in Jefferson. Faulkner’s use of narration, point of view, tone, tense, and dictation are all major points that make this novel one of the American classics. As I Lay Dying revolves around the preparations for the actual journey from the Bundren farm (point A) to a town forty miles away (Jefferson, point B) in order to bury Addie Bundren. Throughout the journey, several difficulties are encountered. So, technically one could view the structure of the novel as having a linear story line based upon the movement of the funeral procession traversing the forty miles from…show more content…
Poverty is a major theme in As I Lay Dying, but to miss your mother’s funeral for only three dollars just because they are always short on cash? That’s both ironic and selfish, and also almost defeats the purpose of taking the journey to Jefferson, which again…was to bury Addie Bundren, not to make some quick cash. It’s the novels grotesqueness and incompetent characters that turn tragic moments into such rather funny…show more content…
He is the most concerned even though his methods seem a little cruel, or sadistic such as taking pride in building Addie’s coffin, yet building it right beside her window where she can see it. In the end he takes the most reliable narrator position from Darl after he snaps, and is committed to the insane asylum. He is the only Bundren child with a known job, and ironically as such they call him “Cash”. He even decides to put himself through the pain of completing the journey to bury his mother despite breaking his leg. His broken leg is ironic because it puts him in great pain and at the time something like an unattended broken leg could lead to infection and ultimately his own death, but he carries on for his mother’s

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