Analysis Of As I Lay Dying - 1086 Words

William Faulkner’s novel As I Lay Dying follows the Bundren family on their trek along the countryside to bury Addie, the matriarch of the family. Through Faulkner’s usage of internal monologue, each character reveals a different aspect of their personality. One of the most noticeably erratic viewpoints in the novel is that of the youngest Bundren, Vardaman, whose stream-of-consciousness is so volatile that it raises debates on whether or not he is suffering from psychological illnesses. Some argue against this fact, claiming that his irregular thoughts are due to his youth and inability to fully comprehend the situation happening around him. However, Vardaman’s sense of unreality when assigning human to animal relationships within the novel reveals signs of Neurotic Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Psychosis. Vardaman does suffer from other psychological issues besides being young. Vardaman exhibits signs of a Neurotic disorder called Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. The â€Å"Pure O,† or the obsession aspect of the disorder, is characterized by â€Å"recurring and distressing thoughts, fears, or images† (WebMD). A key component of Pure O is rumination, which involves dwelling about certain themes. For Vardaman, he is infatuated with the idea that Addie is a fish. He constantly dehumanizes Addie into a fish, which is seen in the bridge scene. When witnessing the fall of the coffin into the river, Vardaman does not describe the coffin falling but instead describes a fish that isShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of As I Lay Dying 1528 Words   |  7 Pagesfirst-person, second-person, and third-person point of views. Either of the foregoing points of views have different effect on the understanding and believability of the characters or the story being told, as is evident from O Pioneers! and As I Lay Dying novels. As I lay dying is a narrative by William Faulkner who uses multiple narrators and different techniques to convey a message from different points of view. Through the narratives of the fifteen different characters in the novel, it is important to understandRead MoreAnalysis Of As I Lay Dying 1682 Words   |  7 PagesProfession of Poverty As Robert Kennedy once said, â€Å"I believe that, as long as there is plenty, poverty is evil† (Kennedy). Money and wealth contribute to the image a person presents. In a world based on standards such as those, the wealthy will seem to be superior to the poor and that almost never ends in a positive way. William Faulkner, author of As I Lay Dying, was aware of the effects of poverty and took the opportunity to use his characters to depict poverty s effects. The novel takes placeRead MoreAnalysis Of As I Lay Dying 1204 Words   |  5 PagesBlake Huston Kelly Hoffer Interpretation of Literature October 19th, 2015 Dewey Dell’s Uncontrollable Fate In William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, the reader is encouraged to sympathize with Dewey Dell on account of her quickly waning life. We are given multiple circumstances in the book where Dewey Dell’s life is noticeably described in a negative way, not as a person, but rather how bad of a situation she is in. She is an impregnated seventeen-year-old girl who is unable to find proper treatmentRead MoreAnalysis Of As I Lay Dying1497 Words   |  6 PagesAs I Lay Dying, is a novel about the death of Addie Bundren and the events that follow to her burial. The story is told through fifteen different perspectives over the course of fifty-nine narrative chapters. William Faulkner gives the reader insight into what each character is thinking and their reactions to the events taking place. Each member of the Bundren family holds their own secrets that they keep from one another. These secrets eventually distance each member from one another over the durationRead MoreAnalys is Of As I Lay Dying1599 Words   |  7 Pages by William Faulkner, As I lay Dying, the Bundren family suffers the loss of Addie Bundren a beloved wife and mother. In honoring Addie’s last wish, the Bundrens make the trip to Jefferson to bury her with her relatives. During the trip every thing that could go wrong does. This story is told from plentiful points of view and reveals the completely unstable psychological state of the Bundren family. Through a psychoanalytical approach of William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, readers will see that FaulknerRead MoreAnalysis Of As I Lay Dying 1738 Words   |  7 PagesThe Impact of Silence As I Lay Dying, is a novel written by William Cuthbert Faulkner, where a poor southern family named the Burdens set off on a journey through 1920’s Mississippi to bury their recently deceased mother Addie Bundren. Before, Addie Bundren passes away she makes her husband Anse promise to bury her in her hometown of Jefferson, Mississippi. This is a large task as the Burden family is located in Yoknapatawhpha County, Mississippi and they must make the rough journey to give theirRead MoreAnalysis Of As I Lay Dying 944 Words   |  4 PagesFaulkner’s Description of Dewey Dell in As I Lay Dying William Faulkner’s phrasing, point of view, and grammar in his polyphonic novel, As I Lay Dying, strategically employs the miserably pessimistic yet juvenile voice of Dewey Dell to characterize her as the novel’s naà ¯ve victim. The only surviving female in the Bundren family, Faulkner presents the hardships that Dewey Dell must endure. In addition, as an uneducated gi rl with no guidance, Dewey Dell experiences an uncertainty in many issues thatRead MoreAnalysis Of Faulkner s As I Lay Dying 1441 Words   |  6 Pages In As I Lay Dying, with his unique and modern writing style, Faulkner and portrays the Bundrens’ struggle to deal with a death in the family. He shows how this dysfunctional family, caged in by societal norms and their individual emotional battle, ultimately falls into an abyss of unending hopelessness and despair. Throughout the Bundrens’ journey, Faulkner uses common archetypes in order to challenge his readers’ and society’s ingrained perceptions of families and suffering and to demonstrate howRead MoreAnalysis Of William Faulkners As I Lay Dying1840 Words   |  8 Pages â€Å"If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.† The psychology of humans can be expressed in two groups, stable or not. These two groups can be applied to a psychoanalytical approach of William Faulkner’s, As I lay Dying. In this story, the Bundren family suffers the loss of Addie Bundren a loved wife and mother. Anse and the rest of the family, honoring her last wish, make the trip to Jefferson to bury her with her relatives. During the trip every thing that couldRead MoreAnalysis Of William Faulkner s I Lay Dying 1486 Words   |  6 PagesOn the back of my edition of As I Lay Dying there is a quote from William Faulkner on the subject of his novel. The quote says: I set out deliberately to write a tour-de-force. Before I even put pen to paper and set down the first word I knew what the last word would be and almost where the last period would fall. The end result is a work of precision and care. Each word has been carefully chosen and carefully ordered to create his â€Å"tour-de-force†. This can be both a comfort and a frustration to