Personal Response
During my reading of As I Lay Dying I found that I kept telling myself, “I really like this book.” I think what surprised me most about it was Faulkner’s style of writing-I guess I was expecting something either really romanticized or something more academic, but instead I found that the book was wonderfully human. There were aspects of the book that were poetic and surreal but others where just the simplicity of a character’s statement or thought was very powerful. I think that Faulkner did great justice in articulating each of the character’s faults and putting the reader in an uncomfortable place of judgment; weather to blame the Bundrens for their failings or to sympathize for just the pitiful situation each character found them selves in. I appreciate how accessible Faulkner crafted each of his characters. One character that I really found intriguing was Vardaman, the youngest of the Bundren family. I really enjoyed how oddly endearing and sort of disturbed he was like the rest of his family. One of my favourite parts of the book was in the beginning when after his mother dies, Vardaman is found the next day asleep next to his mother’s coffin where he drilled holes to give her air to breath, but inadvertently put holes in his mother’s face. Just the disturbed paradox of Vardaman’s intension to help his mother but ending up damaging her instead, just really set up the tone well for the rest of the novel. I also enjoyed Darl’s bizarre unfiltered character and Cash’s strait forward view of events with very few feelings prevailing his observations. My second favourite part of the novel was Cash’s observation about insanity, Darl’s in particular. “Sometimes I ain’t so sho who’s got ere a right to say when a man is crazy and when he ain’t. Sometimes I think it ain’t none of us pure crazy and ain’t none of us pure sane until the balance of us talks him that-a-way. It’s like it ain’t so much what a fellow does, but it’s the way the majority of the folks is looking at him when he does it”(172). I think Cash’s comment sums up the theme of the novel: truth seems relative when things are based on individual perspective.
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
Text Connections
Text Connections
While reading this book I immediately made a text-to-text connection to The Catcher In the Rye especially when reading Jewel’s character. Jewel like Holden has a pent up temper and contempt for those around him, especially the family that he’s only half related to. Although Jewel struggles to connect with his family he never betrays them. When his father Anse sold Jewel’s horse without asking him, Jewel rode off and met up with his family a day later without his horse. Though his family gave away one of his favourite companions Jewel still gave his horse and returned back to his family. Holden as well had a sever disconnect with his mother and father but still took care and loved his older brother and especially his younger sister Phoebe. I also made a text-to-self connection in watching the Bundren family suffer one bad break after another. As Anse put it, “There’s no stopping bad luck once it gets going”(172). Not that I’ve had anything as dramatic happen to myself that cursed the Bundren family, but I can appreciate the unfortunate situation of being drowned in chaos and how suffocating that can be. I think though the Bundren’s situation is a unique one, the human reactions brought out of each character holds a sort of connection to many that has made this book a classic.
While reading this book I immediately made a text-to-text connection to The Catcher In the Rye especially when reading Jewel’s character. Jewel like Holden has a pent up temper and contempt for those around him, especially the family that he’s only half related to. Although Jewel struggles to connect with his family he never betrays them. When his father Anse sold Jewel’s horse without asking him, Jewel rode off and met up with his family a day later without his horse. Though his family gave away one of his favourite companions Jewel still gave his horse and returned back to his family. Holden as well had a sever disconnect with his mother and father but still took care and loved his older brother and especially his younger sister Phoebe. I also made a text-to-self connection in watching the Bundren family suffer one bad break after another. As Anse put it, “There’s no stopping bad luck once it gets going”(172). Not that I’ve had anything as dramatic happen to myself that cursed the Bundren family, but I can appreciate the unfortunate situation of being drowned in chaos and how suffocating that can be. I think though the Bundren’s situation is a unique one, the human reactions brought out of each character holds a sort of connection to many that has made this book a classic.
Syntax
Syntax
In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, to successfully absorb the reader in a sort of surrealist frame of mind, Faulkner uses very stylistic syntax. "While I waited for him in the woods, waiting for him before he saw me, I would think of him as dressed in sin”(189) This almost vague commentary intrigues the reader to read on and try tro delve into Darl’s estranged processing. The awkwardness of the syntax also adds a very human dimension to the characters’ thinking. "Jewel came back. He was walking. Jewel hasn't got a horse anymore. Jewel is my brother. Cash is my brother. Cash has a broken leg. We fixed Cash's leg so it doesn't hurt. Cash is my brother. Jewel is my brother too, but he hasn't got a broken leg”(165) The exorbitant amount of juxtaposition and short choppy sentences give a very stark and strait forward child-like view of events. As it were, the recorder of the above sentence is the youngest of the Bundren children, Vardamen. The lack of flow and broken up sentences also give the characters an implied low level education that helps to further exploit the insight into their reasoning. “You cannot watch them, walking slow on the sun. In Jefferson it is red on the track behind the glass. The track goes shining round and round. Dewy Dell says so”(165). This quote by Vardaman is a perfect example of the lack of logic that is obscured by missing explanations of what things are. In this case Vardaman does not specify what the “glass” or why the track goes “shining round and round” so the reader must instead follow and put together context clues of what the character knows and of he/she knows what’s going on in the scene. Although poetic and intriguing, Faulkner purposefully makes unclear the exact thoughts, feelings, and events happening to emphasize what the characters’ priorities are.
In William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying, to successfully absorb the reader in a sort of surrealist frame of mind, Faulkner uses very stylistic syntax. "While I waited for him in the woods, waiting for him before he saw me, I would think of him as dressed in sin”(189) This almost vague commentary intrigues the reader to read on and try tro delve into Darl’s estranged processing. The awkwardness of the syntax also adds a very human dimension to the characters’ thinking. "Jewel came back. He was walking. Jewel hasn't got a horse anymore. Jewel is my brother. Cash is my brother. Cash has a broken leg. We fixed Cash's leg so it doesn't hurt. Cash is my brother. Jewel is my brother too, but he hasn't got a broken leg”(165) The exorbitant amount of juxtaposition and short choppy sentences give a very stark and strait forward child-like view of events. As it were, the recorder of the above sentence is the youngest of the Bundren children, Vardamen. The lack of flow and broken up sentences also give the characters an implied low level education that helps to further exploit the insight into their reasoning. “You cannot watch them, walking slow on the sun. In Jefferson it is red on the track behind the glass. The track goes shining round and round. Dewy Dell says so”(165). This quote by Vardaman is a perfect example of the lack of logic that is obscured by missing explanations of what things are. In this case Vardaman does not specify what the “glass” or why the track goes “shining round and round” so the reader must instead follow and put together context clues of what the character knows and of he/she knows what’s going on in the scene. Although poetic and intriguing, Faulkner purposefully makes unclear the exact thoughts, feelings, and events happening to emphasize what the characters’ priorities are.
Diction
Diction
In William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, Faulkner fictionalizes the journey of the Bundren family to burry their dead mother. The book is told from many different character perspectives and one of the many ways Faulkner differentiates his characters’ voices and also strangely unifies them is by his use of diction. His stylistic use of odd, surreal pairings of word help o create a harsh, nightmarish tone. “How do our lives ravel out into the no-wing, no-sound, the weary gestures wearily recapitulant: echoes of old compulsions with no-hand on no-strings: in sunset we fall into furious attitudes, dead gestures of dolls.” (163) The use of words like “dead gestures” and phrases like “lives ravel out into no-wing, no-sound, the weary gesture…” give the impression of smallness and a lack of control as well as a sort of accepted doom. "We go on, with a motion so soporific, so dreamlike as to be uninferant of progress, as though time and not space were decreasing between us and it." The use of latodie in the phrase “not space” help to further impress upon the journey of the Bundrens a sense of futility. Though the characters do have distinctive ways of describing events and telling their own side of it, Faulkner also uses repetition through out all of his characters’ perspectives to give a sort of emphasis on what the characters find important and what themes the book tries to portray. In a sort of innocent confrontation, Darl asks who Jewel’s father was. Jewel and Darl go on, ‘“You goddamn lying son of a bitch.” “Don’t call me that,” I say. “You goddamn lying son of a bitch.” “ Don’t you call me that, Jewel”’(166). This example of repetition exploits Jewel’s hurt and hostility of being a bastard child and the dysfunction between the half brothers.
In William Faulkner’s novel, As I Lay Dying, Faulkner fictionalizes the journey of the Bundren family to burry their dead mother. The book is told from many different character perspectives and one of the many ways Faulkner differentiates his characters’ voices and also strangely unifies them is by his use of diction. His stylistic use of odd, surreal pairings of word help o create a harsh, nightmarish tone. “How do our lives ravel out into the no-wing, no-sound, the weary gestures wearily recapitulant: echoes of old compulsions with no-hand on no-strings: in sunset we fall into furious attitudes, dead gestures of dolls.” (163) The use of words like “dead gestures” and phrases like “lives ravel out into no-wing, no-sound, the weary gesture…” give the impression of smallness and a lack of control as well as a sort of accepted doom. "We go on, with a motion so soporific, so dreamlike as to be uninferant of progress, as though time and not space were decreasing between us and it." The use of latodie in the phrase “not space” help to further impress upon the journey of the Bundrens a sense of futility. Though the characters do have distinctive ways of describing events and telling their own side of it, Faulkner also uses repetition through out all of his characters’ perspectives to give a sort of emphasis on what the characters find important and what themes the book tries to portray. In a sort of innocent confrontation, Darl asks who Jewel’s father was. Jewel and Darl go on, ‘“You goddamn lying son of a bitch.” “Don’t call me that,” I say. “You goddamn lying son of a bitch.” “ Don’t you call me that, Jewel”’(166). This example of repetition exploits Jewel’s hurt and hostility of being a bastard child and the dysfunction between the half brothers.
Rhetorical Strategies
Rhetorical Strategies for “As I Lay Dieing”
• Similie-“it wheels up like a motionless hand…”
• Personification-…the mud whispering on the wheels.”-75
• Awkward syntax-“It is vomit he is turning his head.”-119
• Natural, rural diction- And Jewel don’t care about anything he is not kin to us caring, not care-kin.-17
• Onimonapia- “chuck, chuck, chuck,”-2
• Alliteration-…backed brick-hard by july-1
• Repetition-“he gazes out across the land, rubbing his knees.”-11
In As I lay Dieing, Faulkner takes special care in using very particular rhetorical strategies in constructing his characters and more importantly their perception of their morbid situation. Faulkner’s use of awkward syntax when describing a character’s thought or another character’s action to form the immediate reactions to create more tension to his character’s lives. “When the switch fell I could feel it upon my flesh; when it welted and ridged it was my blood that ran, and I would think with each blow of the switch: Now you are aware of me!”(124). This quote shows one particular character, Addie, and her very harsh and one track minded thinking. Faulkner also uses personification to enhance his well-articulated poetic style. “It turns off at right angles, the wheel-marks of last Sunday healed away now: a smooth, red scoriation curving away into the pines, a white signboard with faded lettering: New Hope Church”(75) This particular quote is a personification as well as an extended metaphor for the pains gone through while journeying. All of Faulkner’s well placed rhetorical strategies effectively create Faulkner’s very distinctive style
• Similie-“it wheels up like a motionless hand…”
• Personification-…the mud whispering on the wheels.”-75
• Awkward syntax-“It is vomit he is turning his head.”-119
• Natural, rural diction- And Jewel don’t care about anything he is not kin to us caring, not care-kin.-17
• Onimonapia- “chuck, chuck, chuck,”-2
• Alliteration-…backed brick-hard by july-1
• Repetition-“he gazes out across the land, rubbing his knees.”-11
In As I lay Dieing, Faulkner takes special care in using very particular rhetorical strategies in constructing his characters and more importantly their perception of their morbid situation. Faulkner’s use of awkward syntax when describing a character’s thought or another character’s action to form the immediate reactions to create more tension to his character’s lives. “When the switch fell I could feel it upon my flesh; when it welted and ridged it was my blood that ran, and I would think with each blow of the switch: Now you are aware of me!”(124). This quote shows one particular character, Addie, and her very harsh and one track minded thinking. Faulkner also uses personification to enhance his well-articulated poetic style. “It turns off at right angles, the wheel-marks of last Sunday healed away now: a smooth, red scoriation curving away into the pines, a white signboard with faded lettering: New Hope Church”(75) This particular quote is a personification as well as an extended metaphor for the pains gone through while journeying. All of Faulkner’s well placed rhetorical strategies effectively create Faulkner’s very distinctive style
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