What to look for...
On Tuesday we flipped through the book and then read the first chapter of As I Lay Dying together. We looked at the style, the narration, the motifs, the imagery, and the themes in those first 2+ pages. Here are some of the observations, thoughts, and questions from the first day...
* What effect do the multiple narrators have on your of what happens and what it means? (How does the multiple narrator technique affect your experience while reading? How does it affect your sense of the novel's meaning--or meanings?)
* What effect do motifs and images have on your experience and understanding of the novel? Think about Jewel/gold. Think about Jewel-as-wood and the wooden coffin. Think about horses. Notice anything that is repeated. Notice anything that resembles anything else or that contrast with anything else. Patterns--or as my daughter says, "pattrens"--are often a tool for suggesting meaning. But you already know that.
* What is the relationship between the way the narrators use language and the way they view themselves, others, and existence itself? (Do characters whose identities are in crisis use language differently from the characters with stable identities?)
* What is the relationship between individual identity (i.e. who one is to oneself) and family identity (i.e. who one is to one's family) in the novel? Characterize the relationships between the various characters in the story. (Think, for example, of Darl walking around the house and Jewel walking through the house in the first chapter.) What effect do they have on each other? The interrelationships are quite complex, I think.
* What does the journey reveal about individuals? What does the journey reveal about the family?
* Is existence absurd or does existence make sense? If existence is absurd should we strive to make our own sense? What do the characters suggest? What does the novel as a whole suggest? What characters seem to have existential crises? What characters are secure in their identities? What techniques does Faulkner use to let us know?
* Do the characters in the story seem realistic or are they exaggerated "grotesques"? (One could ask the same question about the events of the story.)
* Is the novel a dark comedy (or modern tragicomedy)? a modern tragedy? Do you find yourself seeing the pathos in their situation or the humor?
What to do...
After you read each chunk of As I Lay Dying (or perhaps before reading the next chunk) write some notes in response to the reading. Each observation and each idea would be, perhaps, twitter-like or textish in length.) ["Twitter" and "textish" see how technology yields neologisms.] I don't know exactly what to expect, but I think it would be reasonable to expect that if you post three times each post will contain at least five observations with a short idea and/or question about each observation.
Here are ideas about what to do (the last is most important)...
* Point out passages that relate to the italicized phrases above. Quote the passages (or part of them) and indicate the page number.
* Briefly suggest what might be significant about the passage (especially in relation to the italicized phrases above.
* Write a personal response about a passage (indicate the passage) & be sure to keep the-book-as-a-whole in mind. (In other words, rant about how an author is using a character but not about how much you dislike the character--unless you also talk about how the author is using the character.) Let's read with our hearts and our heads. As John Gardner says, and I think he's right, we need both.
* Respond briefly to what peers have noticed and what they have said.
* Simply: What do you notice? What do you think about it?
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62 comments:
(everything I wrote just got deleted so I'll see if I can remember what I said)
(I've read up to p.57)
I know that there are many narrators in AILD, but somehow I feel like Darl is the protagonist. Does anyone else feel like this? I guess I feel this way because I feel like a modern protagonist is usually the one who's most observant. This isn't always the case but I think that this is one type of protagonist. It would be interesting to hear if someone decided that someone else was the main character. I think I might have also gotten the idea that Darl is the protagonist because he seems to narrate the most.
Did anyone else go "What!?" after reading the Darl chapter on page 47? I feel like in this chapter, an omniscient, third person narrator emerges. This person narrates most of the chapter except the parts in italics where Darl narrates. This is just a guess, but it's the best explanation I can come up with for this chapter. I don't know if this happens again anywhere else but does anyone else have any ideas on this chapter or why Faulkner decided to write it this way?
I really liked the line, "With the rope they will haul him up the path, balloon-like up the sulphurous air" in the Darl chapter(40). It is such an evocative image. I think that Darl is a very interesting character. There's something wonderfully strange about him that I can't quite put my finger on. He seems to describe things with beautiful language but he never seems to blantantly reveal any emotions. Any emotions he may have are revealed through his descriptions of scenes. For example on page 40, "The sun...is poised like a bloody egg upon a crest of thunderheads..." This is around the time that Addie is dying and Darl knows it and is away hauling logs. The only thing he says about it is to Jewel, "do you know that Addie Bundren is going to die? Addie Bundren is going to die?" And why does he call her Addie Bundren? I'm pretty sure she's his mom. He seems very detached from people.
Did anyone else seem to see a discrepancy between what Cora says about Darl leaving his dying mother to haul logs versus what Darl says happens? Cora wasn't there when Darl left but she says that Mr.Tull (her husband?) told her that "...Darl asked them [Jewel and Anse] to wait. He said Darl almost begged them on his knees not to force him to leave her in her condition" (22). She also says that it was Anse that "was driving him [Darl] from his mother's death bed..." (21). When Darl narrates, he keeps reminding Anse that the trip to town "means three dollars" (17+18)Pa says, "But if she don't last until you get back...She will be disappointed" (17). He seems reluctant to let them go because Addie is dying.
I found Vardaman's narration interesting because it is very different from Stephen's narration when he is little in POTA. In POTA, Joyce uses only language that Stephen would use at that age. Faulkner seems to use a mixture of childish language and adult language. For example "Then I can breathe again, in the warm smelling" (54) versus "It is as though the dark were resolving him out of his integrity, into an unrelated scattering of components..." (56). The one thing that seems cohesive about Vardaman's narration is that is very stream of conscious. I think Vardaman is an important narrator because he offers these sensations of raw feeling and physicality like "The life in him runs under the skin, under my hand, running through the splotches, smelling up into my nose where the sickness is beginning to cry, vomiting the crying, and then I can breathe, vomiting it." Vardaman is the only narrator who expresses this really raw expression of grief and emotion.
(Sorry this wound up being much longer than text or twitter length)
I can't wait to hear what everyone else has to say :)
follow the eyes (with Addie’s-especially their relationship to lightness) :
8- “Her eyes are like two candles when you watch them gutter down into the sockets of iron candle-sticks”,
45-“Her eyes look like lamps blaring up just before the oil is gone…..I can feel her eyes. It’s like she was shoving at me with them.”
47-“For a while yet she looks at him, without reproach, without anything at all, as if her eyes alone are listening to the irrevocable cessation of his voice,”
48-“She looks at Vardaman; her eyes, the life in them, rushing suddenly upon them; the two flames glare up for a steady instant. Then they go out as though someone had leaned down and blown upon them.”
I thought there was one more about her lifeless eyes, but I forgot to mark it. look out for it!
(Vardaman is usually described with “round” eyes(47, 49,70, and more I believe), and Jewel usually with “pale” eyes like “wood.” (4, 17, 18, more?) I haven’t noticed anyone else’s – you should look for them!)
so i just read the blog directions...and i makes a little bit of sense that i should make some kind of conjecture about why those quotes were significant...but just as a side note...there is no way this would fit in a text message
this isn’t as long as it looks. really.
p. 8 This is when Addie’s condition is still “unkown” to the reader…we don’t know her relationship to anyone really yet (except what we read off the back cover…), and it seems pretty self explanatory of her appearance, but the significance is that this particular observation comes from Cora, a member outside of the family.
p. 45 This is also by a member outside of the family, Peabody, and his remark is that he has “seen this before” in women, and her eyes are like “lamps”. It is curious that Cora saw them as “guttering” candles- primitive givers of light that are failing, while Peabody sees them as “blaring”, more civilized givers of light, but only made more spectacular by their imminent demise. I don’t know what this means yet, but I will.
p. 47 and 48, This is Darl speaking. I am SO CURIOUS about what is going on with Darl, because he’s narrating all of these things but supposedly is not home because he’s earning $3 with Jewel somewhere…anyways. Darl’s language is always so eloquent and sensitive, it’s like he’s aware that her eyes are so much more than just candles or lamps, but that they hold life, and are capable of conveying something that much more important.
Jewel being wooden – This came up in class that first day, and it’s been pretty obvious thus far. The wood coffin, the way Addie treasured Jewel in a special way. But somehow he’s come out wooden instead of shiny and bright.
Vardaman having round eyes – From what I’ve gathered, Vardaman is the youngest Bundren. He takes his mother’s death very hard and can’t accept it (and convinces himself that the fish he caught and killed is what they’re going to bury in the coffin, not his mother). His round eyes are curious and take in a lot, but they are not the WIDE eyes that are usually associated with childish innocence. I think this indicates that Vardaman is not your average grief-ridden youth, but will react in some way that is unexpected.
****Also, for anyone who hasn’t read too far yet, I hope you would track the mentioning of “nails”. One passage in particular caught my attention: p. 72-73, Tull is talking about “driving the last nail” of the JOURNEY to the Bundren’s house to help in Addie’s death, bust also this is a play on the nails that will be later driven into Addie’s coffin. I have no idea if there were other times when nails were mentioned and/or were significant, but someone should watch for them!
Allie I definitely agree that we seem to hear Darl’s voice the most thus far. Also, he is observant, but he is not the only one. For example, Cora’s passage (pages 21-25) reveals a lot of external observation. At the end, referring to Darl she states, “He just stood and looked at his dying mother, his heart too full for words” (pg 25). This passage shows both that Darl has some complex emotions going on, but also that Cora recognizes them.
I find it interesting to read various perspectives on events throughout the novel. One passage in particular caught my attention. Darl states “[the voices speak] out of the air about your head” (pg 20). I thought that it was interesting that Faulkner wrote this line because since he has employed multiple narrators, we are able to empathize with each character. Therefore, while reading it feels as if there are multiple voices (of the characters) in my head.
It is clear that the Bundren children are all very distant from each other. Well by all, I have noticed at least two clear examples so far. In Darl’s first passage, he and his brother Jewel walk together, or apart, very awkwardly. They do not speak to one another. Darl also does not speak to Cash when he sees him. Later on when Dewey Dell recalls her sexual relation with Lafe she states that Darl knew, but never said so. “He said he knew without the words like he told me that ma is going to die without words, and I knew he knew because if he has said he knew with the words I would not have believed that he has been there and saw us” (pg 27). I thought that this passage either indicated a guilty conscious from Dewey Dell (and in fact Darl didn’t know) or that the unspoken truth was more powerful than words.
Also in reference to that same passage by Dewey Dell: was anyone else really annoyed at how she rationalized having sex with Lafe? She decided that if her sack was full (with whatever they were picking) she would let “it” happen. In the end she states “I could not help it” (pg 27). I think this may show weakness in character.
Alee, Sarah, and Alex T you've gotten this round of blogging off to a good start. The observations and speculations are rich. & I hope someone will take up Sarah's request: "for anyone who hasn’t read too far yet, I hope you would track the mentioning of “nails”."
Also, I like that you've taken on several of the threads we talked about on the first day. Alee's observations about the narration are especially keen. (I like for example the juxtaposition of Darl's narration and Mrs. Tull's.) (She also mentions the "sulphurous air". Any connotations?) Sarah sets us to work on the eyes & the journey. & Alex fixes his attention on family interrelations. (The relationship between Darl & Dewey Dell is especially interesting. Let's see how that develops. What can be expressed in language? What cannot -- at least not easily, directly, or conventionally?) Glad you noticed Dewey Dell's rationalization. As for Dewey Dell's yielding to fate/meaningless coincidence/Lafe, what beyond showing a character's "weakness" might WF be suggesting...certainly something about our notions of "fate" and "signs" vs. absurd coincidence or (as Grendel would put it John Gardner's novel) "accident". There is a lot there I think (& some of what is there is satirical, especially when one considers the chosen imagery).
Ah so much to dig into & puzzle out. Good start.
Brian Hand
I think Jewel is a very interesting, funny, and twisted narrator. In his first section it's clear that he has a deep love for his mother and yet it seems he has difficulty expressing that love. To show his love, he creates an image where he and his mother are isolated on a hill while he "throws rocks down the hill," (15). To me, this is a violent, selfish way of expressing your love for someone. It is also strange how Jewel portrays his mother and himself, separate and different from everyone else, while the rest of his family, to him, are "buzzards," (15).
I also noticed how Jewel resents the fact that Cash is building his mother's coffin "right under the window," as if Cash cares more about "see[ing] her in it" than he does about her life (14). To express this resentment of Cash's work, he brings up a memory of when Cash brought back a pan "full of dung" when his mother expressed a desire for fertilizer (14). This comical scene illustrates either Cash's simple-mindedness, or Jewel's intentions of portraying him as such. Jewel's section seems very subjective and manipulative.
I think Cora is an interesting narrator, too, because her first section is both riddled with religious cliche and very perceptive. She leaves all things up to "The Lord," and says it is not her "place to question His decree," (8). Yet at the same time, she notes that "the eternal and the everlasting salvation and grace is not upon [Addie]," (14). Judging by this section, Cora is either very perceptive or very judgmental.
Heeeheee I actually used my twitter to make these drive by posts J
These make great little mounts for some Razors.
Pg. 9 "she's just watching Cash yonder" I like how prominent the sawing is for the first 100 pages of the book. Everyone notices it. (what would it be like to watch someone make your own coffin?)
Darl Pg 11-13. The relationship and prominence of Jewel and his horse is obvious here. Darl speaks about how Jewel and the horse communicate…Segway to “Jewel’s mother is a horse” later on.
Page 28- Darl is showing some sensitivity to the death. The book discusses the connection between him, Addie and then Jewel, discussing favorites, why Darl takes Jewel might have to do with the death and “Jewel’s Mother is a horse”
Pg. 33-34 "and I reckon she'll follow him for 30 years more, or if it ain't he'll get another by cotton picking time" Strains between Addie and Anse fill the early pages of the book. How much does her death affect Anse?
pg 46-48, Addie shouts Cash's name before she dies. WHY?! (anyone think there’s significance)
Pg 52- Anse tries to smooth the blanket over Addie like Dewey Dell did, but only folds up the blanket and wrinkles it. There’s symbolism here, I know it!
Pg 49, 51, 52, These each have an italicized passage in them, i'm trying to figure out if they are thoughts, different people, or something similar. Later when they show up (funeral esque moment, will comment when I get to it YEY CHRONOLOGY) they seem to be thoughts.
Vardaman,53-57. The boy blames peabody for the death of his mother. He sabotages Peabody's wagon and then dwells on eating the fish for supper. "my mother is a fish"
Vardaman/Tull 65-75 The idea of nailing shut a coffin on his mother is very very traumatizing. He asks over and over if Cash is gonna nail it in...and then when he comes back from the rain, he repeats a few lines over and over. Poor Boy
Cash 82-83- Cash has a moment to discuss his reason for staying in the rain and beveling the coffin. He is a carpenter so he thinks in force and structural soundness…
Vardaman 84. My Mother Is A Fish. Reasons for this line keep coming up everywhere. (*points to other comments*)
Pg 88- they put Addie in the coffin upside down so her dress is left unruffled. This is interesting, and probably symbolic.
90-91 and 92- the italics come back…this time they look like different thoughts from different people.
Vardaman- 101, what everyone’s mother is, and how he Darl and Jewel are connected. They love different things, making them their mothers. It’s a very intricate passage that has caught my attention.
And pages 1-102
Guinea pigs like the taste of good literature *bops piggies on the nose*
The different narraotrs of AILD definately make the novel stand out to me as vastly different from most other novels. I do find it very confusing, however, because the novel jumps around without any real introductions and I find myslef often flipping back to try to figure out who everyone is and how they're related, etc. I'm sure that this is intentional, and is probably Faulkner building up the characters. I have also notices a lot of repitions, not just of phrases and words, but of moments as the narration switches and there is a slight overlap of time between adjacent narrations. The latter may be a technique to keep the reader aware of the progression of time in the story.
- One thing that immediately caught my attention was the unique use of quotations in this book. It seems to me that they are often disembodied from any kind of conversation. Characters say things that seem to go without context and without answer. I think this could possibly point to a sort of emotional detachment between the characters or to the futility of their efforts to help and comfort each other. A good example of this would be on pages 33 and 34. Each character seems to have a different concern. It seems like their quotes involve several different conversations that are merely juxtaposed. Of course, there are plenty of other places where quotes are used in the context of standard conversations.
- Another weird use of quotation: on page 62 Dewey Dell repeats the word Lafe which is only once used within quotation marks: “Lafe. Lafe. ‘Lafe’ Lafe. Lafe.” I think that Dewey says Lafe only once and the rest of the time is just repeating it in her head. I think this illustrates the impossibility for her (as well as the rest of the characters) to say what they are really thinking.
- Also in this passage I’m sure everyone else noticed the blatant sexuality. In the fourth paragraph she repeatedly mentions how dark and hidden the barn is: “When I am out of sight of the house, I go fast,” “The barn is dark,” etc. This is also directly juxtaposed with her feelings of sexuality: “She nuzzles at me, snuffing, blowing her breath in a sweet, hot blast, through my dress, against my hot nakedness, moaning.” I think this juxtaposition shows that Dewey must keep her sexuality hidden in her traditional paternalistic community. Alex T also mentions that Dewey feels guilty about her relationship with Lafe. I think she may feel guilty because her community has made her feel that way. She must constantly repress her true feelings and natural desires.
- More evidence of the paternalism of this community: (Page 30) “It’s a hard life on women, for a fact. …My mammy lived to be seventy and more. Worked every day, rain or shine… then she went and taken that lace-trimmed night gown she had had forty-five years and never wore out of the chest and put it on and laid down… and shut her eyes.”
- More (direct) evidence: (Page 23) (This is Cora talking) “‘A woman’s place is with her husband and children, alive or dead.’”
Anse- pg 110- he mentions sweat a lot in this section, and it reminds me of a previous passage, where it is said Anse never and cant sweat ‘cause it will kill him
Samson- 112-119 lots of information in this segment, I’m not sure who MacCullen is…the chapter characterizes and fleshe out anse a little more and shows a bit more of the relationhips of men to women *hints to alex R*
Pg 121. I’m noticing emphasis on eyes turning into metaphores more and more earlier they are called burning out candles when talking about Addie, Darl calls Dewe’s eyes Thimbles, then Samson called Dewey’s eyes ‘pistols’. Here Dewey calls Darl’s eyes ‘pin points’ This particular focus on eyes is starting to grab my attention
Alex, I too noticed that Dewey’s interlude in the barn really reads sexually. That continues on page 121. Dewey is being looked at by Darl…she feels naked and it’s bothering her. Later on page 124, Dewey looks angrily at Tull as if he meant to touch her.
I’ve noticed that Jewel has some extreme mood swings, one I just happened to note down is 126, where he turns very violent towards Tull, yelling obscenities and such.
Pages 114-145 Cash’s worries of Addie’s unbalanced coffin repeat themselves.
Anse- pg 110- he mentions sweat a lot in this section, and it reminds me of a previous passage, where it is said Anse never and cant sweat ‘cause it will kill him
Samson- 112-119 lots of information in this segment, I’m not sure who MacCullen is…the chapter characterizes and fleshe out anse a little more and shows a bit more of the relationhips of men to women *hints to alex R*
Pg 121. I’m noticing emphasis on eyes turning into metaphores more and more earlier they are called burning out candles when talking about Addie, Darl calls Dewe’s eyes Thimbles, then Samson called Dewey’s eyes ‘pistols’. Here Dewey calls Darl’s eyes ‘pin points’ This particular focus on eyes is starting to grab my attention
Alex, I too noticed that Dewey’s interlude in the barn really reads sexually. That continues on page 121. Dewey is being looked at by Darl…she feels naked and it’s bothering her. Later on page 124, Dewey looks angrily at Tull as if he meant to touch her.
I’ve noticed that Jewel has some extreme mood swings, one I just happened to note down is 126, where he turns very violent towards Tull, yelling obscenities and such.
Pages 114-145 Cash’s worries of Addie’s unbalanced coffin repeat themselves.
I forgot, when do we have to have the book finished by?
p. 80 Darl
I think this passage is a great example for Faulkner's use of narrative to show an identity crisis. For the first couple pages of the section, Darl is the all-knowing narrator of what-is-going-on-back-home while he and Jewel are away. It is very descriptive, but also very specific- as if Darl knows his family members, and their places in the family, perfectly. But then the chapter switches to Darl thinking. Faulkner uses long sentences, repetitioin, to illustrate the confusion Darl feels--Where does he fit? "In a strange room... I am is." is his existential mind jumble. I think Darl is much more meticiulous than the others (first chapter, shown by his rhythmic description.) Other narrators mention the differences: I think it was Tull['s narrative] who said that Darl thinks too much. It is clear he feels separated/different from his family.
Michael McGovern
When reading, I noticed many comparisons between the Bundren family. Some of them are:
1.The way Vardaman and Dewey Dell reacted to Peabody. Vardaman blamed Peabody for his mothers death and was angry at him saying, "He kilt her. He kilt her." (54) He even beat Peabody's horses and set them free as a way of retaliating. Dewey Dell on the other hand sees Peabody as a way to help her with her pregnancy. She said about Peabody, "He could do so much for me if he just would. He could do everything for me."(58) Dewey Dell wants to accept Peabody's help while Vardaman wants nothing to do with him. I think that the two characters take these different perspectives on Peabody because they are both preoccupied with whats currently happening to them. Vardaman is only thinking about his dead mother and places the blame on Peabody because she died when he came to see her. Dewey Dell is preoccupied with her pregnancy and is only focused on how to deal with having a baby. It also might have to do with age. Dewey Dell is older and probably has a much better understanding of whats happening than Vardaman.
2. How Darl isn't sure of his existance, while he claims that Jewel is. On page 80, Darl talks about how he doesn't know if he "is or not." He says that Jewel "is" because he "does not know that he does not now whether he is or not." Darl then says, "If Jewel is, so Addie Bundren must be. And then I must be" I think that Darl is trying to say that Jewel knows he exists because he is unaware of a debate about his own existance. Darl is unsrue if he exists due to his questioning of whether he does or not. I think that this shows how the two brothers differ in personality. Darl is more of a compastionte person and thinker, while Jewel is more of a doer and doesn't like to waste time thinking about things.
I read As I Lay Dying the whole way through without stopping to analyze so I could get the whole story down and now I'm going back to particular passages I marked where I didn't understand what was happening or I thought something interesting was brought up.
First off, I really enjoy Darl as a narrator. Maybe that's because he is the first narrator in the story and you sort of "get used to" his way of talking and such. There has been a lot of talk on here about the characters inability to express emotion outwardly especially Darl. During one of his narrations on page 80-81 Darl talks about what is and what was.
“And since sleep is is-not and rain and wind are was, it is not. Yet the wagon is, because when the wagon was, Addie Bundren will not be. And Jewel is so Addie Bundren must be. And then I must be, or I could not empty myself for sleep in a strange room. And so if I am not emptied yet, I am is.”
I was so confused the first time I read this in Darl’s narration, however, reading it again it has a lot to do with Darl dealing with Addie Bundren’s death, or at least trying to explain it to himself. Darl’s use (or perhaps misuse) of is and was shows his exploration of Addie’s death through words.
I found Darl’s exploration of death (and life maybe) paralleled in Vardaman’s exploration through animals (my mother is a fish). But that is for another post later on!
One thing that I just keep noticing is that “Anse keeps on rubbing his knees”. Multiple narrators mention it. I’m not sure what it means.
p.29 Tull begins with, “Anse keeps on rubbing his knees”.
p.19 Darl mentions “Pa keeps on rubbing his knees.”
p.18 “Shut up Jewel,” pa says, but as though he is not listening much. He gazes out across the land, rubbing his knees.
p.17 “He gazes out over the land, rubbing his knees.”
p.16 “Pa rubs his hands slowly on his knees.
Just something I picked up on. I don’t know if it has to do with Anse just kind of sitting around never doing anything that would make him sweat, or if it’s just Faulkner’s way of characterizing him.
I just finished my first chunk of “As I Lay Dying” last night, (A late start, I know.) and here are my observations. So far I'm liking the multiple narrators thing, I think the purpose is to show how people can all see the same thing differently. (Perspective effects perception.) As for the purposes of the character's I'm not certain but I have ideas. So far it seems Darl is not just the main character, but the character with the best sentence structure, I think. His sentences were easiest to understand compared to Cora's and Jewel's especially. My guess is Cora is there to provide a woman's view on things. Jewel I'm not too sure about, he seems like he might be younger, and different than the others. His section caught my attention most, with the strange punctuation and capitalization. He seems to feel strongly against Cash building the coffin for Addie, when she isn't yet dead, which is understandable, it does seem strange no one else opposes it. Another thing I noticed was how Cora kept repeating how good her cakes were. This could either be a way of reassuring herself that she's a good cook, even though her customers canceled the order, or maybe she's just really proud of her cakes. As for motifs, I did notice the Jewel-as-wood thing when Darl mentions him and the horse being like a wooden statue. So far, that's the only one I caught, I'll have to look more closely as continue.
As a class we came to the conclusion that there was an obsession with distances with Darl. This was obviously a significant observation and as I read on the term distance took a twist. When Darl lit the barn on fire that had his mother Addie’s coffin inside it, I felt here Darl had transformed distance from it’s innocent meaning of direction and space between people to now permanently removing and distancing his mothers corpse from him.
Also, as a class we came up with the idea that there was a hint of sexuality between Darl and Jewel. As the story went on I wondered where that idea might reveal itself again. I eventually dismissed it until a conversation came up between Darl and Jewel where Darl keeps asking Jewel who is real father is. This sense of sexuality took its own twist too because initially I thought it’d be about their own sexuality if it came up again, but now realized maybe it was to lead back to Addie’s sex life and how while married to Anse she had an affair with minister Whitfield and got pregnant with his “bastard child” Jewel himself.
Another point in the book when the Bundren family is crossing the countryside with the casket to get to Jefferson, instead of turning into the town of “New Hope” they go back towards Tull’s lane, this is foreshadowing that these is no resolution or peace waiting for them at the end of their journey. Instead of blatantly saying this family has no hope, Faulker was more creative.
Vardaman obviously has an obsession with comparing his mother to different species. For example, the chapter where he says “My mother is a fish.” is because when his mother has died and he runs outside to where he cleaned the fish, he sees the blood from it and says how now it’s just chopped into piece of “not fish” and “not blood”. This is how he feels about his mom and her “nothingness”.
The fact that Darl ends up at a mental hospital is foreshadowing. When him and Jewel when on the delivery trip for Tull and he “somehow” knew what was happening at the house and when Addie died, it gave me an uneasy and warped feeling towards Darl and his unnatural reaction to this awareness. What’s ironic is Tull’s wife Cora earlier on contrasted Darl’s “sweetness” about his Mother’s death with Anse’s and Jewel’s “callousness” about her death and it turns out Darl attemps to burn her casket.
I thought Jaclyn's notes about pa rubbing his knees was interesting. I've noticed that all of the characters seem to use some of the same phrases or describe something in the same way. (Of course, most of the ways they say things are very different). For example, all of the characters describe Jewel as being "wooden" or having "pale wooden eyes". I don't have any specific pages for this but this is just one of many examples. It's almost like the characters have Spiritus Mundi (a collective conciousness). I think WF purposely has them describe some things the same way or noticing the same things (like pa rubbing his legs).
Also, I know this seems obvious but I feel like all of the characters have a little bit of WF's personal voice sometimes. This is especially clear with Vardaman although he usually uses childish language. I wonder if WF did this purposely or by accident?
A few chapters later (76-169)....
after reading some posts, i decided to concentrate on differences between the narrators, this is what i gathered:
Darl - has some kind of omniscience, and the italics used in his narrations usually refer to what he is actually experiencing (*Jewel, i say, she is dead Jewel*as Darl and Jewel are away while Addie dies at home,52). I don't know why he has this multiple viewing ability, but it's certainly interesting. i also agree with everyone that Darl is also the most eloquent of the narrators. He has a great vocabulary and refined grammatical structure, and doesn't record the accents he hears around him. This might be a further indication of his importance.
Jewel - is tough to navigate. His narrations are always quick and to the point, and you can tell he's intelligent but unwilling to give any secrets away. Jewel also doesn't narrate very often, but he is very often talked about, which makes me think that everyone regards him with a special amount of consideration. Still trying to figure out if we're supposed to like or trust him (his defense of Addie on 14-15 makes me like him, but the way everyone else, esp. Darl, make it sound like, he never actually showed much affection for her. Cora actually calls loving Jewel Addie's "sin" and his rejections is her "punishment" (168).
Vardaman - is a funny little boy. He seems quite unable to accept reality (my mother is a fish...), and with his always "round" eyes ( i found mentioned a few times beyond what i previously noted), he lives in a world separate from the others. Another curious thing to note about Vardaman is his narrative story. The last itme i took notice, i saw that he didn't use any punctuation, specifically no quotation marks, which makes reading him kind of like trying to decipher a foreigner speaking your language. (He came up to see an i hollering catch her Darl catch her and he didn't come back..., 150). I think this is used to distinguish Vardaman's lack of conformity to the adult society he is in.
Tull - mainly focuses on how he tries to be a good person all day, but it's quite hard to deal with Anse. Like when he advises the Bundrens to wait for the river to go down (138), but they don't. Tull also admires Cora for her steadfastness in her faith, but is skeptical of everyone's ability to be so dedicated. Tull speaks with plain language but enough vernacular language(one of these here spy-glasses, 139) to let you know his level of thought.
Cash - i do not know what is up or down or what with Cash. His narrations are always so odd. (that list one, and then after the river incident, the one that's a sentence and a half about being on a balance that just cuts out suddenly(165). He also seems intelligent, or at least knowledgeable of his trade, if nothing else. I think his focus shows that he is beyond caring or thinking like a human, but has to think through things analytically to make sense out of anything.
Dewey Dell - i have not paid enough attention to, but from what i can tell, she's kind of always in a panic, and she's always going on about her sexuality and being "naked". I think Faulkner is pointing out the difficulty of being a woman in this era, and especially in this situation where she is expected to do different things by everyone but can't look to anyone for help now that her mother is gone. I need to give poor Dewey Dell some more thought...
i have a few other thoughts but this seems twittery enough for now
p.s. did anyone look for nails? i forgot.
and i forgot to blog about the rest of the eyes stuff...Dewey Dell gets pistols in hers, and Darl has land oozing out of his. there's a lot of instances i have written down somewhere...but i sitll don't know what it means to i'll come back to it later.
and jaclyn, i was curious about the Anse-knees thing too. Maybe we should see if other characters have repeated gestures like that used for characterization, like Michael pointed out about Cora's cakes.
Another thing I found on Darl’s focus on is and was comes up on page 101 when Vardaman is narrating a conversation between Darl and himself. Darl and Vardaman talk about how Jewel’s mother is a horse, which does not necessarily mean that Vardaman’s mother is a horse but that she is a fish. When Vardaman asks Darl what his mother is he tells Vardaman that “[he] haven’t got ere one,” because “it is was. And if it is was, it cant be is..
Anyway… Vardaman and his obsession with comparing family to animals…
On the same page (page 101) the fact that Vardaman’s mother can be a fish and a horse seems to foreshadow the later confession of Whitfield’s affair with Addie. I not only see Vardaman’s comparison of his mother to the fish as the fish is dead and so is his mother but the fish is sort of passive…going whatever way the water flows. So when it’s said that Jewel’s mother is a horse, I think of the wild horse that Jewel rides and how it does not follow command and may go to the right when told to go left.
Like Alison pointed out, there are alot of comparisons of family members to animals. Anse is compared to an "old tall bird" by Darl on p. 161. Then in Addie's chapter, p. 170, she describes Anse as a "tall bird" when he drives by the schoolhouse. I think this implies a connection, especially similarity in thought, between Darl and Addie. Addie's chapter, while not as eloquent and filled with imagery as Darl's passages, has the greatest substance in it. Darl's passages too were filled with thinking, and reflection on life. I loved Addie's passage about 'words'. I think that Vardaman comparing his mother to a fish and Darl and Addie calling Anse a bird comments on just how different Addie and Anse were. (Birds and fish don't live well together...)
Ali O wrote that in her class (D block) sexuality between Jewel and Darl was mentioned. She continued to write about how this extended to Addie's sexuality. Well, I just noticed a passage from Darl's last chapter p. 159 before Addie's chapter. (Does that make sense? I guess I mean to say that the next time Darl speaks, its after we learn of Addie's affair and Jewel the bastard child.) Jewel, Darl, and Tull are diving in the water. Faulkner uses a lot of words that hint at male sexuality: erect, suck, gropes. Okay. So maybe not A LOT, of words, but I definitely got a hint at it when I read. And it's cool how a few pages later we find out about the affair. Then, the next major interaction between Darl and Jewel is when Darl asks Jewel who his father is.
Just after reading alison and chloe's blogs on the birds and fish, i was reminded of ...well the bible. In genesis (the first chapter), the creation is detailed. It is interesting to point out that (as the story goes, for anyone who isn't familiar with the story) God created light, and then the sky to separate the waters inside the earth from those outside, and then came dry land, and then plants, followed shortly by the sun and the moon. So then comes day 5, and on this day, we encounter the first species of Animalia. It is curious that on this day, only "swarms of living creatures" were to fill the sea, and quite separately, the "birds fly above the earth".
Whether these allusions in AILD are biblical references or not, it's clear that, as Chloe pointed out, birds and fish don't live together well. They're quite separate, one kind in the sea, and one kind on the earth, not to be mixed. And it isn't until day six that we get any other kind of creature (aka horses and people.)So i would think it's significant that Anse is a bird and Addie is a fish. Just a thought
Okay, next section completed. Something I noticed was the use of fish,(I'm sure it's been mentioned but I haven't read the previous posts.) especially when Abbie first dies. The fish Vardaman caught and was then eaten. He remembers it being in the dirt, and then not being there. Then later it was there then eaten. He connects this to his mother, it seems, she was there and is now not there. Also, the fish seems to be ignored, as it is being cooked. This reminds me of the death, it seems like many didn't think of it as a big deal.
Another thing I became interested in was the situation of Dewey Dell and Lafe. I don't know much about it yet, but it seems very important to her. I wonder if this little side story type thing will somehow tie into the bigger picture.
I wrote Abbie instead of Addie in my last post. Whoops.
So, thinking a tad more on Dewey Dell's situation I see it's a contrast to the main situation of Addie's death. She is pregnant and will be giving birth, the opposite of dying.
Then there's the fish thing. To Verdaman, his mother is a fish, because she went from alive to dead, as the fish went from fish to "not-fish." Then there's Jewel who's mother is a horse. The conversation between the brothers on page 101. Neither sibling seems to have Addie as a mother. Vardaman's is a fish, Jewel's is a horse, Darl's is neither. Fish and horses are very different animals as well, possibly showing how different the brothers are.(or possible how similar, both replacing their mother with an animal.)
Also, it was kind of cute how Vardaman was fishing after the death. Like he was trying to catch a new mom.
From the beginning I have been confused by the multiple authors. With the perspective constantly changing the first half of the novel has become a jumbled mess to me. Some narrators draw me in while others just cause me to zone out. I agree with others, that Darl is the most developed narrator. However, Vardaman’s chapters are my favorite, although he is the youngest and most repetitive. His repetitions usually involve relation of others to animals. Of course we all know the chapter, page 84, in which he states, “My mother is a fish.” He continues to fixate on this throughout the novel – page 53, 101, and 151. The passage that stood out most to me is on 101.
“But my mother is a fish. Vernon seen it. He was there.
‘Jewel’s mother is a horse,’ Darl said.
‘Then mine can be a fish, cant it, Darl?’ I said. Jewel is my brother.
‘Then mine will be a horse, too,’ I said.
‘Why?’ Darl said. ‘If pa is your pa, why does your ma have to be a horse just because Jewel’s is?’”
This reminds me of searching for identity, a motif our class fixated on for most of the first semester. Vardaman wants to find his own identity in his brothers. Because he is young, he views Jewel as a role model. Darl a much more developed character, views this as a childish action. It seems as though he believes he is extremely mature and thinks Vardaman lacks an imagination for wanting to follow Jewel.
- I want to talk a little bit about Vardaman’s association of the fish with his mother. I think the connection between them runs deeper than the fact that they are both dead. Out of anyone in the novel, Vardaman has the strongest feelings about his mother. The other characters are hardly remorseful but he is intensely. Early on he expresses his misery crying, “He kilt her,” and “You kilt my maw!” Even from the first glimpses we get of Vardaman his feelings about Addie are strongly juxtaposed with his feelings about the fish. This particular chapter ends “Cooked and et.” I don’t want to sound too intense here but I think the scenes in which the characters rescue the fish from the dirt and eat it are related to the way in which they metaphorically cannibalize his mother. She was mistreated all her life and finally, when she dies, the will not let her rest. She is “rescued from the dirt” and her body is carelessly abused (lost in the river and allowed to rot). Vardaman is also extremely distressed when she is put in the coffin: “‘Are you going to nail it shut, Cash? …Nail it?’” This is why he later tries to drill holes in her coffin. I have to keep in mind that the incident when Addie’s coffin falls out of the wagon hasn’t occurred yet when Vardaman says these things but I think the events are still related. Vardaman just wants his mother to be respected and peaceful and her memory protected but the rest of her family just wants to chop up and “et” what is left of her. Vardaman thinks intensely about the fish after he has killed it but the other characters think nothing of it when they eat it.
Alex R, after reading your comment on Vardaman’s association of the fish with his mother I immediately thought of grotesques. Which Mr. Cook mentioned today in class. Grotesques are characters that may induce empathy and disgust, and are usually irregular (strange); they may even be used as mockery of human nature. Vardaman’s association of the fish with his mother is definitely irregular (strange) because his thoughts are considered way higher than they normally would be at his age. The fact that he “juxtaposed” his feeling about the fish with his mother is not usually normal for a young boy (particularly an uneducated one). What human quality Vardaman is a grotesque of could be argued. It could be extreme grief or imagination. Or maybe the imagination sparked by extreme grief.
I know Sarah, Alison and I all talked about the fish/bird thing. I just remembered that Anse's new wife at the end of the book (Like, WHAT?) is described as being a duck shape. So Anse might have a better relationship with a duck, since he is thought of as a bird too. Compared to Addie the fish, of course...
The story of Jewel working nights and destroying himself in order to save up to buy a horse was one of my favorite parts of this book. Of any passage, this one struck me as both the most humorous and the most tragic. It really reveals the dichotomy of the two that exist simultaneously throughout the book. The story is funny because it is just so melodramatic: Jewel seems to almost kill himself over what we at first think is a woman he is sneaking off to see at night but in reality he has been working all this time just plowing a field at night. Faulkner (Darl?) sets us up for the humor with very ominous passages: “And when I saw [Cash] I knew that he knew what it was. Now and then I would catch him watching Jewel with a queer look,” “‘Now is the truth… We let something happen to him.’” It is ironic because we expect Jewel to be involved in some horrible clandestine activity when in reality he was doing something comparably innocent. The humor is advanced at the end when Vardaman is dancing and saying, “‘Let me ride, Jewel.’” It is a sort of black humor but it is humor nonetheless.
But I also immediately noticed the tragedy of the passage: Jewel almost destroyed himself and his family through his own greed. The descriptions of Jewel’s condition are especially depressing: “I have seen him go to sleep chopping; watched the hoe going slower and slower up and down, with less and less of an arc…” And the fact that he and his family suffer for such a trivial thing is also extremely tragic. It is tragic that Cash and Darl and the rest of the family simply let this happen. The final paragraph lends to this tone: “That night I found ma sitting beside the bed where he was sleeping, in the dark. She cried hard, maybe because she had to cry so quiet…” I think the tragedy of the passage best illuminates several themes. The rural southern family structure thrives on a kind of complete equality and when anyone tries to go beyond it the entire family suffers. When one person won’t do their work the others must do it for that person. This is tragic because it means both that self-interest destroys the family and that no one can fulfill their self-interest. Also, the passage shows the tragedy of the southern working class lifestyle. A person must destroy themselves and their family just to get a little bit ahead. These people work extremely hard for their necessities and it seems they can’t have anything more than that. As Anse says on page 110, “Nowhere in this sinful world can a honest, hardworking man profit.”
On page 173, there is a part in the third paragraph when Addie speaks that there is a blank spot where the reader, I presume, is supposed to fill in their own shape. She then goes on to talk about her sons and Anse, and their names are italicized. She talks of how they are things that solidify into shapes and then fade away. I do not know what I’m trying to say about it but I just wanted to bring it up because it was a lot like the coffin drawing in the beginning of the novel.
There is another confusing part that caught my attention on pages 80-81 when Vardaman is narrating. He talks of what is, what was, what will be, etc. Although he is young, he seems to be the only one that can deal with situations that have to do with life and being. Addie touches on it when she talks about how Cora Tull tells her about her sins, and how when you are dead words mean nothing, and it is your actions that stay with you forever. Words are just lines. However, I think that Vardaman does a great job of asking the right questions. I just do not know how to decipher it simply. I wish someone would read this and know.
Dewey Dell, though responsibilities are given to her without her wanting most of them, does well with her situation. I feel like she responds best with Vardaman, maybe because she has motherly tendencies, but I like their relationship. In the end, when she gets taken advantage of by MacGowan, Vardaman is sitting right outside. The thing that shocks me most is that she thinks that it just is not going to work. She says nothing of being violated and keeps right on walking with Vardaman. But it is like he understands. He keeps secrets that he could easily get away with letting out, but with her it seems like he understands the secrets. It seems like he is protecting her by letting her think he does not know. These are all just loose ideas that are kind of jumbled but basically I like their relationship.
Alex R's thoughts on the inescapable "catch-22's" of southern life really pulled a few things together for me. His point about everyone wanting to fulfill their self-interest but having to sacrifice it for the betterment of the family unit was especially clear and illuminating. Every character displays some desire to sacrifice for the family or shed the family for their own betterment, or a combination of both.
I can't decide if Anse is trying to get ahead, or if he really does all he does for the sake of his family. He is always to the first to point out that he can "always do for me and mine" (138) when faced with a problem. As we repeatedly see though, others are constantly helping him (the Tulls, Samson, Armstid, Peabody, etc), and we hear more and more that he isn't blaming anyone or asking for help, and yet there he is, being useless. This is the problem that is Anse. He feels the need to fulfill the role of head of a farming family and do all of the things he should (field work, house maintenance and repairs, other manly things), but is seemingly incapable of doing these things. Does he really beleive he'll die if he sweats? Will he really? Or is he just lazy? Darl mentions one time that Anse could spot where laziness was. Like it was his talent. Ths is curious.
Anse repeatedly tries to do the right thing (burying Addie where she wanted), but tries harder to let other people know he's doing the right thing ("lord knows i don't begrudge her it"). This kind of service for personal gain is characteristic of a person who really has their own interests at heart. But we can also sympathize with Anse. For instance, when he sells Jewel's horse, is this selfish? In one way, it most certainly is, since it was used for personal gain after a poor personal decision made out of stubbornness and haste. But in another way it is not, because he also sacrificed what he wanted as well (although since he does get the teeth in the end, so that changes things...). And Anse must know that he has no hope of every being truly impressive and therefore happy, but he somehow finds ways to use what skills he has (is being pathetic and inviting sympathy a skill? You could argue it) to help his family.
Jewel is a horse of a different color (ha). He is outwardly open about his desire for self betterment. His actions alone set him apart; working at night for the horse and abandoning his family when they needed him, riding alone on the horse on the journey, his intolerance of Darl, his pale wooden eyes that are so unreachable. Everything about Jewel is different for some reason. But in the end, it is also Jewel that makes the greatest gestures on behalf of the family, although they may be mostly for Addie. When he salvages Cash's tools in the river, gives up the horse, and burns himself saving the coffin in the barn, he displays his loyalty to his family, something Anse never can get across.
so I really like what everyone has been saying now that I have read them, especially when Alex talked about how he liked the section about Jewel working through the night and being greedy. I too think that Jewel was being greedy but an association i found was that Vardaman calls Jewel's mom a horse. Funny how Jewel is the one to save his mother's coffin,twice, and Jewel in his only narration talks of how he is disgusted with people for coming to see cash build the coffin right outside her window. It seems that Jewel loves and protects his horse because it is his and his mom being a horse is what keeps her his maybe? Or not necessarily that but a part of jewel always protecting his mother's body differently from the rest makes me think that like Jewel is different from his siblings to Addie, she is also different to him.
So I just forgot that I never blogged last night about possessiveness in the novel. Each narration seems to show how each character is a little bit greedy. Something we talked about today in class (michael, Alyssa)was how on page 93 Cora talks to Vardaman about fishing and seems like she is trying to help him but she is really just "...bounding toward my God and my reward." As much as she portrays a deeply religious person, she is not referencing God as a figure for all the people, and if he acts are only to reflect on her rewards, is she actually doing the right thing? Other possessive things include Vardaman chossing different animals for their same number as the correlate to his siblings. Darl tries to burn his mother down, Mr. Bundren is fixated on his teeth. It's all just selfish and possessive and it's what bothers me most about human nature and I feel like Faulkner did a good job of putting those characteristics in every character.
Michael McGovern
In my last post I talked about the differences in the family members. I noticed a few more as I read through the book.
The main thing I noticed was the differences between Cash and Jewel. I noticed that Cash is quiet, will never complain, and chooses not to make anyone do anything that they don't want to do. Jewel on the other hand is forcefull and gets angry when people don't listen to him. An example of this is on pages 126 and 127 when the family is trying to cross the river. They are trying to figure out the best way to cross the river and Jewel suggests that they use Tull's mule to cross the river. Tull declines and Jewel gets mad and with his eyes looking like "broken pieces of glass" says to him, "I'll pay for your damn mule. I'll buy it from you right now." Cash on the other hand never wants to put Tull in that situation. He tells Jewel to "Shut up" and leave Tull alone.
Their different personalities are displayed again when they reach Jefferson to bury Addie. On the road outside of Jefferson, Jewel almost gets into a fight with someone who he thinks called him a name. Jewel gets out of the wagon, takes a swing at the man and says, "Thinks because he's a goddamn town fellow, Son of a bitch." Meanwhile while this is happening, Cash is sitting in the wagon with a broken leg covered in cement that is making his leg extraordinarily hot and turning his skin black and he is refusing to complain about it. All he says is, "It feels fine" and "It don't bother me none."
I think that there is such a difference in Cash’s and Jewel’s personalities to underline the fact that Jewel is different from the rest of the family. Jewel is only Cash’s half-brother and they are different in every way possible. These differences seem to show that they are not really family and that they really aren’t related in any way. Cash in many ways is a foil to Jewel because Cash is willing to sacrifice a lot in order for his family to get to Jefferson, while Jewel is selfish and angry the entire trip and seems to resent the family for which Cash works so hard to help.
One particular aspect of the novel that stuck out to me is Faulkner’s play with type and use of visual language. I’m not sure if it’s clever or just annoying to the reader. As mentioned in D block, the novel starts with a, “Chuck. Chuck. Chuck. of the adze(5),” expressing the sound of the adze. On pages 80-81, the words “is” and “was” are italicized to emphasis what is and what used to be. Another spot I’m sure everyone had noticed is the picture of the coffin on page 88, placed directly in the middle of a sentence. The coffin is described as the shape of a clock. Hannah mentions another type choice in her comment. On page 173, during Addie’s chapter she is describing the shape of her body, “The shape of my body where I used to be a virgin is in the shape of a and I couldn’t think Anse…” Instead of a picture it is left blank. I agree with Hannah that maybe Faulkner left this space for us to imagine our own shape. Or maybe he left it to express that as a virgin she was pure and shapeless, just an empty space. Faulkner also uses italics during almost every chapter. There is probably simple reasoning for this, I think it is to express the narrator’s thoughts, but please correct me if I’m wrong.
Brian H
It seems to me that Faulkner is criticizing people who manipulate Christian teachings for their own benefit. Anse uses the death of Addie and the idea of her in heaven to appear righteous in the eyes of Tull. He says, “I give her my word…It is sacred on me…she will bless you in heaven,” (140). Anse depicts himself as a man who is fiercely loyal to the “sacred” word of his dead wife. This quote portrays Anse as a man who is dedicated to fulfilling his wife’s wishes for religious reasons. But through his own narration, it is clear that Anse’s motives for reaching Jefferson are deeply selfish: “But now I can get them teeth. That will be a comfort,” (111). This dramatic irony reveals Anse ‘s manipulation of religion to improve how he is perceived.
Tull similarly uses religion to give authority to his own opinions and to instill within himself the thought that it is better not to dwell within the theoretical. He claims, “the Lord aimed for [man] to do and not to spend too much time thinking…” (71). Tull creates this idea as an excuse for his failure to think critically and to act on the basis of that criticism. It is appropriate that that declaration seems to interrupt Tull’s stream of consciousness narration in which he approaches legitimate criticism of the “over-cautious” nature of his wife. (71). When he brings to mind the thought that man was not meant to think so much, his thoughts are pacified and the once promising analysis turns to clichéd ramblings about how a man needs a woman in his life.
Faulkner criticizes the emptiness of some religious beliefs in the contrast between Cora and Addie. Prevalent in Cora’s sections are religious clichés and phrases. This differs from Addie’s view that “words are no good,” (171). It seems to me that Addie’s dislike of words comes not from ignorance, but from a real understanding of words and that they can never fully express what they’re trying to “say at,” (171). Addie concludes her section by saying, “people to whom sin is just a matter of words, to them salvation is just words too,” (176). I think Faulkner is implying that despite Addie’s sin and Cora’s piety, Addie is more religious than Cora because she knows sin and salvation beyond mere words.
Observation: Everybody else thinks that Darl is crazy, but he seems (at least to me) to be the best narrator, most observant and eloquent.
Inference: At first I thought that maybe Darl only appeared crazy, like just had kind of messed up eyes, but was really completely sane, maybe saner than the other characters in the book. But then at the end he was shipped off, probably to an insane asylum? So there goes that theory probably. I still think that it is significant that Darl sounds very in-control when he's narrating, except for a few things, usually involving himself. For example, when he flashbacks to when he used to drink the water out of the cedar bucket at night when everyone is asleep, he seems to get mixed up because he waits for everyone to fall asleep twice. Also, there is the memorable "I is was" chapter. But Darl's narration is very good when he's observing other people, which shows that he is very perceptive, which goes along with him being able to figure out a lot of people;s secrets just by "knowing."
Observation: Some of the characters us vocabulary thats doesn't quite fit their age, education, etc.
Inference: Mr. Cook talked about this in class a little bit today, but the extravagant vocabulary that some of the characters use is definately disconcerting and I think is meant push the reader out of the situation a little and see the novel as literature instead of a recount of an experience.
Obsevation: The ilalicized passages.
I think that the italics are used similarly like the unexpected voabulary, meant to throw the reader off like many parts of this novel.
Observation: Addie = Fish
Okay, so the whole "my mother is a fish" thing is really wierd and amusing and everything, but after thinking about it a little bit more, I realized the Addie really is a fish...or more specifically, the fish the Vardaman caught. Here are a few similarities: Both of are dead (pretty obvious and self explanitory); both are cut up (the fish is really cut up, and Addie has holes drilled into her face); they are both left dead for way too long (the fish is left to sit overnight before being cooked, and Addie was driven through Mississippi for WAY too long, and many of the passing townspeople noticed); both belong to varadamn in a way (he caught the fish, and Addie is his mother). There are probably a couple of more, but I had just never really thought about it this way.
Observation: Vardamn and Dewely Dell have a strange conversation on page 214 where Varadamn talks about a red toy train in a window in town and then observes Mr. Gillsepie's boy's legs fuzzing in the moon.
Inference: Well, I thought it was interesting the the train was red because I have been tracking the color red throuhgout the novel and a lot of things are red, but mostly roads and paths, and the connection to fire connects to hell, which has been mentioned as a major theme of this book as a 'jouney through hell." So I'm not really sure what the toy train for christmas is about. Possibly it shows Vardams ignorance of his and his family's social situation because he thinks that he will be able to get the train for Christmas, but his father can't even afford teeth, so most likely Vardaman has no chance of getting the train. The fact the Dewwey Dell reassures him the he will get the train for Christmas shows that she understands the importance of preserving his innocence and protecting him. With other clues about the relationship between Dewey Dell and Vardaman, I think that this shows that Dewey Dell is a major mother figure in Vardaman's life, and perhaps Dewey Dell in the main person resposible for Vardaman, which would make sense since Addie was so old and perhaps could not properly care for Vardaman.
As for the legs fuzzing in the moon, wich I thought was a very strange image, I think that it may just be an indication the the boy had hairly legs, which could possibly be an idication of age. Or maybe Vardaman had never seen hairy legs before because his own legs are still young and smooth, and he has never seen any of his family members legs. This would indicate that the Budrens are very modest with each other adn are physically private, even though there are a lot of emotional connections. Just a possibility.
Brian H
I was just thinking about religion in AILD, and realized that it is riddled with Christian imagery and symbolism. Like Alex R, I think that the comparison between Addie and the fish is deeper than Vardaman’s connection that both were once living and are now dead. If Vardaman’s quote “My mother is a fish,” juxtaposes the two, then, like Alex said, it is Addie who is being metaphorically “Cooked and et.” However, in Christianity, one of the most prevalent symbols is the Jesus fish. When Vardaman focuses on his family eating the fish, I can’t help but think of Jesus and the Last Supper, when Jesus’ disciples eat his flesh and drink his blood. Thus Addie is sacrificing her flesh for her family. But the family is not respectful of Addie or her memory so even though she dies Christ-like, she is not resurrected.
Also, there must be some sort of baptism going on when the wagon tips over while they are crossing the river. “Then he comes up out of the water,” (151). Darl emerging from the river symbolizes his baptism into something. I think.
If you look at the bigger story of AILD, it seems like some distorted religious allegory, in which the characters overcome obstacles and continue on their journey. But at the end, do they accomplish anything from their quest? Not really. So I think you could view AILD as a criticism of people who expect a glorious reward in the form of heaven after they complete the journey of life. This is embodied by Cora’s quote “I’m bounding toward my God and my reward,” (92). I also think that Faulkner is criticizing the complete opposite, nihilistic philosophy. This is illustrated by Addie’s section, when she says that the reason for living is to “get ready to stay dead a long time, “ (169).
It is clear that Anse’s love for Addie is not reciprocated after giving birth two her first two children. Therefore she strayed from her commitment with him and had an affair with Whitfield. It is interesting that their bastard son, Jewel, is Addie’s “favorite”. Perhaps this suggests her discontent with her husband and the children she bore with him. Furthermore, Jewel does not appreciate his love from his mother, and only really cares for her once she is dead (saving the coffin).
I found the passage that Addie speaks “from the dead” (or as a memory. . . you decide) very interesting. She states, “That was when I learned that words are no good; that words don’t ever fit even what they are trying to say at. When [Cash] was born I knew that motherhood was invented by someone who had to have a word for it because the ones that had the children didn’t care if there was a word for it or not” (pg 171-172). We had talked earlier in class about the power of words and how different characters in this book gave words varying degrees of importance. It is clear that Addie believes that actions are more important than words.
I had initially missed some foreshadowing that was near the beginning of the book. As the Tull family talks of helping the Bundren family out and how lazy Anse is, Kate Tull makes a statement that foreshadows future events. “And I reckon [Addie will] be behind him for thirty years more. . . or if it aint her, he’ll get another one before cotton-picking” (pg 33-34). As we all find out, one of the things in the front of Anse’s mind is to remarry, which he does the day after burying his late wife.
Michael McGovern
During the passage in which Darl, Jewel, and Cash are crossing the river, their actions seemed to embody how they act throughout the novel. Each character acts in a different way than the other and seems to act in similar ways throughout the novel. When the wagon is first in trouble, Cash is the one person to stay behind. He tries to maneuver the wagon to safety and refuses to abandon what he set out to do. This parallels his actions of finishing the coffin even though it was raining. When Cash decides to do something, he sees it through and does his best to make sure it is done. Even if it is not in his own best interests (like staying in a wagon that is sure to be overturned) he does it anyway for his family. Darl, unlike Cash, jumped out of the wagon and left Cash take care of the wagon and Addie’s body by himself. This parallels the seen in which Darl attempts to burn the barn down in order to get rid of Addie’s body and stop the journey that they are on. This seems to say that Darl is willing to stop doing something when that thing becomes to destructive. When crossing the river, Darl knows that the wagon is a lost cause and dangerous so he jumps out. When he burns down the barn, he knows that the journey they are on has been somewhat doomed from the start, so he tries to put an end to it to stop the terrible events from happening. Like Darl, Jewel’s actions on the river also mirror his actions at the barn. Jewel decides to go back into harms way in order to save his mother’s body. In the river, Jewel decides to go back to Cash to save him and Addie’s body. He also does the same thing in the passage when the barn is burning. He runs into the barn in order to save his mother. I think that both of these passages show the reader that Jewel is in fact not selfish and does love his mother very much. He puts his life on the line twice to save her body, which shows that he cares for her deeply.
I found Whitfield’s chapter to be hilarious just due to its overwhelming extravagance. I didn’t think much of it when I first read it and I missed what I think was the most crucial point to his “confession:” “But He is merciful; He will accept the will for the deed, Who knew that when I framed the words of my confession it was to Anse I spoke them, even though he was not there.” He didn’t even actually confess anything and believes that his intention to confess his adultery is enough. This passage is straightforward satire. Whitfield is just so self-righteous – he invokes God in almost everything he says and speaks as if he were presenting a sermon (when in reality this is supposed to be a deep confessional passage). It seems that he is trying to appear vulnerable when in reality he is just hiding behind a wall of religious sentiment and rhetoric. I found it especially funny when he brings religion into menial events: “I heard that Tull’s bridge was gone; I said ‘Thanks, O Lord, O Mighty Ruler of all.’” Also, when he talks about crossing the river (“It was His hand that bore me safely above the flood,” “The flood, the danger, behind,” etc.) it seems like he is almost implicitly comparing himself to Noah (being chosen by God to survive the flood). I might be making a brash inference here because there isn’t really all that much text about it. But the point is Whitfield uses any possible event to spiritually empower himself. He gives us that right in the first line: “When they told me she was dying, all that night I wrestled with Satan, and I emerged victorious.” He even uses his affair, it seems to me, more as an excuse to seek forgiveness and so further his righteousness.
In the context of the larger book, I think the irony and extravagance of this passage says a lot. The first thought that came to my mind related to the theme of the inability of language to faithfully convey truth. This passage clearly uses the most rhetorical language in the whole book. And not only does this language not convey truth, it obscures it. He uses language only to further his own power, not to reveal who he really is or the reality of the events he is referring to. (However, I realize that Whitfield’s language, although it doesn’t convey truth in what it says literally, when analyzed conveys a deeper truth about Whitfield that was unintentional.) Also, Faulkner, I think, seems to say something about class relationships in the south. Whitfield is a minister – at least a couple steps up from the working class that Addie represents. And Whitfield preys on her. First he forces her to bear the weight of an unwanted “bastard child,” and then, he uses her death and his adultery as a means to further his own power. This reminds me of the scene in which MacGowan tricks Dewey Dell into having sex with him in exchange for a fake “medicine.” The townspeople and other classes are out to exploit people like the Bundrens but the worst part is, I think, not just that these classes are so cruel, but that the working class either doesn’t realize it or lacks the power to do anything about it. One might also connect the themes of language and class structure – the lower classes are weakened by their use of dialect whereas the upper classes are empowered by their use of rhetoric.
While reading As I Lay Dying I was often thinking back to reading the plays about dysfunctional families and noticing the similarities of those families and the Bundren family. They were already messed up to begin with, Addie cheating on her husband with a minister then having Jewel isn’t exactly normal. This is a complete assertion, but Anse and Addie must not have raised their children properly, for Darl to go crazy and Dewey Dell to become pregnant and then being willing enough to trade sexual favors for an abortion. All of the characters seemed to dislike Anse, and see him not as a father, but as an annoyance. I actually didn’t mind Anse until the end of the book, “It’s Cash and Jewel and Vardaman and Dewey Dell,” pa says, kind of hangdog and proud too, with his teeth and all, even if he wouldn’t look at us. “Meet Mrs Bundren,” he says.” (261) It was nice of him to follow Addie’s wishes to burry her where she wanted, however marrying someone else he just met as soon as he does it, just is not cool. Cash is really the only sensible one in the family, then again he built his mothers coffin in front of her window while she was still alive.
Also, in class we discuss why Vardaman calls Addie’s a fish. I think the reason he related his mother to the fish he caught is because they were originally both alive. Being a young boy, Vardaman doesn’t have much to relate to, especially with the subject of death. So, when the fish became “not-fish” (53), and when it is said that “Addie Bundren will not be” (80) Vardaman makes the connection between the two; if the fish is dead and his mother is dead, then his mother is a fish.
lucy fox post 1
this is similar to lucy morgan's family tree(?) idea and the characters represented by an animal, but isn't limited to animals. I just looked at what the family members seemed to have an obsession with (or rather how faulkner has presented them with something obsessively).
darl-eyes esp in the beginning of the book. darl looks at eyes the way jane eyre looked at foreheads
jewel- horses, wood, and gold(speaking in terms of monetary wealth, jewel is by far the richest family member)
cash- wood(connection between him and jewel)
vardaman - fish
anse-laziness, indifference, selfishness
dewey dell-cow, repetition as a means of justification
addie- i just think addie is a practical, defeated soul. no wonder she's dead.
alison r's lil post about vardaman's grotesquity:
I think AR is right (i started reading from the bottom up but im assuming alex r talked about this too, so im including both alison and alex in my AR).
"What human quality Vardaman is a grotesque of could be argued. It could be extreme grief or imagination. Or maybe the imagination sparked by extreme grief."
i just thought that this was exactly correct. Imagination allows for even the most ignorant to be on the same intellectual level as another, or maybe it just doesnt consider intellectual level. and so allows vardaman to step into the story as not merely a little boy, but a perceptive character. and alison r, your "imagination sparked by extreme grief" was ballin'.
so what is vardaman? the craziness after devastation? the denial after a tragedy? still not really sure.
the first day we read AILD, we talked about the sexuality in darl's passage. obviously there wasn't any huge sexual tension between jewel and darl that revealed itself, but sexuality was a motif, i think.
-dewey dell and lafe
-addie and whitfield
-dewey dell and macgowan
-cash thinking jewel had a romance when actually he was having a..err..affair with the horse
there seemed to be underlying tension in almost all of darl's passages; most people don't "mount" the path. in the fire passage, p. 219 "Jewel thrusts...as he drags the horse out by his head." (i didn't put the whole sentence there, but it's pretty packed with connotation.)
in whitfields passage he says he "wrestled thigh to thigh with satan", and i think thighs have their set of associations.
I think faulkner put in this underlying sexuality as a means to create a humorous atmosphere. I don't think it was meant to be interpreted as serious and sensual, but comical and a little risque, to push the buttons of the early 1900s southern reader. So maybe this book wasn't too funny to us, but maybe WF was giggling.
darl reminds me of stephen dedalus.
his is, was, is not, was not, emptying yourself; the being passage.
i didn't really know what to make of it, but i think that darl's dedalism comes from addie:
"that was when i learned that words are no good; that words don't ever fit even what they are trying to say at"(continues 171-172)
and then addie talks about anse being dead, and not knowing he's dead, which relates to darl's passage about being.
darl and addie have a relationship that i think neither are aware of.
Unfortunately I did not read the book in chunklets and all of my observations are going to come out in one big thought.
The first thing I noticed was how each of the Bundrens was distracted by something that kept them from thinking too much about the death of Addie. In the beginning, Anse was very distracted by the weather, Cash with the woodworking of the coffin, Jewel with his horse, Vardaman with the fish, and Dewey Dell with her pregnancy. Dewey Dell and Darl differ from the rest of the Bundrens in that they have a deeper psychological connection, and they are more in their own worlds. Dewey Dell does not think much at all of her dying mother, but instead thinks of her future and her own problem she must deal with. Darl, on the other hand is very much the opposite in that he is always thinking. He is an observer, which is partially why he makes a good narrator in the beginning of the book. When Addie dies, Darl is immediately aware of it, even though he is not in her presence. He tells Jewel that he knows she is dead, and Jewel is angered, but Darl remains calm.
Anse is always distracting himself with one thing or another, and it is usually a self-centered distraction, like complaining about work, worrying about the weather, and thinking about his new teeth that he desires so greatly. Dewey Dell's distraction is also a self centered distraction, in that she is preoccupied in worrying about her abortion.
Vardaman and Jewel deal with their mother's death in the same manner. Vardaman, after an interaction with a fish that was killed, equates the death of the fish to the death of his mother. By convincing himself that his mother is a fish, he is more able to deal with the fact that his mother dies, and it is part of a natural cycle. Jewel, who is favored by his mother, but does not allow her the mutual feeling of love, seems to care for his horse more than anything else. Upon leting go of his horse later in the book when Anse trades it for mules, he delivers the horse on his own terms in his efforts to part with it. Jewel seems to care for the horse above everything else, as he should care for his mother. So on page 95, Darl explains that Jewel's mother is a horse.
Cash deals with the death by distracting himself with the construction and care for the coffin. He puts an obscene amount of time in perfecting his mother's coffin, so much that Vernon Tull mentions that it would be nice if he put that dedication into the construction of other more necessary things. Later in the book, Cash is adamant about having the coffin on a balance when crossing the river. He seems pained to let his brothers take control and allow the coffin to cross at such an imbalance.
The passage on page 95 says a lot about Darl. "Jewel's mother is a horse...I have no mother" I think this is an indication of Darl's emotional instability. I think that because everyone allows themselves to become preoccupied with other things, Darl is left with the burden of thought, and observation, and the truth of life and death and lack of meaning are more apparent to him. I think this knowledge is what makes him lash out start the fire.
From the pages of 223-225, there was stress on the colors red and black, and the sequence of turning from red to black. THe chapter begins talking about an apple tree and the night sky which brings to my mind the colors red and black. Later the barn is burning red against the dark night sky. The barn goes up in flames and is completely red, but later turns black and into ashes. Faulkner also mentions how Jewel's back was scorched and burned in the fire turning it red. The treatment used to soothe then turned his back black. Just as Cash's leg was red, and then black. I was thinking that the red to black transition was a symbol of the Bundren family's bad luck.
(sorry this is late..my internet has been acting up)
I just read one of Jaclyn's earlier comments where she noticed the repetition of pa "rubbing his knees." Considering how many times observation was repeated by different narrators, I think that it is safe to assume that it his somehow significant, most likely as a way to characterize Anse. So, with that said, I have been think about what knee-rubbing could possibly mean. To visualize the body position, it seems to me like a pose of passive-agressive, or maybe more like actionless action. To me, I envision knee-rubbing as an involuntary physical outlet for an anxious or active mind. Like if you are sitting, about to do something that makes you nervous, you might sit, leaning forward, rubbing your knees. However, this doesn't really seem to properly characterize Anse because he seems to spend most of his time not thinking, or at least not thinking about other people. So maybe there is a different meaning to knee rubbing, possibly along the lines of Anse not being able to sweat because his knees are not good, so physical activity will kill him? This seems pretty mundane. Unless physical activity puts him in a lot of pain, and so making the journey to bury Addie is much harder for him than he lets on, and so Anse is more selfless than he seems. But it seems like I may be grabbing at nothing here. Maybe I'm just trying to find some redeeming qualities in Anse because he doesn't have many. I can't really think of any other meaning for the knee-rubbing though. The image that it provokes may be the most important because of Anse's sedintary nature, and possibly shows how he can get away with not doing anything while looking like he is, because rubbing your knees looks like you're about to do something, so maybe Anse has really just perfected the action of being actionless. These are my guesses,and although I'm not totally satisfied, I can't think of anything else at the moment.
Darl is a very perceptive character in As I Lay Dying. He is very aware of his surroundings and, as Dewey Dell and Tull describe him, he can see into people. A quote that explains this is found on page 136. “And then I knew that I knew. I knew that as plain on that day as I knew about Dewey Dell on that day.” Darl doesn’t fully explain how he knows the things he does, but it seems that it is mainly because he is in tune with the world around him. His character is a grotesque in this way. He is never directly told about why Addie and Jewel have a special relationship, but as the quote above says he just knows. He has the same feeling with Dewey Dell. Darl has a way of knowing things about people just by observing them. This is a special gift, however it leads to his insanity at the end of the book.
Another passage I found interesting is Vardaman’s interpretation of Addie after death. On page 67 he talks about his view of her being a fish. He doesn’t like the thought of her being trapped in a box and instead he thinks that she is the fish that he killed and she will be eaten tomorrow and become a part of everyone in the family who eats it. He says, “…and there won’t be anything in the box and so she can breathe.” I find this to be a very interesting way to deal with Addie’s death. Vardaman spends a lot of time thinking about Addie’s death and tries to make sense of it in a way that he can. I like that his interpretation does not follow the tradition of a burial since he is too young to understand why it is normal to bury her and “nail the box up.” He forms an opinion in his head where she can be inside the family, but in the form of the fish that they eat.
page 154. Tull
This passage, particularly the second paragraph on the page, compiles a few motifs at once (fittingly via wild water, compiling waves).
"The wagon tilted over and then it and Jewel and the horse was all mixed together." = patterns of movement, animal associations, dialect variety.
"Cash went outten sight, still holding the coffin braced..." = the coffin motif in general (attachment to it, relationships with it).
"I knew that the horse had got dragged off the ford too, and with that wild drowning horse and that wagon and that loose box, it was going to be pretty bad, and there I was, standing knee deep in the water yelling at Anse behind me..."
= lists/connotations, knees, tame vs. wild.
I read as I lay dying
without marking passages or pausing to puzzle pieces out in my brain mostly because I didn't have time to do both, but it turns out that I'm glad I went about it that way. I think Faulkner's writing needs to be read without interruption, because even if the reader doesn't extract full meaning from each detail, the connotation or mood that each detail brings passes through the reader's brain and leaves behind revealing remnants. This creates a surreal reading experience, sort of like dreaming. Now that I'm paying closer attention to the significance of detail, I can see that the entire work is of dream-like quality. With disturbing and disturbingly relevant images and words an atmosphere is created, a general feeling similar to the lives of the characters in the story.
Sarah,
I think the passage I marked to use for an analysis might be the one you're looking for.
Page 44. Peabody
The passage compares Addie's eyes to a hose.
I regret not marking more sections and leaving it up to my memory to leave my observations now that I'm faced with the task of microblogging. I've decided to, instead of going chunk-by-chunk chronologically, link up some mini-observations that relate to each other.
Connections through words. There's a section of Anse's narration where words seem to betray him. Page 106, he says, "And Darl setting on the plank seat right above her where she was laying, laughing." He's trying to say that Darl's laughing, but the first time I read it, I thought Anse was saying that Addie was laughing at him. It occurred to me really strongly at that moment that these characters struggle to make words say what they want, and often fail. Imagine my satisfaction when, later, came Addie's passage and her assertion (p 171), "That was when I learned that words are no good; that words dont ever fit even what they are trying to say at."
&
I kept a list of what not-words turned into words throughout the book. I noticed: maw, cant, paw, hit, till. It was really satisfying that all of these words were very bodily and earthy. It's very satisfying that maw (mother) and paw (father) are both body parts, particularly of animals. When I first recorded of cant I thought it would refer to a horse (what word am I thinking of?!) but ended up being BEVEL which is possibly even more satisfying. And till, which reminds me of Tull, is work land as by ploughing, though I initially just thought of a cashbox.
&
The only family member that I ever noticed using the word 'coffin' was Darl, in his passage during the fire, starting on P 218. At least after Addie is put inside it, everybody refers to the coffin as 'it' or just as 'Addie' or ma. I think people on the outside call it a coffin, but even Tull in the beginning draws out the picture of the coffin in the book instead of just using the word.
&
Darl's way of using words begins to connect up with Vardaman's. First I see it with the conversations they begin to have with their ridiculous logic, (p 101), and then toward the end after the italics are being used in Darl's narration to separate out actions pertaining to Jewel (p 180) Vardaman picks up this same tactic first about Jewel (p 195) and then about Darl and the fire (p 215)
& a physical connected-ness that stuck out to me...
It occurred to me at some point when Darl pointed out Jewel's wooden eyes that Cash is a carpenter, and that instantly connected the two of them in this sort of unspoken, unaware unity for the rest of the book. It solidified in a real way for me during the action at the ford, in which Jewel (and Tull) try to find all of Cash's tools. Also, in recounting the memory of Jewel spending his nights cleaning up Quick's land, how Cash began to cover for him. Their relationship is so quiet, it interests me.
I would agree with Brian Hand that there is a lot of Christian imagery in AILD and a lot of commentary on a life of Christian words vs. a life of Christian belief, but I disagree that Addie is a Christ-like character. In fact, to me Addie is just like the rest of the characters. She seems to be just as lost and confused as the rest of them. I don't see her death as a sacrifice at all. The book almost describes it like one day she just walked inside and gave up. I think that Addie's affair with Whitfield is also another clue that she is just as messed up as the rest of the characters in AILD. Instead of telling Anse or asking his forgiveness, she "makes up for it" by giving him other children. She isn't self-sacrificing at all. She takes what she wants out of life (Whitfield and Jewel), and then when she feels bad about it, she tries to make up for it on her own.
Also, I think that Anse's push to get to Jefferson isn't for religious reasons. At least to me it seems that he has to do it out of respect for Addie, almost as a duty to honor or something like that. He obviously does have ulterior motives though. He, like Addie, only seeks things for himself.
I also was interested in Vardaman's obsession with his mother being a fish. I remember when we were first looking through the book, someone made a comment about the chapter where all Vardaman says is, "My mother is a fish." I remembered this when I read on page 31, "He turns it over with his foot and prods at the eye-bump with his toe, gouging at it...Vardaman comes back and picks up the fish. It slides out of his hands, smearing wet dirt onto him, and flops down, dirtying itself again, gapmouthed, goggle-eyed, hiding into the dust like it was ashamed of being dead, like it was in a hurry to get back hid again." I thought it was really interesting the the fish is "hiding" and "ashamed." Since Addie seems to be the fish, it would seem that through death, she is hiding. She isn't the perfectly smooth fish swimming in the lake that people think she is. She is in the mud, hiding and ashamed like everyone else. And people mistreat her without even thinking about it. People treat her like she is a dirty dead fish.
After reading Portrait I was a little nervous about reading a book with multiple narrators and not really knowing which on to trust. Once I finished reading As I Lay Dying I really had nothing to worry about, the narrations did vary and at some points where hard to follow but by the end of the book I had a firm grasp about the story and all the players in it. It became clear that the most reliable narrator would be Darl but the problem for me was that I never really liked Darl so whenever he narrated I tried to find ways to sabotage his narration, which is shy in the end when he eventually goes mad I don’t really know if I can trust anything that I learned from him throughout the story.
Although I finished “As I Lay Dieing” quite a while ago, I never quite got around to posting my impressions of the novel. Overall, I enjoyed reading Faulkner’s tale of a Southern family who just wanted to bury their loved one. At the outset of the novel, we briefly discussed the mysterious “My mother is a fish.” Chapter and as a result I attempted to discover the meaning of this statement throughout the course of the novel. It is interesting to dissect why exactly Vardaman classifies his mother as a fish. Throughout the novel various things happen to her that mirror the fate of Vardaman’s fish. First, she is spilled on the ground much like his own fish is and later, her coffin falls into the river and Vardaman’s sees this as her final fish-like action. It is interesting that such a small chapter can have such a large underlying motif within the novel.
After finishing As I Lay Dying, I couldn't help but feel that Vardaman played such an important role in the story. Such as Darl did during his is/was speech, Vardaman suffered an existential crisis after the death of his mother. As he said, the cut up fish was not fish, making the blood on his shirt not blood. This leads to the thought that, since the fish isn't whole, and isn't there, is there any proof that the fish in fact was? And if Addie is sealed in the coffin, unable to be seen, is there any proof that the body inside is in fact Addie? For Vardaman, this seems to be a crisis that haunts him through a majority of the book.
the first outright thing i noticed within the first few pages of the book is the interest in direction and routing. while darl and jewel are both walking to the same destination darl chooses to follow the path twisting around the small shed while jewel instead goes directly through it via the windows. this choice by jewel to go the most direct route regardless of obstacles is the first glimpse into what type of person jewel is, and already sets a stark contrast between darl and jewel.
next, the names of some of the characters intrigue me. specifically the names of jewel and cash. both are names associated first with wealth and worth, and i was pondering
over whether this had something to do with where cash and jewel stand within the bundren family. both seem to be the ones the members of the family depend on, such as cash with his carpentry and sensibility, and addie depending on jewel.
thinking on the flashback darl has of sneaking out as a child to drink water, he describes it as though it were a forbidden act. he sees it as an escape from the isolation of his family by isolating himself and making it a voluntary act.
as dewey dell remembers her encounter with lafe she reveals her predisposition to a sense of defeat. dewey dell simply accepts that because lafe filled the bag she has no reason to say no, she has already been defeated and trying to argue or say no would be fruitless.
anse’s voice is particularly interesting because it really gives a clear picture as to his level or responsibility. anse can’t seem to attribute any ill effect to something he has caused. he states that the road has made addie sick, and the weather is responsible for his bad mood.
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