Friday, March 20, 2015

"As I Lay Dying" Partner Questions


  1. What characters seem isolated? How are they isolated, despite all being reunited? What
might Faulkner be exploring?

Jewel:

  • We see that Jewel is isolated in the beginning of the book, when Darl discusses their differences. 
    • "Still staring straight ahead, his pale eyes like wood set into his wooden face, he crosses the floor in four strides with the rigid gravity of a cigar store Indian dressed in patched overalls and endued with life from the hips down, and steps in a single stride through the opposite window and into the path again just as I come around the corner. In single file and five feet apart and Jewel now in front, we go on up the path toward the foot of the bluff.

  • Jewel was also singled out as Addie's favorite, and caused her to act deceitful in order to protect him- which was against her morals (this was when he was getting his horse, and nobody knew where he was. 
  • Jewel is on his horse while the rest of the family is on the wagon with Addie, bringing her to her family's cemetery  

    Anse:
    • Anse doesn't like to work- this separates him from the rest of the family
    • He does not have a strong bond with Addie: 
    • When Addie dies, she does not even look at her husband- she looks at her son instead- clearly there is no special connection between Addie and Anse
      • "She lies back and turns her head without so much as glancing at pa. Shelooks 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."

    • Explore Cash’s chapter, which is simply a list of thirteen items. Why has Faulkner structured this chapter like this?
      • Faulkner has structured this passage as a list in order to show how Cash's motive for going in town is to buy supplies- he's not so concerned with Addie's burial 
    • How does the narrative structure of this novel represent time? How is time passing in this novel? 

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