As I Lay Dying
William Faulkner was one of the greatest Southern writers of the twentieth century and all his novels are written about the South, especially As I Lay Dying. "In all of As I Lay Dying, Faulkner turned to extreme uses of the first-person narration; it is as if he saw the need to purge his work of his undeveloped omniscient instincts by eliminating his own voice entirely"(Bryfonski 9:199). This novel is about a family composed of a husband and five children traveling to Jefferson, Mississippi, to bury their wife and mother, Addie, beside her father. ". . .William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying is the story of the death and eventual burial of Addie Bundren, matriarch of the poor, farming, Southern Bundren family, and of the meaning of her death and burial journey to that family"(Wadlington fronticepiece). In As I Lay Dying, a journey to Jefferson, Mississippi takes place.
Addie, 1 day old
As I Lay Dying (novel)
Map drawn by William Faulkner for The Portable Fau...Addie Bundren told her family that when she dies she would like to be buried next to her father in Jefferson, Mississippi. So when Addie dies, her husband, Anse, and her five children, Cash, Darl, Jewel, Dewey Dell, and Vardaman, take this adventurous journey to Jefferson. The Bundren Family deals with many obstacles on their journey. They have to travel in the rain with a deadly odor of
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their wife and mother's decomposing body. They have to find other ways of crossing rivers, because the bridge collapsed. The Bundren family also has to deal with Dewey Dell, the sixteen year old, unmarried pregnant sister and daughter who is trying to find a way to have an abortion and the feelings and temperaments of each other. a In As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner reveals Addie's influence on Cash, Darl, and Jewel.
William Faulkner...