Aim: To review for our exam on As I Lay

Dying.

As I Lay Dying 15 Characters

59 Internal Monologues

Stream of Consciousness

Depth of Interiority

Takes place in a fictional, Southern town

Themes Identity & Voice

Language – Words as Insufficient, Stream of Consciousness,

Death & Decay

Womanhood

Poor, Southern Life

Addie

Cash• Carpentr

y

Darl• ???

Jewel• Horse

Dewey Dell

• Pregnancy

Vardaman

• Fish

Displaced Mourning Addie’s children displace

their grief over their

mother onto other

objects or distractions. These are

their coping mechanisms

.

Darl & Vardaman’s Conversation

There is a progression from Vardaman’s metaphysical preoccupation to Darl’s existential questions.

Vardaman is the immature version of Darl and vice versa.

Both rhetorical styles convergeDarl: was, is – the passage of time Vardaman: differentation – labeling of

change

Addie

Darl• Mental - Existential

Cash• Physical

Vardaman• Meta-physical

Dewey Dell• Sexual

Jewel• Emotional

Addie’s Children as the 5 parts of

her being:

Darl as Different Anse: “How many times I told him it’s doing such things as

that that makes folks talk about him, I don’t know.” 105

Dewey Dell: “I rose and took the knife from the streaming fish still hissing and I killed Darl.” 121

Tull: “He is looking at me. He don’t say nothing; he just looks at me with them queer eyes of hisn that makes folks talk. I always see it aint never been what he done so much or said or anything so much as how he looks at you. It’s like he had got into the inside of you, someway.” 125

Darl: “And then I know that I knew. I knew that as plain on that day as I knew about Dewey Dell on that day.” 136

"As I lay dying, the woman with the dog's eyes would not close my eyes as I

descended into Hades." A reference from Homer’s The Odyssey. As the title

suggests, Odysseus goes on a long and arduous journey.

In the above reference, Odysseus has traveled to the Underworld and encounters Agamemnon, a soul he once knew who recounts his death to Odysseus.

In what ways does the line from The Odyssey refer to Faulkner’s novel?

River Crossing - River Styx

Based on Greek Mythology

The River Styx separates the world of the living from the world of the dead.

One had to cross the River Styx to reach life after death.

A ferryman, Charon, would help guide souls across the river.

Barn Burning “And I saw something Dewey Dell told me not to tell

nobody. It is not about pa and it is not about Cash and it is not about Jewel and it is not about Dewey Dell and it is not about me.” Which cognitive technique is Vardaman using here that

we’ve seen him use before? What is Vardaman telling us?

“You must be ready to burn yourself in your own flame; How could you become new if you haven’t first become ashes?” – Friedrich Nietzsche

“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you…” Friedrich Nietzsche

Darl’s Madness

“She wants Him to hide her away from the sight of man.” Darl says.

“Why does she want to hide her away from the sight of man, Darl?”

“So she can lay down her life,” Darl says.

• “People will do anything, no matter how absurd, in order to avoid facing their own souls.” Carl Jung• Do you think Darl is facing his own

soul? By focusing on Jewel, is he perhaps diverting his attention away from himself, or is he, in fact, confronting it? Provide evidence for your ideas.

“Darl has gone to Jackson.” What is the significance of Darl picking up where

Vardaman’s chapter leaves off – 252-253?

Why does Darl’s narrative switch to the 3rd person POV? Separation from reality, from self!

“Darl is our brother.” Darl is speaking as all the Bundren children. In essence, Darl

cannot be his own person without having the people around him who used to define who he is. – Addie, Jewel, etc.

Do you offer another theory about this line?

Cash says, “This world is not his world; this life his life.” 261. Can you define this world, this life?