Essays on As I Lay Dying

Narrative point of view refers to the position of the narrator in relation to the story that one is narrating. As such, when evaluating the point of view of the narrator, one focuses on the relationship between the narrator and the characters in the story. There are three major points of view that narrators can adopt while narrating a story. These are first-person, second-person, and third-person point of views. Either of the foregoing points of views have different effect on the understanding and believability of the characters or the story being told, as is evident from O Pioneers! and ...

Introduction

When it comes to story-telling, many people emphasize the story part, instead of the telling one. Nevertheless, the manner in which a story is told can be very influential in its reception. In fact, many people would say that the story itself changes depending on the discourse that presents it. This came to the limelight in the end of the nineteenth century with the Modernist current. Authors such as James Joyce and Virginia Woolf deliberately modified the way that stories were told. They utilized many techniques that allowed them greater range of expression, many of which were not even ...

Faulkner remains one of America’s iconic writers still studied in higher education today for his style of writing engaging the reader in his characters. His characters in “As I Lay Dying” are no different in their challenge to the reader placing their symbolic meaning in the themes Faulkner incorporates in this story of a sequence of tragedies. “As I Lay Dying” exhibits an almost textbook example of a dysfunctional family of poor white Southerners on a farcical journey where the reader becomes familiar with the characters through Faulkner’s use of them several of them as the narrator of this tale. ...

William Faulner’s ‘As I Lay Dying’ is a literature piece depicting the social interaction in a family setting. The literature piece involves the use of many symbolic applications in the unreal world and other factors from human characters. Faulkner expands his imagination beyond the human character. However, Faulkner uses each and every symbolism in the novel in relation to human character. Furthermore, characterization in the novel is based on human character that can be compared or symbolized through another non-human character. This ability ensures the continuity of the plot as the characters are developed under different archetypes. Faulkner creates ...

Joseph Conrad and William Faulkner are two of the most prominent writers of the modern literary era. In fact in an event held in the year 1957 at the Virginia University, Faulkner openly stated that his works were influenced by Conrad’s writing style. Faulkner have rated ‘ A Heart of Darkness’ as one of his favorite books, and reportedly when he travelled through Kent he remarked to his mother about the serenity of the place, and commented that ‘ no wonder Conrad writes such fine books from here’. Such was the admiration he carried for Conrad. Both of them wrote ...

A. One critic has called As I Lay Dying a "modern odyssey." In your interpretation, is this family journey to bury a dead mother worthy of being compared to a heroic epic such as The Odyssey? As I Lay Dying is one of the famous novels written by William Faulkner. Using a stream of consciousness technique with 15 characters narrating the story over 59 chapters, Faulkner allowed his readers to delve deep into the psyche of the characters. The title of the novel is borrowed from the XI Book of Homer's 'The Odyssey' which narrates the journey of the epic hero Odysseus. ...

Introduction

This essay will cover the importance of the use of multiple narrators in William Faulkner's As I lay Dying and Orson Welles' Citizen Kane. This will further discuss comparison or contrast of both books.

William Faulkner's As I lay Dying

Through the course of fifty-nine segments, As I Lay Dying has fifteen various narrators. The first part goes to Darl Bundren, he introduces us his siblings Cash and Jewel, and Addie his dying mother. They live in Mississippi. His brother, Cash, is an experienced carpenter and is frantically constructing a coffin for her mother. Because Addie wants to make sure that the coffin is built well. ...