As I Lay Dying

by
William Faulkner
 Faulkner’s Biography
• Born William Cuthber Faulkner in 1897
• Moved to Oxford, MS at age of 5
• Initially published book of poetry in 1924
• Published 3 novels to little fanfare
– Soldiers’ Pay, 1926
– Mosquitoes, 1927
– Sartoris, 1929
• Married divorcee Estelle Oldham in 1929
– 2 daughters + Estelle’s 2 children
– Unhappy union
• Early novels garnered critical praise but no
commercial success
– The Sound and the Fury, 1929
– As I Lay Dying, 1930
• Worked as writer of fiction and Hollywood
screenplays for remainder of life.
• 1946 publication of The Portable Faulkner
aided reputation and commercial
acceptance
• 1949 Nobel Prize for Literature
• 1954 Pulitzer Prize for Literature
• Died of heart attack in 1962
 Historical Context
• 1920s farm life a constant struggle for
survival
– Typical farmer’s income = $100.00/year
– Lien System
– Depression in cotton market
– Flooding of 1920s
• Conditions of working class brought
“revolt of the rednecks” (James K.
Vardaman)
 Style
• Setting
– 1928 Mississippi
– Bundren family = poor cotton farmers
• Travel far to bury matriarch
• No modern farm equipment
• Country folk versus Town Folk
• Point of View
– 59 chapters, 15 narrators
• Individual peculiarities
• Social and religious environment
• Form of character study
– Reader witnesses events + characters’ perceptions
• Stream of Consciousness
– Reproduces characters’ thought processes
– May reveal confusion and/or distress
– No objective narrator
– Normally restricted to the Bundren family
• Darl
• Vardaman
• Dark Humor
– Character perceptions = humor
– Character faults = humor
– Understatement = humor
• Modernism
– T. S. Eliot
– James Joyce
 Themes
• Women and Femininity: What is a woman’s role
in the 1920s?
• Duty: Is it a required act or a moral obligation?
• Family: Is it a source of joy or pain?
• Mortality: Is dying a reward or punishment?
• Poverty: What are the +/- of being poor?
• Religion: Is God benevolent or just?
• Suffering: How much is too much? What is the
effect?
• Versions of Reality: What is real, and what is an
illusion?
 Characters
• The Bundren Family
– Addie
• Matriarch
• Former schoolteacher
– Anse
• Patriarch
• Selfish and lazy
– Cash
• oldest son
• rational
– Darl
• Second oldest son
• WW I veteran
• Narrates story the most
• Telepathic
• Feels rejected by mother
– Dewey Dell
• Only daughter
• Feels rejected by mother
– Jewel
• Third son
• Addie’s favorite
• Product of affair with Reverend Whitfield
• Prized possession = horse
– Vardaman
• Youngest child
• Simple
• Unable to understand mother’s death
• Additional Characters
– * Armistid – local farmer
– Gillespie - farmer
– * Skeet MacGowan – drugstore clerk in Jefferson
– * Moseley – drugstore owner in Mottson
– * Dr. Peabody – tends to Addie on her deathbed
– * Samson - farmer
– Rachel Samson - wife who makes a connection
– * Cora Tull – judgmental neighbor
– * Vernon Tull – closest neighbor
– * Reverend Whitfield – Jewel’s father
* = narrator