As I Lay DyingWilliam Faulkner
Overall:This book took some effort getting into. While I appreciate Faulkner’s attention to writing in the accent of his characters, there were passages I sometimes found it difficult to decode. There entire descriptions and narrations that were difficult to focus on and I would reread them just to get a gist of what was going on.
I did like the constant change in perspective. Faulkner takes the reader into the head of each of the characters to move the story along in a way that helps paint a picture of who they are. Seeing the same dialogue or events from each character’s perspective also allowed a deeper understanding of there relationships and motivations.
Overall, the story was interesting, but I found it difficult to really care for the various characters, just kept returning to the story out of morbid curiosity. It was like passing a car accident, no matter how annoying or mundane those people are in their normal lives, the accident or pain makes for a compelling moment. I guess that’s true of any story, but in this work I felt like that was really the driving force that kept me reading.
I will say the most interesting chapter was the one actually narrated by the dead mother. I thought that was really well done and tied together a lot of the plot and made the first half of the story really come into focus.
Symbols and Such:
When I told people I was reading this book a lot started referencing sexual innuendo and while I can see some. There was plenty of overt sexual references:
- Darl’s pseudo-masturbation and then wondering if his brother was too: “Then I would wait until they all went to sleep so I could lie with my shirt-tail up, hearing them asleep, feeling myself without touching myself, feeling the cool silence blowing upon my parts and wondering if Cash was yonder in the darkness doing it too, had been doing it perhaps for the last two years before I could have wanted to or could have.”
- Dewey Dell’s pregnancy, seeking an abortion, then being tricked into sex with the pharmacist while her youngest brother sat unknowing on the porch.
- Addie’s affair.
As for sexual symbolism, there is something Freudian and Oedipal about the youngest boy, Vardaman drilling holes into his mother’s coffin so that she could breath and then, most horrifically, boring holes into her face by accident. There is a sexual element to that, especially given the boy’s young age, but I’m not sure if it’s an intentional reference on Faulkner’s part or maybe just part of Vardaman’s denial of his mother’s death and view of her as a fish.
The symbol of the fish is interesting. It starts off with Vardaman bring a fish home and being told to clean it as his mother lies dying upstairs. He, seemingly unskilled at it, makes a massacre of it, and returns to the house covered in the fish’s vitriol and soon discovers his mother’s death. He now associates his mother with the fish, she is not dead as much as not reincarnated as a fish.
This fish symbol comes to life when the family is trying to ford the river and is overtaken by the rushing water and a log. The log, made of wood like the coffin, bobs and surges with the wave and seemingly attacks the wagon. Cash tries to keep the coffin in the wagon but eventually it falls into the water and Vardaman again calls out when he sees Darl doesn’t have her coffin “You knew she is a fish but you let her get away.”
I feel like I’m missing something here. I mean I can see the symbol is reoccurring so I know that this association between his mother and the fish is important but I’m just not sure what is being said.
Then there is the elemental fights that take place. Air: Fighting the wind and storm to get the doctor up to the farm. Water: The flooded rivers. Fire: The barn fire Darl sets to burn his mother’s coffin in hopes of freeing the family of all the burden of getting the body to Jefferson. Earth: Digging the grave, which seems to cause the meeting of Anse and the widow/spinster that will be his new wife.
Characters: Darl: Obviously Faulkner’s favorite, or at the very least the character chosen to be the omnipresent narrator through Addie’s death, narrating the events at the farmhouse while away on a delivery with Jewel. He’s the one seemingly most affectionate to Addie, and regarded by all the characters as the oddest. If nothing else his sections are the easiest to read, I think. I empathized with him for some of the story, but I felt I lost touch with him as the story went on, maybe that was intentional to show his descent into madness
Cash: He seems the most level headed of the entire bunch. Though he seems more concerned with production and his tools than with the other characters in the story. His main concern seems to be for doing what he sees is his duty and keeping his tools safe.
Jewel: What an asshole. His disregard for the other characters sets him apart, and the constant reference to his difference in demeanor and difference in appearance, and how he’s treated so differently from the rest of the brood, really lays the groundwork for Addie’s confession during her chapter. His obsession with his horse is all the more appropriate as he holds himself with a demeanor of pride that makes me easily associate him with a horse.
Dewey Del: She has a lot on her mind aside from her mother’s illness and eventual death. The fact that she’s pregnant out of wedlock and her fear of people finding out is the driving force behind most of her actions.
Vardaman: The twelve year-old brother and the one that seems to have a mental break at the beginning of the story after his mother’s death. His observance that “his mother is a fish, but Jewel’s mother is a horse” highlights Jewel’s illegitimacy.
Anse: He’s the most selfish character in the story I think. All he’s worrying about is getting his new teeth and feeling sorry for himself. He’s a good-for-nothing. I don’t like him.
Addie: Perhaps the most interesting character in the entire story, and she’s dead for the better part of it. I think the placement of her chapter narrating her history, her affair, and her request to be buried in Jefferson is perfectly placed and makes the toil at the beginning of the story almost as an attack on society’s treatment of women during this time period. There is a very strong feminist current I think, at least as it pertains to the criticism of marriage and motherhood as a form of slavery.
Cora: She serves as a good foil for Addie during Addie’s chapter.
Tull: He is a good foil for Anse. Highlighting Anse’s undesirable qualities.
Whitfield: His chapter was amusing and gave good closure to Addie’s. He’s obviously a terribly hypocrite, making the journey more for his own guilty conscience than anything else. Still when he discovers Addie’s died without saying anything and then heads home, you realize it was more about him saving face than clearing his conscience.
Samson: An observer.
Peabody: I don’t particularly see the point of his chapter except to highlight the family’s interactions and Anse’s unluckiness.
Most Related To Character:
I had trouble finding a character to relate to. While I appreciated the clear and omnipresent narration the Darl had throughout the first three-quarters of the story, I lost my empathy for him about halfway through the novel, as they are working to get Cash’s tools out of the river. Towards the end, I empathized more with Dewey Dell but I still wouldn’t say I related to her. I wonder if this might not have been intentional on Faulkner’s part, creating such a tapestry of personalities so as to view the tragic events of the story (seriously tragic when you stop to think about some of the events).
