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William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying

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The novel, As I Lay Dying, has many conflicts. Choose one conflict in the novel and, in a well-developed essay, explore the sources of the conflict and how it contributes to the meaning of the novel as a whole.

It is not the destination that matters, but the journey itself, as the proverb goes. As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner explores the hectic journey of the Bundrens as they seek to bury their mother, and valuable lessons are learned along the way. The origins of their journey lead the family to understand that while each person has a different personality and some personalities cooperate better than others, such a relationship cannot be forced. In this case, death is the catalyst which forces the family to embark on their tumultuous …show more content…
This is what happens to the Bundren family, as Addie’s death causes the family to join together in a manner unknown to them, so that Addie’s final wishes may be granted. From the start, they quickly see that hot-headed members like Jewel do not cooperate well with mysterious, occasionally rude characters like Darl, who antagonizes Jewel. Their friction is not the only source of heat in the book, as other characters’ foibles, like Anse’s laziness, do not mesh well with the needs of the family. An uneasy truce is formed as the family begins the journey after the mother’s death, when they slowly learn that cooperation cannot be forced, particularly when people are totally …show more content…
William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying makes this apparent with the trials and tribulations of the Bundren family on their journey to bury their mother. Every family member has a different personality that conflicts with others’, and throughout the novel these differences explode into full-fledged disasters or obstacles. From a broken leg, to a burned barn, or even a dead fish, the members of the Bundren family recognize their diversity as it bites them in the face. Instead of attempting a homogenous mixture, Faulkner suggests through his book that we seek to utilize our differences to

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