...Unfaithful Family In the novel As I Lay Dying William Faulkner creates an intense picture of betrayal within one family's struggle with death. Through his depiction of each character's betrayal, Faulkner writes a story entwined with the relationships of characters and their own emotions following Addie's death. Little to no communication produces intense barriers of resentment between family members. Individual needs top familial duties, though these selfish actions are disguised with the pretense of devotion. Faulkner highlights this family's corrupted nature to represent the cruel nature of man, and the irony of each character's treachery leading to their demise. Addie Bundren’s betrayal of Anse, her husband, is the cause for...
Words: 607 - Pages: 3
...Robert Bohannon Mrs. Godwin Theme analysis 3RD 2-1-12 In the story As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner, the charter Anes Bundren, is very important individual throughout the story. The Bundrens are going through a tragedy which they all deal with the situation in their own way. Anes is a poor excuse for a husband towards his wife, Addie, and does not care about the responsibilities with his children. Throughout the story As I Lay Dying, it explained that Anes is a selfish, a lazy greedy man. Anse is a very selfish man. He uses the excuse of fulfilling his promise to Addie just to get to Jefferson for himself.Anse mainly ventured there to obtain false teeth. The typical husband would put dental problems lower on their priority list than any family problems. He does not even think to help Cash as he makes the coffin in the rain but merely stands in the way. At this time he also acquires a raincoat for himself and not for Cash (Faulkner 71-72). He shows his self-ways when he re-marries to a woman in Jefferson (As I Lay Dying PaRA.7). The worst part about Anse marrying another woman is that she was the woman he borrowed the shovels from. His selfish ways bring him a long way in what he believes is great fortunes. Anse may also be put in the category as lazy. An example that shows that he is lazy is when his son, Vardaman, catches a fish and he refuse to help him do anything to the fish with him (Faulkner, p.53-54). Even though he is not Vardamn’s fater, Tull shows him...
Words: 673 - Pages: 3
...agrees to represent him in court and aids in the process of saving Lucas. After Lucas is proven innocent, Gavin refuses payment for his services as recompense for not believing in his innocence. Gavin Stevens also acted as a voice for Faulkner’s views against the discrimination of African Americans. Another southern gentleman, Sheriff Hope Hampton, presumes Lucas is guilty. However, Hampton offers to help Lucas in the name of the law. He even went as far as hiding Lucas in his own home to protect him. Hampton is the catalyst for the capture of the murderer and hatches a scheme to catch the perpetrator who turns out to be Crawford, the man trying to frame and lynch Lucas. Despite the many ups and downs of this murder mystery, the allegorical theme of Intruder in the dust deals with racism in the south. After Lucas is exonerated, Chick and Gavin have a conversation remarking on the dissipation of the angry crowd (191). They remark that the crowd ran home because “ They reached a point where there was nothing left for them to do but admit that they were wrong. So they ran home.”(192). They speak of how the townspeople will now have to pay Lucas back with cans of tobacco for the rest of his life whether he wants them or not (194). They will repay him not because they hurt him, but because they were wrong and the abuse Lucas suffered is now resting on their conscience (194). Faulkner relates this to the early nineteenth century south. He believes that the south should repay all of the...
Words: 1668 - Pages: 7
...Within As I Lay Dying, William Faulkner illustrates different process of accepting the concept of life and death of a maternal figure within a rural setting. As I Lay Dying writes of a scenario in which Addie Bundren never stops working throughout her entire life and then one day she seems to grow tired and chooses to rest for the first time in her life. The Bundren children all have a large amount of varying reactions towards her death and her life before her death. Cash Bundren works to complete the coffin before his mother’s death, and after her death, a Vardaman Bundren does not agree with his mother being in the coffin which leads him to bore holes in the lid of her coffin. Darl and Jewel are both alerted at their return home of their...
Words: 1587 - Pages: 7
...The Point and View of Dying A short story gives the reader an opportunity to experience a work of literature in a short amount of time. This also leaves the author with less runway to get their key message and points across in their story. There are many different literary concepts or elements that an author may use based on the type of story they are telling. Point of view is one concept that can influence how a story is perceived by the reader based on who is telling the story. First person point of view implies the author is the one narrating the story; while third person point of view implies the narrator is an observer or external narrator (Shakel and Ridl 146-147). This is a high-level explanation of point of view, but gives a base...
Words: 1727 - Pages: 7
...In the novel, As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner there is an underlying theme. Faulkner uses diction, characterization, and point of view to mock religion throughout the novel. He worded his sentences very carefully and it helped greatly to hint at just what he thought about religion. Faulkner’s use of these literary devices not only mocked religion, but also gave us a bit of insight into his views on religious people and their approach on life. Faulkner is able to start the mocking of religion with his use of specific diction. The characters in the novel are shown to be people who use religion and God to give authority to their own opinions. For example, Mr. Tull says that the Lord did not want him to spend so much time thinking to rationalize...
Words: 684 - Pages: 3
...The well known American Author William Faulkner was born on September 25, 1897 in the city of New Albany, Mississippi. This remarkable writer, became famous for his writings inspired on the American South: In center Yoknapatawpha County. Top novels he had written at the time included: The Sound and the Fury, As I lay dying and Absalom, Absalom!, Sanctuary, and The Story of Temple Drake. His story Sanctuary was controversial, it was written in 1931. His story of Temple Drake was made as one of his projects. He was awarded in 1949, he received a Nobel Prize in Literature, and even was awarded two in each Pulitzers and National Books Awards. Throughout his life, he worked as a railroad financier, politician, soldier, farmer, businessman, lawyer,...
Words: 555 - Pages: 3
...between an enemy. [I don't know as i WOULD CALL IT A GUN BRAWL]] With shots exchanged between the two, the sniper takes the life of the enemy, and just momentarily he feels a wave of guilt and grief. The sniper decides to reveal the identity of the fallen soldier only to find himself with the face of his brother. Just like the protagonist, people find themselves in difficult situations that make them regretful due to their actions. This short story brings the audience to understand the magnitude that mistakes can have on a person, leaving them with sorrow and regret.[ok, but you still need to do a...
Words: 717 - Pages: 3
...Emily Dickinson had many tragic life experiences that influenced her poetry and caused her to write on the theme of death. Dickenson’s life was filled with multiple tragic deaths, which caused her to spend half of her life in sorrow. She experienced many deaths of people close to her, in which influenced her writing as a major reoccurring theme. Although Emily Dickinson wrote about death, she often times wrote about it in very odd ways such as death being eternal but also death as a state of life and this can be seen in her poems, “Because I could not stop for Death”, “I heard a Fly buzz”, and “I died for Beauty. Emily Dickinson writes the majority of her poetry during a period of stress because of the Civil War, which also influenced the depressing yet unique way of her poems. Her poem, “Because I could not stop for Death”, is an ironic allegory in which death is portrayed as a gentleman. In the first line she writes, “Because I could not stop for death/ He kindly stopped for me” (1-2) meaning that she is coming to meet death on his own terms. Usually death is shown as being unavoidable and all around evil, but Dickinson describes her carriage ride as, “I had put away/ My labor and my leisure too/ For His Civility,” (6-8). She describes death as being civil meaning that death was courteous and polite. The way that Dickinson capitalizes “His” gives that line a possible religious context as well because when writing about God, His name is always capitalized. The next line speaks...
Words: 1989 - Pages: 8
...William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying breaks the facticity of literary convention by constructing a storyline that asserts a conflict in the reader rather than predominately within the characters. The basic conflict that sets forth thematic conflict of the distinction of facts and truth within the nature of the mind is of a Southern decaying family’s attempt to bring their mother home for burial. Faulkner narrates each character’s singular point of view to show the result of the multitude of subjective interpretations as each character deals with their emotions engendered by the events. The reader is unsure as to which imitated perspective is objective towards the truth. Faulkner’s narration of imitating events from a different stand point develops an arguing conflict of what is thought to be an established nature of mind. As I Lay Dying is a conflict of the conceptual idea of truth. It can be interpreted that the conflict of the narrative is a conflict of our beings – whether or not there is such a thing as unprejudiced truth. Within the beginning narratives, the characters reveal their corruptions that will obscure their interpretations: including adultery, pregnancy, abortion, hatred, and insanity. Using multiple views promotes the isolation each family member’s internal conflicts in relation to their response to their mother’s death, relationships, and own seemingly selfish concerns. The reader begins to see the instability of their isolation when the Faulkner establishes...
Words: 1469 - Pages: 6
...This article, reviewing ‘Step Motherfucker’, gives insight into Ekblad’s methods of experimenting with materiality to understand her visceral artworks and discuss the works descriptively, so the reader can experience the effect of the exhibition. Davies analyses three key works to extract overarching themes – which include femininity and ephemeral identity. The article provides a useful evaluation on the material Ekblad utilizes to add meaning to her artworks. Ekblad collects items from the street and households – particularly for the title piece. ‘Step Motherfucker’ is a woman figure assembled from welded metal, teapots and other items on a painting acting as a carpet. Using these materials, notions of female gender are questioned. Whereas,...
Words: 315 - Pages: 2
...------------------------------------------------- William Faulkner William Faulkner (September 25, 1897 – July 6, 1962) was a Nobel Prize-winning American author. One of the most influential writers of the20th century, his reputation is based on his novels, novellas and short stories. He was also a published poet and an occasional screenwriter. Most of Faulkner's works are set in his native state of Mississippi. He is considered one of the most important Southern writers along withMark Twain, Robert Penn Warren, Flannery O'Connor, Truman Capote, Eudora Welty, and Tennessee Williams. While his work was published regularly starting in the mid 1920s, Faulkner was relatively unknown before receiving the 1949 Nobel Prize in Literature. Since then, he has often been cited as one of the most important writers in the history of American literature. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Biography Born William Cuthbert Falkner in New Albany, Mississippi, he was the eldest son of Murry Cuthbert Falkner (August 17, 1870 – August 7, 1932) and Maud Butler (November 27, 1871 – October 16, 1960). He later changed the spelling of his name to Faulkner. His brothers were Murry Charles "Jack" Falkner (June 26, 1899 – December 24, 1975), author John Falkner (later Faulkner) (September 24, 1901 – March 28, 1963) and Dean Swift Falkner (August 15, 1907 – November 10, 1935). Faulkner was raised in and heavily influenced by the state...
Words: 2731 - Pages: 11
...shows his loving and caring nature by drawing people to his congregation through his sacrifice. Hooper is making sacrifices within his community to attract more followers to the religion within the small town of Milford as he is trying to get them more interested in religion due to the veil which shows his kind nature as he is also his goal being to attract more of the community to religion. The black veil benefits Mr. Hooper in the way it allows him to become a more efficient clergyman, gaining many converts who feel that they too are behind the black veil with him. Dying sinners call out for him alone. Mr. Hooper lives his life thus, though he is promoted to Father, until his death bed. According to the text, "All through life the black veil had hung between him and the world: it had separated him from cheerful brotherhood and woman's love, and kept him in that saddest of all prisons, his own heart; and still it lay upon his face, as if to deepen the gloom of his darksome chamber, and shade him from the sunshine of eternity"...
Words: 1395 - Pages: 6
...I Have No Mouth, and I must Scream is a story about a supreme computer essentially designed by humans to fight wars. This, however, backfired on the humans. They had made this computer into an all knowing, all powerful, and all being thing. Something like a god, according to the five humans in the story. This mastermind computer, completely abolished human kind, keeping only five alive for over a hundred years just for its own amusement. AM does sadistic and revengeful things to these five humans. Ted, the narrator of the story, thoroughly describes the events that take place in the story. He tells that the five survivors, including himself, been trapped for over a hundred years. They were kept alive but for all five of them dying would've been a better option. Am kept them alive just to torment them. Throughout the story Ted and the other four humans, Benny, Nimdok, Ellen, and Gorrister decide to travel to some ice caves where they think they'll find something to eat. They go through a lot of hardships in their journey. AM tortures them and for it, it's all just a never ending game. In the end, they all end up killing each other and Ted is the last one alive. AM was furious, however, he couldn’t do anything about it. He couldn’t revive them. This made him take out all his anger on Ted, converting him into a big chunk of jelly. This, it did so that Ted wouldn’t try and kill himself in any way possible. One theme that I found to be relevant in the story is "Desperation...
Words: 908 - Pages: 4
...man. The society that these men lived in was one of a warrior; there was no greater honor than to defend your homeland even if it meant dying. “Your cup stands filled, always, brimmed like mine when the will stirs you to drink—so now drink deep of battle.” (4.299-301) In these lines King Agamemnon is praising one of his soldiers, Idomeneus. Going to war and fighting to the death was a trait that the Greek held in high regard. Only women and very young children did not fight in the wars, it was the duty of the men. In later lines, Agamemnon calls out the cowards in the ranks. This public disgrace further shows the importance of wartime to the image of masculinity. “Why are you cowering here, sulking out of range? Waiting for others to do your fighting for you? You—it’s your duty to stand in the front ranks and take your share of the scorching blaze of battle.” (4.394-97) Part of Achilles’ internal battle stemmed from this definition of masculinity. If you are a man you are willing to die for the cause, if you sit back you may live longer but there will be dishonor to your name. Achilles knew from early on that if he fought in the war he would not live to go home. “…two fates bear me on to the day of death. If o hold out here and I lay siege to Troy, my journey home is gone, but my gliry never dies. If I voyage back to the fatherland I love, my pride, my glory dies…” (9.499-503) Achilles faced a hard decision with multiple consequences. If he were to stay and fit he would...
Words: 490 - Pages: 2
